@grandmar

I'm like you Ronnie in that I have an addictive personality. Fortunately when I was taking Lorazepam or Ativan over 15 years, I never abused it or took more than I needed. In order to control your deep pain from Surgery you have to get "ahead of the pain." If you wait until you are having a lot of pain before you take your pain medications, it won't work as well, and you'll need more sooner. It's best in my experience to take the medicine at the time and in the amount prescribed by your doctor. If you notice over time that you feel like you need more than was prescribed, that is when you need to get on a taper off schedule. Usually if you're taking the medicine for real pain you won't get addicted to it. However, your body may become dependant on it, as mine did with Tramadol. It is fairly easy to withdraw from the pain med if you use a slow taper down process. I wouldn't worry about that now as you need the relief from pain in order to heal. I hope everything works out with this latest surgery.