Rather than blame others, what about a little introspection?

If you become addicted to anything, then who's fault is it? The person who gave you the drug, or the person who decides to abuse it?

There are ways to reduce dependence (both physically and psychologically) if you want to. That's my point.

Addiction is a disease where one's behavior/compulsions are out of control. Once a person has an addiction, one has little control over harmful actions. I hardly think most people suffering excruciating pain who are prescribed opiates intend to become addicted but rather are hoping to end the suffering.

One does not become addicted out the blue, though.

I would hope so, Irma.

I have been in the kind of pain that requires very strong drugs. And abuse by others is why they're less available to those who suffer (like myself)

I have no pity for folks who can't control themselves OR as I said, enlist the help of someone experienced.

I guess I have no pity for addicts.

I would guess I'm a little cranky today (and about this topic) because my own pain is barely controllable today)

I hear you, Penny. Have you ever heard of an addictive personality? Thank goodness you don't have that. I think more screening, may prevent drugs being made available to the "wrong individuals." I am sorry that you are suffering and can not get drugs you need.

There are lots of types of addictive/compulsive behaviors that can be dangerous or even lethal, do you have any different feelings for any of them

I am so sorry, Penny. Pain is a terrible thing to be afflicted with and affects every single thing in your life.

Thank you, Irma and Rita...you're sweeties. I'm okay, it's just difficult when rational, grown-ass adults are denied because of abuse by others, you know?

Anyhoo....back you you, folks.

Penny, that's just it. Do you have any idea how many rational, grown-ass adults - educated doctors, nurses, health professionals for example are addicted? The numbers are astounding.

While I am more than happy to have my taxes provide a safety net for people who need extra help providing for themselves, I am absolutely not happy at the prospect of sacrificing my well-being for people who need help controlling themselves.

Its really bad here. They tightened the laws so the addicts are moving on to heroin instead. Lots of people passed out in parking lots even with babies in the car. One couple pulled over on the side of a major highway several months ago with 2 very young children in the minivan. At 1 am a cop rolls up. Hazards on, a side for open. 2 dead parents in the grass by the car. Then came news articles with friends and family saying what great parents they were????? I think not. It took some time to trace the cause of death to fentanyl. On a side note, my 24 yo daughter broke her wrist a couple of days ago. She is in agony-getting casted Monday. I picked up her pain pills from Walmart =$1.42. Geez you would think they would make narcotics less affordable. Its a good amount of pills.

I think there may be more to this story than has been mentioned. I wonder if this person is under the active care of a physician? There's an indirect suggestion that the historical pattern of care has been changed without mention of what that is or why.

I think we as patients all want an instant fix...and too many doctors are glad to give it to us to keep us satisfied. This is the same with over use of antibiotics... I am very well aware of the agony of living in pain but I am more than willing to try PT and mild pain meds before taking anything stronger that might lead to an addiction. Maybe I am fortunate anything stronger than Tramadol comes up faster than it goes down!

The difference between health care providers can be very different as well. I am prone to kidney stones and I have ended up in the ER 4 times. One of them was in a new area and I ended up going to one without imaging equipment so they couldn't scan me. I was in agony and they wouldn't give me any pain meds without a scan. Finally they agreed to give me a single pill and sent me on my way. I felt like they treated me like a drug addict.

Last year I had another one which somehow didn't hurt much (I was so grateful). I went to the ER and I had to refuse IV pain meds multiple times, they kept trying to hook me up. When I left, she handed me 4 prescriptions for narcotics "just in case." To be fair she did scan me and saw the stone so she knew I wasn't making it up, but it was such a difference.

For most young people who are not in supervised pain management, it all starts at a party and continues from there. Young people love to brag about what they're doing at parties. Just listen in.

If one wants to understand the etiology of the opioid crisis, Sam Quinones' Dreamland parallels the business models for the pill mills, which started in southern Ohio/Northern KY, and the black-tar heroin pipeline from Jalisco, Mexico. They had no discernible connection, but coincided to produce a perfect storm of opioid addicts, who then turned to heroin, as Marilyn already mentioned, when the price of opioids was too high, or when law enforcement started closing the pill mills. The pharmaceutical company which developed oxycodone/oxycontin is not without blame, for accidentally, or deliberately, skewing results of a study done to determine the addiction risks of the (then) new generation of synthetic opioids.

What started as 'legal' prescriptions in an unethical physician's office has trickled down to our young people, and devastated our area.

I work in a major national drugstore chain. We have pharmacists working in our store from Egypt, the Philippines and the Middle East. They cannot get over the amount of medications we take here. I've seen people leave with grocery bags of pills. I have a hang nail: give me a pill. I'm fat: give me a pill. I have a tummy ache: give me a pill. That's the society we live in these days. I watch a lot of American TV and think advertising ANY RX medication should be just as illegal as advertising a cigarette. Most ailments can be remedied or ever CURED by eating healthy and getting some exercise. Type II diabetics are told by their doctor to eat "their" diet which keeps them on insulin. Well, lower that carb count to under 50 PER DAY and watch your sugar levels improve. Watch your weight improve. And say good buy to medication.

One pharmacist I work with says he can't get over the amount of prescriptions he fills compared to when he was back in Egypt. Everyone here wants a quick fix but nobody wants to do the work to get healthy on their own. A lady who used to work in our store said, "OMG! You guys take pills for everything? Don't you have anything better to do that go to the doctor?" It's true! We fill on average 375 prescriptions PER DAY. Our wait time has been up to 2 1/2 hours and when you consider we give each patient 10 minutes that's a LONG line up.

My husband was in a serious car accident going on 5 years ago. I told him I will not live with him if any of his pain meds have to come out of our safe at work. (Narcotics). I've seen those patients in line and they're jittery angry and so addicted. We finally got him off RX medications as they only made his stomach really sick and got him on medical marijuana which seems to helps his headaches much faster and his stomach feels better.

His cousin injured her hand at work many years ago. She ended up with nerve damage. She got a pill for the pain. Then a pill for the side effects of the pain. Then a pill for some other effect and next thing you know she's taking triplicate prescription medication. She came to the city for the weekend to visit her mother and when she realized she forgot her drug bag at home (a 2 hour drive), she freaked right out. It was then she realized she was an addict and put herself in rehab. Most RX addicts are addicts because doctors are WAY TO QUICK to prescribe narcotics for pain just to shut up their patient. They don't have a long term goal to get them off the drugs. They just want them out of their office and they become someone elses problem.

Sleeperblues, thank you for the link to KevinMD. Great reading. Plus I had no idea about the ratings and reimbursement issue- wow- what an unbelievably horrible way of seeing up incentives.

Why? It's like most things in the US. Follow The Money -- in the legal and illegal markets. Who is profiting? How could we fight back?

Debby's pharmacy fills 375 prescriptions a day on average. We don't know how many are narcotics, but all prescriptions profit Big Pharma -- and the Health Insurance industry -- and the Advertising industry -- and the Pharmacies. All of them bribe (oh, sorry, 'make contributions to') legislators, who need the money for prolonged campaigns -- which also profit American businesses. Money, money, money, money.

We could help our nation with laws limiting campaigns to within 6 months of a given election (like other nations). The framers of our Constitution never imagined instant information/response communication across long distances, and they didn't intend citizens to make careers as legislators.

Americans represent Big Money to illegal sellers, too. People are dying all over the world from taking narcotics, but also by competing to sell narcotics.

What worked for the tobacco industry works just as well for the drug trade: Tell kids drugs are 'cool'. Offer adults relief from pain/sadness/anxiety -- or the shame of not having achieved The American Dream. Deny that drugs are addictive -- sometimes *instantly* addictive -- and will lead you to a miserable end.

We could make laws prohibiting advertising for prescription drugs. These ads sell drugs as a panacea. The ads normalize taking drugs for everything. They focus attention on 'diseases' people never considered they might have -- and don't have -- but can buy a pill to avoid/cure. We are inundated with this 'information'. Just Stop the Advertising.

Don't get me started on the concept of normalizing taking drugs, Chisue. Children are being fed psychotropic drugs from pre-school age. And, big surprise, it's not turning out well.

The US has the highest per capita prescriptions issuance in the world, followed by Japan, Greece and then Canada. The most heavily prescribed drug is that for pain and that's Vicodin, an opioid. It contains hydrocodone which is a strong opiate painkiller and very addictive.

http://www.businessinsider.com/pharmaceutical-spending-by-country-2015-11

If someone complains about a little bit of anxiety, the doctor prescribes them Xanax. How else are they to deal with every day life challenges?

The kids have homework; the car needs washed, the lawn needs mowed, oh dear, how will I cope?

Some great & some overly simplistic comments. Contributing to the problem is low levels of healthcare literacy. In the ED, I treat many patients in pain, some demanding dilaudud and others fearful of taking one acetaminophen a week. When I tell patients to take 3 ibuprofen, 4 times a day, for 3-4 days, for acute injury pain, many respond saying, "you want me to take that many???" but would not question an Rx for Norco.

Interesting article & perspective: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hari-prescription-drug-crisis-cause-20170112-story.htmlp

@Brushworks Spectaculal Finishes...I have to shake my head at your ignorance of mental illness. An opinion is merely an opinion, but when it's spoken as yours is, it just makes you look rather...well, I'm sure you would prefer to appear more intelligent, no?

If not, then carry on.

I prefer to try to understand it and educate myself and I try to remember that unless I walk a mile in someone else's shoes, then I really have no idea and can only attempt to sympathize.

I should have learned to pass by some topics here.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

I can agree with some parts of the LA Times story. However, I think the old hospital-based medical pronouncement that people do not become addicted to opioids has been disproven.

It's easy to see narcotic addiction in the Rust Belt. The addiction of the hedge fund manager next door is less visible. He probably started out in better physical condition, and he can afford to buy unadulterated drugs -- and 'cover'.

As for the poor and gin, I wasn't *everyone*, rich or poor, drinking copious quantities of gin in England -- and here! (Has it stopped?) Opium was also legal here until, what, the 20th century?

The poor we shall always have with us. And the sad and discouraged. Addiction doesn't make exclusive claims on one segment of society. I don't know that there is any more *stress* in America today to make a case that it is causing this problem. Should we examine the Great Depression?

BTW, I see that Canada is #2 in per capita opioid consumption. That must be due to depression in the long winters 'up north', eh?

That was an interesting article mdln. It would be lovely if we could address the root causes of addiction. I wonder if there are any model programs here to emulate? Switzerland is a very different country from the US.

I was thinking about the few times I have taken Vicodin myself- I never felt my mood/psyche alter from the drug because I was in a good bit of pain. And I was so terrified of the drug that I had no desire to take it any more than absolutely necessary- so twice for my knee surgery. I've had prescriptions for Vicodin from a dental procedure as well, but I did't take the medicine.

I wonder if the reason people don't get addicted when their doctors control their intake in a hospital setting is that so long as you are in enough pain the drug does not provide a high.

What is scary where I live lately is armed robberies of drug stores and pharmacies all over the city are occurring monthly if not weekly and drugs are taken. They don't seem to even care that their faces are ending up on security videos.

I have a personal bias against "pain management" doctors. My sister-in-law was having back pain and was trying to postpone or avoid surgery. Her doctor sent her to a pain management doctor. He started her on Vicodin, then Percoset, then Oxycontin, then Fentanyl. He kept increasing the strength of the Fentanyl patches, until she got to the maximum. I begged her to stop taking the drugs because she was clearly addicted. She was barely functional, and fell several times. Her answer was that she was following doctor's orders. Fortunately, one day she went to the doctor's office and he wasn't there, so she saw a Nurse Practitioner who told her that she was addicted and needed help and monitoring to get off the Fentanyl. God bless that NP; my SIL was weaned off the drugs and now takes no opioids.

I know that a lot of people become over-prescribed by "doctor shopping." One way to avoid that would be a national pharmacy registry, so that you can't get excess pills. And they are going to have to start holding physicians responsible for over-prescribing opioids for patients. Doctors shouldn't prescribe opioids without knowledge of the patient's history and without knowing the cause of the pain.

I would hate to see Fentanyl removed from the market, because it is probably a good drug for terminal patients, or those with short-term acute pain.

This is a huge problem, and hope there is action taken to alleviate it. I also hope that the illegal transport of drugs from other countries is stopped!

In recent interactions I have had with doctors (this is in Canada), I found a change in painkillers offered by the medical staff in prescribing less rather than more. Just after Christmas, I had a fractured ankle and subsequently had problems with the same foot. When treating my fracture, rather than giving me a prescription for Tylenol with codeine, they questioned me as to what I had been taking and advised me to continue using it - regular Tylenol. No strong painkillers either for subsequent pain - they prescribed a topical cream. I was perfectly comfortable with this approach.

I'll share. Some of you know I have recently been seen at the ER for extreme pain in the back of my thigh. First visit I was given a script for Norco I refused the script and because I KNOW what kind of things can happen in hospitals I tore it in half and handed it back to the discharging nurse. Yes I am in pain but I have reasons for not taking narcotics. Second visit I was offered a shot...I refused but they assured me I wouldn't get sick and gave me zofran thru the IV and they promised me I would not die from it. Well I only had mild stomach upset and I dididn't die. They again gave me a script for narcotics telling me to take it every 4 hours or the pain would be harder to control. I had no intention of taking them every 4 hours. But I did. For a little less than 2 days I followed directions. The relief from the pain was minor however I felt out of control as if I didn't really care. Throw pasta at the walls kinda feeling. I felt comforted like a nice warm blanket was wrapped around me. It dawned on me...I'm stoned. The feeling was not unpleasant yet it scared me. It wasn't that I was scared I'd become addicted I know my personality would not allow it. I don't know why it scared me. But after reading this thread I can understand why so many people turn to narcotics. And by the way regardless of how these pills made me feel they did not help the pain very much just kinda made me accept it. I've not touched another pill.

I work in the Addiction field and it is the great leveler--just as the case with other diseases, addiction does not discriminate against gender, socio-economical status race and/or religion. Our clients are doctors and lawyers and waitresses and Skid Row residents. There's not a singular cause nor prescriptive cure. Relapses are the rule, not the exception and the road to recovery is a difficult one.

I have not read every post on this thread so forgive me if I'm saying something that's already been said but; I find this topic quite interesting given that we just finished "red ribbon week" at my kids schools.

For those who might not know, "red ribbon week" is about being drug free and teaching kids to not do drugs.

My 6 year old was riding in the car with me and telling me how drugs are bad and no one should ever do them.

I asked her what "drugs" are. I then went on to explain that "drugs" are simply chemicals that affect the body. Ever had a Coca-Cola or some chocolate? You've had a drug.

Ever had a headache or fever and taken Tylenol or aspirin? You've had a drug.

I've talked with all of my kids about "drugs" because I think the general "drugs are bad mmm'kay" approach isn't particularly helpful.

I've explained that drugs, ALL drugs are just chemicals that affect our bodies but if we aren't careful and/or the doctor hasn't told us we need them, we can hurt or even kill ourselves.

We also had a talk about why people would choose to take something they know is going to hurt them? That one is truly puzzling to a six year old but I feel it is an important lesson to learn.

I explained that sometimes people hurt so bad on the inside that they are willing to take/use something that they know will hurt them later because it feels good right now. I've told them it is at these moments where if they feel that bad, they should talk to someone.

I've struggled with self medicating in the past and I feel like all people do to some extent at some point in their lives. At least I've never personally met a single person who hasn't had some "demon" or addiction.

Those are the moments that you should reach out, ask for help, look for answer.

Don't turn to numbing the pain with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, overeating, or any other form of addictive behavior.

But the blanket "drugs are bad, don't ever touch them" is not particularly helpful or useful.

I'm so sorry for anyone who has pain and relief /Management is not being addressed by the doctor due to new rules.

Apparently Portugal changed its policy to help it's addicted members of its population to turn back from their addictions. I know we're discussing more the prescription crisis but addiction is very difficult to be rid off without help.

It is scary what's happening on the streets right now and even if it's their fault even if they did it wrong I just want it to stop. Young people just experimenting like many other people did before dying...5 older people dying in the space of a day to a drug overdose seems just wrong.

.https://mic.com/articles/110344/14-years-after-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening

I was on hydrocodone for quite awhile. Not even sure how long....around three years, I think. Never abused my prescription....never took the amount prescribed. I quit them cold turkey. Was sick as a dog for over a week, didn't sleep, and for a month following, I was extremely lethargic. That was the worst part. I literally had to get up and work for about 10 minutes and then I would lay down for 10 or 15 minutes, because I couldn't make myself go any longer. My knee was horrible. I was in a wheel chair three times over that period. I went to an orthopedic surgeon but he said before he would operate, I had to do PT, wear a brace and take injections. None of which helped. I took myself off of them. Then I finally had surgery on my knee....and my surgeon told me it was one of the worst he had ever seen. Not only was it bone on bone but I had worn grooves in the bone.

I went back on hydrocodone when I had the surgery. I took it as prescribed, every 4 hours and continued until I finished PT. When I quit them the second time, I dreaded it. I didn't want to be on them, because I am fortunate to have good health, and I didn't want to take something that would negatively affect my health. (My surgeon only prescribed them for a month but my family doctor was only too happy to keep me on them). I told my family doctor I wanted to quit them but dreaded the withdrawals....what did he do? He increased my prescription to 240 a month. You would think he wanted to keep me on them. I took 3 a day.

So I weaned myself off of them the second time. I started by cutting down by 1/2 a pill a day, for a week, and then the next week, cut another half and so on until I quit. I didn't have withdrawals like before, but I did have some lethargy, which for me is a terrible thing because I have a lot of work to do. Every morning I would get up and wish I had a pill. I didn't, and I didn't go back to them but that desire stayed with me a long time. I am fortunate that I was able to quit.

When I was on them, I heard about people who took them by the handfuls. I talked to one such person and she told me she took 15 a day and she had to do that, just to feel "normal". I can relate to that in a way, because they didn't make me feel stoned. What they made me do was get up and go work....take care of my animals, etc., even when I didn't feel like it. I could take a pill and it didn't matter how long it took to do something, I could stay with it until I finished. It does, as mamapinky said, give you a feeling of well being.

It messes up your brain chemistry, and that takes a long time to get back right. I could see how if you were on them for a long time, and took a lot of them, that you would never get that back. I don't know that as a fact, but knowing how insidious they are....wouldn't surprise me.

I don't take anything now. Sometimes I have so many aches and pains....that it is a constant reminder to me that I am an old lady now. Instead of parking up close to the store....I park as far back as possible because it takes me that long to be able to walk, but the more active I am, the better I feel.

I am glad to be off the pills but I can see how people aren't able to quit them because the after effects last so long. I joined a substance abuse forum when I quit them and got a lot of support there. They say if you don't get in an after care program you will go back. I have been off of them for several years now and I have no desire to go back. I wouldn't go back, but then, I didn't take that many a day, and I don't have a particularly addictive personality....at least when it comes to drugs. Other things, perhaps....but not drugs.

I have read of places in the US that are trying a new tactic to fight addiction and all the related problems -- HIV infection, adulterated drugs, crime related to selling drugs and procuring them, etc.

A clinic is set up, staffed with health care workers to administer clean drugs *as prescribed* with clean needles -- and to make available drug addiction programs. Overdose deaths have dropped. Crime has dropped. In time, more addicts see a way to get clean and take it. After all, it's right there in front of them at the clinic!

Yes, those are Harm Reduction programs and we utilize them also. They can be a very effective option for some while others need an abstinence-based approach.

Marilyn_c, I am so sorry for all the horrible pain you endured with your knee and then with the dependency on narcotics. I have experienced horrible knee pain and know without a doubt that had there not been a medical solution to my problem, I would have had to have become dependent on some drug or alcohol to numb the unbearable pain.

And for those who would like to read a bit more on this subject, this New Yorker piece on the Sackler family who have made a fortune (on top of an already existing fortune) on these drugs.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

Yep, the companies knew they were addictive and LIED to physicians so they would prescribe them. Another reason to not loosen laws / rules. There has been legislation to make these drugs easier to get. This tragedy is no accident.

This New Yorker article is a must-read for understanding how the opioid crisis began.

Wow, just wow is all I can say aboutt the New Yorker article. I only read half of it because I need to go to work, but I am speechless. Such greed, such subversion. What a horrible, horrible family. And the part about the FDA? Unbelievable.

Articles like this are why we subscribe to The New Yorker. (Sometimes I wish they were just a leetle bit shorter.)

Wow. That article should be required reading before a person is allowed to offer an opinion on dealing with the "Opioid Crisis" or even to say the words "Opioid Crisis".

That's a great article. Hopefully this exposure will help. I had never even heard of that family before, but I sure have heard of the drug.

This is horrifying: "In August 2015, over objections from critics, the company received F.D.A. approval to market OxyCotin to children as young as eleven."

Great article, thanks so much for sharing Rita!

I have seen a couple of sides of the story. One heroine addiction is not always caused by being prescribed pain medications but due to the Mental Health system not treating patients correctly or in time.

My son, yes my very own flesh and blood was a heroine addict (whew) hard to admit. We were an upper middle class family and knew from an early age he had issues. We took him to therapy, doctors you name it. He'd tell them what they wanted to hear and they'd call us over protective. He started drinking and drinking to the point I had to pick him up from PC at jail with a blood alcohol lvl 3xs the legal limit. I drove him straight to a treatment facility who told me eh kids will be kids just because he drank too much this time did not mean he had a problem. I tried explaining to them he was depressed, he stayed to his self I knew what I was seeing I lived with it with my mother she was bipolar. They sent him home.

Fast forward a couple of years. He comes to me Thank God and tells me he has a problem with alcohol and heroine. When I asked why he took those things he told they made him feel better because there was something inside of him that was dark that he couldn't explain. When he drank or did heroine the darkness went away. We called a treatment facility. Ready for this? They would not take him unless he was high. I am dead serious. I called my doctor begged him to see my child even though he wasn't his patient. We took him in and my doctor tried to get him a bed at a treatment facility they told him the same thing he had to be high. My doctor was shocked!!! My doctor tried admitting him for another health issue to a regular hospital to try and move him from there to a treatment facility. No health issue no admitance. He even suggested my husband and I take my son and get him high. He couldn't believe he was having to suggest this. None of us were willing to do this so finally the doctor made some high up calls to be he knew and after almost 24 hours we finally got him into a treatment facility. 2 months in a facility. What did they do? Traded one addiction for another. They gave him suboxone, prozac and ready for this Adderall (an amphetimine). Once he got out of treatment he was now on more drugs and drugs that are extremely hard to get off of. He went to out patient programs, Narcotic anon. He was told he needed a phychiatrist. The wait for that 6 months!! Guess what happened in the 6 months we waited. He aged off our insurance and now could not get any of his meds because they would not fill the meds without insurance even though we offered to pay in cash. Now he was spiraling again. He could not get insurance, this happened before Obama care and he had no job and could not afford insurance. We had to sit with him day in and day out while he cold turkey withdrew off the medications the doctors had prescribed him because he could now not get them at all.

He finally got over that but still fights his darkness. He got a job with insurance and we are now again in a 6 month holding pattern waiting to get him into a mental health doctor. I have seen the increase in him drinking, I know he is struggling. I watch it like a hawk and try to get him to talk to me but he says he can't explain what it is inside of him. I have called to see if we can speed things up, he has called to see if he can speed things up. We are both told unless he is suicidal there is nothing they can do. There are so many patients and so few mental health facilities and because he has a job and functions he is not a high priority to them. I fear every day that he will find a way to find drugs to help him cope. I also fear when he does get into see a doctor they will put him back on a similar cocktail that to me is just as bad.

So don't always blame the drug epidemic on doctors over prescribing pain meds, some of the issue is also the mental health system and them not treating patients in a timely manner to the point they seek out relief in other ways. A regular PCP will not help as they claim they do not have enough training to help with a mental health patient, therapist can't prescibe medications and even if the therapist suggests to the PCP what might help just as with the pain meds a lot of doctors now wont even prescribe mental health drugs as they are scared to prescribe anything.

I'm so sorry that you and your son are going through such a difficult time.

And yes, you are absolutely right. Most of our clients have a co-occuring psychiatric disorder that has not been properly diagnosed. In order to cope with their symptoms, they often turn to substances for relief.

I don't know where you are located, but in Southern California there are many sites that offer immediate appointments with a certified counselor at no or low cost. In the interim, it would be beneficial for you to attend a Al-Anon meeting. It's a free support group that helps family members learn about available resources and coping strategies. There are many nation-wide chapters--just Google to find a local one.

Thank you, I do see a therapist. Thankfully most of this happened almost 4 years ago. As I said it is and will be a struggle everyday for the rest of our lives. Family must be a part of it. Our journy started in Ma. One of the best things I did was move him away from there. Too many old ghosts there if you know what I mean.

Since the move he has became employed full time and maintains his employment. He likes his job and excels at it which is giving him a different perspective on things that he can get enjoyment from other things. He suffers from terrible anxiety which I think most people with mental health issues do. Him having a job is helping him over come that fear of people a little. Though as I said I see signs that we maybe sinking. I see him drinking more often which I hate. I used to be afraid before we moved that I'd find him dead in bed of an overdose, thank god since the move I no longer worry as much but that fear is always there and always will be. He shows no signs so far of drug use again I watch like a hawk! He has had his new health insurance since March the wait to get into a phychiatrist has been killing me but we are getting closer. We take each day step by step. My proudest moment was the fact that my son felt comfortable enough with me and my husband at the time to come to us and flat out tell us the truth when he realized he needed help. I know that may sound strange to people but my child was not afraid we'd judge him, he knew we'd do everything in our power to help him and the fact that he trusted us and still continues to trust me to tell me the truth when he is slipping is a big deal. A lot of people are afraid to ask for help because of judgement or the parents kicking them out doing a tough love approach. I hope to always maintain that relationship with him that he feels he can come to me.

On the flip side I am one of those dreaded PM patients. I suffer from CRPS type 1. For me medications are very hard to get and I am ok with that. I am treated as if I am a criminal sometimes at the pharmacy because of the meds I take. I have to go to the doctor every 28 days. I am drug tested each time. I can be called in at anytime for a pain med count. I have 2 hours to get there with my meds at any point that they call and they all must be there or my drug screens must have the appropriate amount of drugs in my system or I am booted out of the program. Most doctors will not prescribe pain meds anymore and you must go to PM clinic. My doctor was a anesthesiologist prior to being a PM specialist. I take the lowest amount of medications to get 50% pain relief as that is what they consider appropriate. Am I an addict? Not so much an addict because if I did not have the pain I would not take the meds anymore but I am for sure a physically dependant on them which does mean I would have to taper to get off of them because I would go through withdrawls without them. And believe it or not there is a difference between an addict and a physical dependant person. You learn that in the classes you must take in order to accepted into a PM program at least here you do. A lot of people I see who say they felt the need to take them even after the pain was gone because they felt awful without them more than likely had a physical dependence and should have been tapered off rather than cold turkey. That is what a lot of doctors don't do which I also believe contributes to the searching out drugs and taking of illegal drugs which then leads to powerful addiction.

It’s wonderful that you keep communication open. I suggested Al-anon as some find comfort in talking to others in similar situations. His wait may be shorter if he would be willing to see a counselor who would then refer him to a psychiatrist as these professionals are primarily for medication management. They often work closely with the therapist to effectively manage patient care.

I have known young people and adults given prescriptions for pain after surgery. Trouble is, they start to become dependent. Doctors need to be more careful of some of their prescription choices for patients. I bet there are other alternatives not so addictive.

It’s very difficult to develop long term non-opioid pain relievers. Initially, it was believed that Tramadol had very low risk addictive potential. However, as numerous reports of abuse and addiction surfaced, it was classified as a “controlled substance” in several states. One company is currently researching a non -addictive drug but it’s far from FDA approval.