To wonder how people get addicted to prescription drugs?

[popcornwizard]

Just that really. I've been given a few bottles of oramorph for pain relief. It works, I can see how people get addicted to its warm fuzzy, but the complete inability to function must of the time is very frustrating. So how does the addiction thing happen? Do people lie about the pain? Or would the GP keep prescribing it if I staged a sit in and made demands? Or is it acquired by illegal methods? Never really given it much thought, just hear the 'addicted to prescription drugs' phrase bandied about.

I would say too that some people really want to take refuge in the fuzziness. You might want a clear head, but there have been times in my life when I have wanted to lose my mind through any means necessary. Just want to damp all the feelings.
Sometimes you lie to doctors, or downplay some symptoms, or exaggerate others, or sometimes your chronic condition and the fact that you are still 'functioning' means that the doctor doesn't think you are really addicted.
I was addicted to street drugs in my youth so in theory doctors should NEVER give me anything as I am ultra high risk - in reality I know the right things to say if I want to self-medicate. Luckily, my head is clean and strong now.

Stupid question time and sorry for the hijack.
Is there a point you have to push through for codine? I was prescribed them for a chest infection that turned into pneumonia. I took them for a week and realised they were worse than the illsness. Is it like alcohol where you have to get passed a certain stage before you get the benefit? I would have taken heroin at that point to be able to get a sleep but all I got was queasy constipated and in as much pain as ever.
I returned them to the pharmacy which was treated as a really weird thing to do as well.

Ive wondered this, and as an opiate user (for pain) for many years I’m sick of being tarred as an addict, even by family.

I came off them completely with pregnancy then breast feeding, no problem coming off them at all. But I have a high tolerance which means I could take twice the recommended dose of tramadol & not feel spaced out/high/fuzzy. Good, but also bad as it means they don’t work as well for my pain.

I’ve needed to go back on them for around 6 months now but was too scared to go to dr and ask as I didn’t want to seem like an addict. It’s awful living in horrendous pain 24/7.

I’ve recently started back on strong painkillers for something else and am going to have to stay on them now I see how much better the original pain is on them. If my doctor refused to prescribe them I would imagine I’d be desperate enough to source them elsewhere. Although it would be through pain not addiction, I would think addicts would think along the same lines.

Yeah there is. Codeine initially makes me feel worse & it constipates me. Once its fully in your system it works a treat

I've been taking codeine for 12 years now. I've moved around a couple of times and some doctors have been stricter than others (not why I've moved!). One doctors refused to prescribe me it until I went in several times over 2 weeks crying in pain.

I have bought them online through an online doctor service and got my husband to order some on prescription too. My current doctors don't seem bothered about them being on repeat but I'm always worried they'll pull me in one week and say they won't prescribe them anymore

My sis is a GP and has had a number of patients addicted to benzos which is v common. Apparently it’s such a unbelievable addiction to break (with the risk of causing very serious mental health issues) and the benzos are relatively cheap so they just continue prescribing them. They can’t cut the patients off

I was addicted to Remedeine, paracetamol 500/dihydrocodeine 30mg, for over ten years.
If I missed a dose or took it late the withdrawal would start.

When I knew I was addicted I was taking minimum 12 pills 4x3 or even 15 5x3.
I've no clue what a sustained paracetamol overdose does nvm the opiate.

I did cold turkey and my best friend looked after me. She had already seen a full rattle when her db quit street heroin, apparently my rattle was worse and lasted longer.

I've no excuse I was ignorant to the codeine but it would have taken seconds to find out for myself.

Easy thing to happen when in chronic pain, my mum has been on morphine and tramadol along with a whole host of other tablets for years due to arthritic pain, she was dependant. It was only when she got really ill last year, sepsis and pneumonia that the drs at hosp stripped her of all of it because of the respiratory effects, by the time she had left hosp she was no longer on morhine and very little tramadol. Now a year later, she’s on a little more tramadol, but prob half of what she was on before and no morphine, in fact she’s determined to never go back on the morphine as she had awful awful withdrawal from it and never wants to go through that again. She copes ok with the doses now and seems to manage without the morphine and is more with it and sleeps in the day less so that’s all a bonus.

My experience is that it’s very hard to get strong pain relief, my surgery is very reluctant to hand them out and likewise when I was in hospital they were very reluctant despite having 2 lots of surgery within days and being in agony, crying and unable to move I had to beg them, I can’t take codiene as I can’t synthathise it so it has no effect so always ask for tramadol if I need stronger pain relief, Ive always took it as and when needed and never have become addicted luckily, same with oramoph, as soon as I could function without I dropped to just tramadol and as soon as I could function without that, then back to plain old paracetamol and ibroprofen.

i have an opioid patch that delivers 20mcg of buprenorphine every hour, 24 hours a day. i wear each one for 7 days.

i messed up my medication order (i take 19 medications, all prescribed by different clinics) and went 8-and-a-bit days, and i was RATTLING. it was horrible. i am physically addicted, but i don’t get any sort of high.

before the patches i had Tramadol on repeat for a couple of years. i also have a repeat for diazepam, and sleep meds, and anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics, and a huge amount of Pregabalin that nobody can remember prescribing. i see my Psychiatrist and Rheumatology 3-monthly, and am in the first stages of sorting a borked thyroid, so i have fortnightly bloods.

and that’s all i have to do. 3-monthly appointments, blood tests and very occasionally see the GP.

so. i am addicted to opioids, and benzodiazepines, and sleeping pills, and whatever Pregabalin is. i can obtain these very easily, and very regularly. it is very, very easy to become addicted to meds. i have a monkey on my back the size of King Kong.

i don’t think addiction to prescription meds, in those who are prescribed them, is about getting loaded. it’s about how physically and mentally awful it is to withdraw from them.

I think some GP's are too quick to provide painkillers (and I'm not referring to people who are in chronic pain here).
A few months ago I visited my GP with joint pain (multiple joints). I had a whole range of blood tests for various things and all came back fine. I asked the GP what the next step was. She said "we prescribe stronger pain killers". As I was already taking Ibuprofen I'm not sure what the next step would have been but needless to say I haven't been back to see her! I'm currently trying out Gentle Yoga, Aquarobics and Turmeric capsules. I am in no doubt that the negative effects of prescribed painkillers would be far worse than the pain and discomfort I am currently experiencing.

My father was/is an aggressive alcoholic who managed to quit drinking on the spot about 10 years ago and turn his life around with no therapy or rehab. Fast forward to now and it emerges he simply dropped onto abusing dihydrocodeine and various other painkillers instead, all prescribed for back pain.

It's all coming on top of him now as he has to save them up and take 8 at a time to get his 'hit', and he is absolutely foul and abusive in the meantime (withdrawal). 8 at a time is what he admits to, so it could be more, but in the same sentence he is in total denial over his addiction and no remorse for treating me as an emotional punching bag for my whole life. I've tried to tell doctors what he's doing but he's in denial so there's not much that can be done.

He likes being admitted to hospital as they will give him painkillers in there, and it saves up his ones at home. The repeat prescription keeps rolling in while he's away.

Some are just easily given. A few years ago I had minor surgery and upon leaving I handed a box of tramadol and told take one every 4 hours if it hurts, if you need more ring the gp.

I used one and then the box just sat in my cupboard. Tbh if a friend/family member had asked for them as they had ran out or their painkillers where not working I would of offered them.

One of my grandparents has a repeat for codeine she doesn’t need and dishes them out like sweeties to anyone who has even a headache.

I was on before my spinal surgery (for 3 months)
Dihydrocodeine - 60mg x 4 daily
Paracetamol
Naproxen
Diazepam
Oramorph

And still working and fine, no side effects coming off them. I don't convert cocodamol so can't take it

Now on 60mg dihydrocodeine at night and that's just on repeat and has been for a year

I returned them to the pharmacy which was treated as a really weird thing to do as well.

I’d say majority of people either don’t realise you should return unused meds to the chemists or just don’t bother, so I’m not surprised the staff were taken aback when you did!

I know I'm physically addicted to tramadol. I've been on it for years and need the pain relief they offer. I do have a life limiting condition that means my supply will never be cut off until I choose to go on to stronger opiate pain killers but if I miss a dose by a few hours I can feel the withdrawal symptoms and they truly are awful. It's a necessary evil.

Put some time aside and read this:
www.theguardian.com/news/2018/nov/08/the-making-of-an-opioid-epidemic
It explains how the manipulations of the US pharma industry knowingly created the problem. Not sensationalist conspiracy theory - fact.

Different people are more or less susceptible to addiction in general and addiction to difference substances. I can never imagine being an alcoholic I don't even like drinking but other people have a much stronger reaction. People can also become physically dependent or emotionally dependent especially if they're self medicating an underlying problem (ADHD, Depression, Anxiety etc.).

My sis is a GP and has had a number of patients addicted to benzos which is v common. Apparently it’s such a unbelievable addiction to break (with the risk of causing very serious mental health issues) and the benzos are relatively cheap so they just continue prescribing them. They can’t cut the patients off

There's no approved protocol for benzo withdrawal.

www.benzo.org.uk/manual/

Benzos alter brain chemistry (and function) so they they can't be removed. You need to find a substitute - which is only going to be another benzo.

Some benzos are unbelievably potent. My wife is on 0.5 micrograms a day.

It was not being able to stop taking them that factored into our 1-child family.

womensmentalhealth.org/posts/benzodiazepines-and-pregnancy/

As I said, it's funny these are available when other things are banned.

@Flashingbeacon Apparently 1 out of 10 people can't metabolise codeine, so you will get all the side effects without the benefits :(

Almost every article about addiction quotes the user saying "I started out taking it as prescribed but then ended up on 20 pills a day". This is really not meant to disrespect anyone, but I always wondered why people didn't attempt to cut back from the max dose or get help once they realised they were going over the line? (Or maybe many do but you don't hear about those?) Surely weaning yourself down from a slightly higher than max dose is easier to do than going cold turkey from a full-blow addiction.

Not everyone gets addicted. I've been on tramadol for 10 years for a medical condition, I usually take 50-100mg a day but can skip a few days without any withdrawal symptoms or cravings. When I had a good phase last year I didn't take them for a couple of months. I also came off them in pregnancy without any issues.

I can tell you my experience Pim
I started off taking well under the max dose but I began to tolerate them.
Before I knew it I was at eight a day and watching the clock for my next dose.
The pills left me pain free and able to carry on work full time.
No high just the feeling of normal.
Then the pain crept back.
I took an extra pill with morning and evening dose so now I'm over using.
Not for the sake of it because I was scared the pain would come back.
You convince yourself it must be ok the doctors are giving it me.
I'm still scared to take opiates because I know how well they suited me.

Pom rather.

I've been taking codine based painkillers since I was 11, I'm now 36. I need to take them I am truly addicted.

I taken the maximum 8 per day never anymore. That's enough to function. I've never been pain free, I can't imagine what that would be like.

I still go to work, drive and everything else as your body gets used to them

I don’t get alcohol addiction for the same reason. I take codeine everyday but am not addicted, I’d withdraw but that’s a chemical change rather than dependence. I don’t get the fuzzy feeling now but it still works, seven plus years down the line. I’ve taken stronger and come off fine. But I’m lucky I don’t have the tendency to addiction. Most addicts have trauma or bad childhoods they are seeking escape from so fuzziness is good. Taking opiates isn’t a guarantee of addiction.

There's no approved protocol for benzo withdrawal

The withdrawal program differs from rehab to rehab, at the discretion of the individual doc, if you go that route. We had one lady who it took four months inpatient to withdraw from 800 mg of diazepam daily. Trying to go any faster could have killed her.