Of course one of the first questions I asked the Pain
Management Doctor was, “Am I going to get addicted to pain pills?” The answer is, there is a difference between
addiction and physical dependency. If I am on opioids for an extended time
period, which I will be, my body will likely become physically dependent on the
medication. I will gradually develop a tolerance to the medication which will
either require increasing the dosage or switching to another medication.
Switching around periodically can help prevent building a tolerance. After I have recovered from surgery and it’s
time for me to stop taking the medication, I will have to be gradually weaned
off of it under the supervision of the Pain Management Doctor. But, this is
very different from addiction to pain pills.
Physical dependency
Opioid medications will cause a physical dependency
marked by abstinence syndrome when they are stopped abruptly. If these
medications are stopped or rapidly decreased the patient will experience
chills, goose bumps, profuse sweating, increased pain, irritability, anxiety,
agitation, and diarrhea. The medicines will not cause these symptoms if taken
as prescribed and any decision to stop these medications should be done under
the supervision of your physician in a slow downward taper.
Addiction
Addiction to opioids is a psychological issue where the
patient seeks the feeling the drug provides. A person becomes compulsively driven
to take the drug and craves it. They might have physical, mental or social
consequences to using the drug, but they don’t care. They become willing to do
almost anything to get their fix.
This is where I feel it is important to share an experience
I had a year ago. I thought it would be a great idea to buy a cheap Groupon for
a house-cleaning service. We can’t normally afford it. The crew of four showed
up and split up in my house to “clean.” I bounced around from one person to the
other, concerned about cluttered counter tops and surfaces. I was picking up
ahead of them so they could clean everything. When I walked around the corner, I
noticed the guy was opening my closet doors. He was in the closet
where we kept our first aid stuff and over the counter meds and was TAKING THE
BASKETS DOWN and looking at them! When he saw me coming around the corner he
quickly started dusting the shelf and the top of the door and said, “We like to clean the top
of the doors and inside closets because they get dusty too.” Um…. Ok.? At first I was stupid and didn’t
realize why he was snooping around. One of the ladies asked me to come into my
son’s room and tell her about him because she loves kids and always wants to
know about them. Here I am, innocent and naive, thinking, “Oh, that’s sweet.” Meanwhile,
the other guy was in the Master bedroom.
Our Master Bedroom is always a wreck. It’s the last room
I get to or clean because visitors never see it and there is always a giant
pile of papers on the dresser and lots of crap on the nightstand. I went into
the bedroom because I didn’t want the guy moving my paper piles (It looks like
a mess, but I know where everything is!). When I came in, he was going through
my nightstand drawer, where I keep all of my medicine. He was picking up the
bottles and looking at them. At this point, I knew what was going on but played
dumb because there were FOUR FREAKING people in my house! I said, “What are you
doing?” “Oh, we like to clean the tops of drawers because they get dusty too.” I
walked into the bathroom (still keeping him in site) and he had set a bunch of
my medicine bottles in there and a trash bag was in the floor underneath it. I
said, “No, I don’t want this room cleaned. It’s such a mess and it would be too
much for you to do.” “Are you sure? We don’t mind” He kept pressing me to clean
the Master bedroom and I didn’t leave his sight after that. I think their plan
was for one of them to distract me while the other one went through my drawers
to find my pills, then swipe them into a trash bag and take them on the way out.
I will NEVER do that again! I will never let someone I
don’t know or have references from come in and clean my house! Lucky for me he
didn’t get away with any of my meds. But, it was a huge lesson for me. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT PEOPLE WILL DO FOR DRUGS. I
reported them to Groupon and left a review of what they did. When I looked, other people were
reporting that they had done THE SAME THING in their house! How STUPID could I
have been? So, if you are a naive and trusting person like I am, LOCK UP YOUR
MEDS! Seriously, buy a mini safe and lock them up.
Anywho, back to addiction verses dependency…
I found this video by two physiatrists extremely useful in
describing the pros and cons of opioid medications.
**Opioid Use for Chronic Pain - The Good, The Bad and the
Ugly - This video was awesome but it's no longer available so I am posting another one that's ALMOST as good.
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