@colleenyoung I am not familiar with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, so I don't know how much credence to give to it. If you want to make a distinction between dependence and addiction, that's fine. True, morphine is not the same as heroine. Is that your point? You can write your congresspeople if you want. This is my first day and I'm quickly beginning to think this is a waste of my time.

@colleenyoung thank you for helping distinguish addiction from dependence. And very true, distraction helps. But sometimes you just want to read a book, flip zero magazine, and watch TV… Those distractions often times aren’t enough to keep focus from the pain. Personally I need pain medications to be able to sleep comfortably; With out them I wake up frequently, sleep poorly and that makes my pain much worse… Distraction or nine. @mwcates I encourage you to be more receptive and understanding to those who can’t simply distract their pain away. Not all of us are like you. An open forum means that you can encourage and/or ask people to consider. If that’s too much for you to handle I’m so sorry as everybody’s opinion is welcome here