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@jdiakiw I too thank you for sharing your addiction lesson Part 1 I admit it scares the heck out of me. I was an addiction counselor for 30 years. I worked with people who were so addicted to drugs. There was marijuana, benzos, opiods, alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine, and one last, the biggest is alcohol. More deaths long term than any other drug. You usually don't see an immediate death, but a long term suffering that eventually leads to organ shut down and death. Along the way, these drugs take others with them to their death. Your wife can attest to that. Those close to the addict suffer as severely as the addict. My family has experienced death due to addiction, My brother, a heroin addict, killed himself. My 1st husband, father of my son, died in a car crash after he and my son were celebrating my son's return from a Military med cruise, They left the bar with my son driving.. No more needed to be said on that. What I want to say is that through all the years of working with people addicted to chemicals, we never encouraged or even allowed them to go off any one of the drugs without medical supervision. Your story scares me because you might have died from the cessation of drug taking sooner than if you had continued using. I agree that we all have to experience some discomfort to reach our goal, but outward, extreme physical and mental pain does not need to be part of that process. I am more than happy that you made it through. It took alot away from your's and your wife's life.in the process. So now Tramadol. Tramadol is an opiod and is addicting, but can be very helpful for pain. Now getting to me. The addiction counselor who relies on percocet to ease the pain of peripheral neuropoathy in both feet, ankles and leg. This along with several other painful health issues made me rethink my objections to taking a narcotic pain reliever. I do not deny that my body is dependent on this drug and if I choose to go off I will need detox treatment. I have no intention of going off any time soon. I run a high risk of addiction so I must be extremely careful. I take as prescribed and see my doctor every month. This includes pain management and primary care. I am 75 years old and I am tired of pain. I am not completely pain free with the pecocets, but I am able to hold my Great granddaughter and take her and her dollbabies for a walk down the road, I also live alone and do the "live alone" stuff. I self check everyday on the addiction process and also question my need for the medication. I then remember crying because the pain took every ounce of energy from me. I do put a warning out there to all those using a narcotic pain reliever for relief. Always be honest with yourself and your doctor, have someone do a check of any behavior changes. Another part of this is DO NOT try to get off any medication without a doctor aboard and one that knows about addiction and medication. This includes not only narcotics but also antidepressants and other drugs that cause physical dependence.
Replies to "@jdiakiw I too thank you for sharing your addiction lesson Part 1 I admit it scares..."
@summertime4 You have shared professional knowledge, personal family pain and self concerned use of medication for your own chronic pain. Thank you for putting it all out there for others, including myself, to learn from. You are brave, intelligent and strong. I, being the involved "younger pup" of the group, greatly appreciate the wisdom that I absorb being on Connect. I feel privileged to learn from you.
A big THANK YOU goes out to all of you who share your life experiences. I'm so much farther ahead of the game because of you!
Best wishes,
Rachel
You're a great person to have in the Connect family. You articulate with great clarity some of the things that your vocational and personal experience have helped not only you, but the people you've been in contact with. I echo what others have said about the value of what you say.
Jim
Thank you for this! I, too, am a Substance Use Counselor and am having screaming-heebie-jeebies (and yes, in my world, that is a clinical term lol) over some of these "cold turkey" and "self-tapering" stories! They horrify me. Doctors prescribe (and over-prescribe) these damn drugs and fail to educate their patients about them and that is, in my opinion, unethical and damn near, if not complete, malpractice. I will not get on my soap box tonight. I just will spare all of you that! But know this, your suffering and struggles make my heart ache! But your resilience makes me so proud!
So true. I am tapering down xanax now. Half mg tabs and I took one in am and one pm. I am at one in am and 1/2 in pm now, making it 3/4 mg. Getting ready to go down again to 1/2 daily, split in half. Done with benzos.. Now, I take hydrocodone 10/325. I have severe back issues from 30 years doing hair. My RX says every 6 hours but sometimes I need them less. I always have to move my appt out about a couple weeks. I see my pain management doctor every 2 months and he calls in the 2 RX. One is filled and one is put on file for later. I have now gone to every 7 hours. Very seldom do I need them every 4. I have been taking them for 20 years and yes they still work. Some pain is still there but that's how it is. I also have neuropathy and if I stand in one place too long, my thighs will get numb. They also get numb if I lie on back at night. I wake sometimes and am on back and both thighs are numb. I have something for nerve issues but do not take it. I was in the hospital for 2 days treated for leg pain, with dilaudid. I cried so much my eyes were swollen. Still not sure what happened there but I am terrified I'll wake one morning and not be able to get out of bed. Just taking one day at a time.
Remarkable story and refreshing honesty. I’m 74 and have dealt with pmr and osteoarthritis for 8 years. I’ve tried infusions, joint injections, joint replacements and continuing use of prednisone. My arms appear tattooed from the medications. The only treatment that gave me relief was Vicodin, 4-5 tablets a day. The reluctance of my doctors and difficulties in filing script resulted in discontinuing its use. Everyone is happy ( doctors running scared to prescribe) except me. I deal with the pain everyday. Our government knows best.
You have articulated the conundrum beautifully.
Thank you SO much for this, @summertime4! I worked on psychiatric units for years, beginning at 19....and saw a lot of suffering....much of it from drugs. I later 'related' to them....Drs. who prescribed narcotics for debilitating migraines, telling me to take 'whatever I needed'....eventually went cold-turkey off of those (after 10 yrs.), it was disastrous. Blood pressure sky high, in the worst panic attack a person can imagine, laying in the ER (I feel so bad for the ones who suffer terribly from these)....and that's when Xanax was prescribed, by another Dr. who prescribed more and more to me. I thought my God, am I stupid? I told myself no matter how many he gave me, to be 'careful'....ended up addicted and he, who was no more than a 'legal drug dealer', opened up his own practice....many others became addicted because of him.... word got around that you could get the drug of your choice from him & it made the man rich....they suffered, also. I should have been 'smarter'....I wasn't, because a 'Dr.' was prescribing all those pills. I ended up going 'cold turkey' again....horrendous, but I did it. I had to quit my job....it was the only way. Don't EVER go cold-turkey, please!! It's so dangerous....and a total hell. On the outside, people thought I was 'so together', working, raising my sons, doing 'everything I was supposed to'. Anyway...moving ahead (sorry....this site brings back so many memories to me, even though they are sad)....I am now on 1 mg. Xanax a day....I break the 2 tablets in half, so I am taking 0.25 at each dose. I want to wean off, but am so afraid. I am also on Zoloft, 50 mg. I started breaking them in half, taking 25 mg., but as you say, DO NOT TRY to get off any medication without a Dr. aboard. Taking pills was never ME.....all I did was 'vitamins'....I want 'me' back....I may be a lot older now but I can still be healthy and happy again! To make things worse, when my grandson was found dead in a basement almost 2 yrs. ago, I came completely undone....he was the light of my eye, loved him more than life itself. The family fell apart. I began drinking whiskey....suggested by a friend to 'help me sleep'....big mistake. OMG, I have such a tolerance for that stuff....whether it be Scotch, Bourbon, whatever. I thought I would be 'o.k.'....not become dependent on it. It gave me a feeling of calm, even 'well-being'. Never drunk, always a clean house, doing what 'I was supposed to', AGAIN. No one knows...not even my children/grandchildren. It finally started making me feel MORE anxious, MORE depressed when I drank. That's when I KNEW it had to stop. I am now weaning myself off....have not had any in 5 days....but I DID buy some 'seltzer' drinks....3 - 5% alcohol in the cans, to hopefully take the edge off, a couple a day. Is this the wrong way? I'm trying to do so much on my own...I did make a call to an addiction center, very close to my home. Like so many around here, they only take Medicaid!! That or 'self-pay'. It took so much courage for me to call....I thought wow, that can help me....I can go in as an out-patient' and have someone tell me that I can do this....and show me the way. I have good insurance, so I was turned down. I see a new (family) Dr. this coming Wed. (the 10th)....I am going to tell him everything. It's scary to do something like this all on my own...I took everything you said, to heart. So MUCH good information! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!
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I appreciate your very thoughtful ideas, @summertime4. As a professional, I'm sure you can see the need to not encourage others to "go it alone" or cold-turkey. As you said, a treatment plan provided by a medical professional is always the best.