Medication Tolerance - not working anymore after many years

[Blackcats7]

Has anybody found their medications no longer work after being on them for years?
I take a number of pain meds for advanced arthritis and severe degenerative disc disease. I have been on them for about 8 years and the dose increased as my condition deteriorated. I need surgery on my hip but the jury is still out on a way forward because of complications from my spine. It may be that I need spine surgery first.
My pain seems completely uncontrolled so I decided to try stopping the painkillers because I wondered if they were helping at all and I feel just the same, totally awful but no worse.
Tolerance is a known issue for many meds so I think this is what has happened.
I will try and speak to my doctors when I have the mental energy to fight my way through for an appointment but wondered what others experiences might be.

Yes, definitely, it's a known thing isn't it?
I discussed this with my rheumatologist last year who just said I need to take regular breaks.
When I take a break from anti inflammatories, I find paracetamol works better than it usually does for a while 🤷
Then things get worse again and I go back on the anti inflammatories.

@Chewbecca can I ask how long you took breaks from medication please? And did they work when you started again?

Probably the longest continuous break - 6 weeks. But more usually I just take just a few days off, it still seems to work better if I have had a few days off. I take more days off in good weather!
(Arthritis is my issue too - in multiple joints).

Thanks, I will give that a try. It’s a bugger isn’t it?

Ask about being referred for a pain management course. They have been life changing for two friends of mine (with different conditions). One is off all opiod based medication and the other is on a brand new regime of meds. Both report much less pain, better pain management day to day and being able to do much more than they have in years.