Addiction versus Tolerance

WOW! What an enlightening thread. I was glad to see how each of you deal with the stigma of narcotic use and it use to bother me alot more then it does today after years of getting that look from others.

I dont put the info out there either for like Susie I dont want to be asked for a thing and when folks know you got them they are darn sure going to ask,you would be surprised how many of my friends early out always ended up at my door to "visit" with a headache or backache or something. Did not take them long to stop visiting when they figured out I was not Walgreens! I dont take my meds for a headache so why would I give them to someone else for one,excedrin works for me!

I had a break in back in December and although my meds were safely locked in teh floor safe and not gotten to the Police officer immediately thought this was what they were after and I tried to tell him that I couldnt think of anyone that would know what I have here that would do something such as this and he said for me not to be naive as there are folks that could have followed me from the pain clnic or the drug store and later come back to break in hoping to obtain meds? Also I have 3 teenagers and he felt that oen of them maybe had metioned to someone like their friensd that Mom took this or that and that could have inevitable led to the break in. I dont want to think my kids have friends such as this but I am not naive enough to think it couldnt be possible.

A Doc once told me that after years of opiate therapy every single cell in our bodies had some of that meds stored there and that any change in the levels could bring about some type of reaction and he went on to say the same occurs for taking more versus less and I eventually understood this as well. If I dont take it then I get a reaction and that is my body reminding me those levels are dropping or lacking and to take more also causes a sort of toxic reaction in those same cells until they have time to adjust to the new levels re: at increase maybe getting sleepy or nauseous,all of which usually goes away after the adjustment period.

This same Doc did not agree with the theory of "drug holidays" stating that it usually didnt produce any good outcomes and put the patient at risk for increased pain levels requiring a more lengthy tritation up to a theraputic level and from what he had seen usually more then origionally taken a holiday from the adjustmetn period came about. In other words to get relief after the holiday he was seeing it taking more meds to get back to a "norm" for those folks then they were taking at maintance levels prior to the holiday. They didnt always have to stay at those higher levels but then they were faced with decreasing doses and again putting themselves thru unnecessary pain levels.

Thanks to all for their input here as I learned some valuable things.

I'm really glad to see this thread coming back up. All too often we get caught up in what other people think of us and forget that there are real differences between addiction, tolerance and dependence. I believe that being in pain is a miserable way to live and that by being forced into this, against our will, the physical misery can easily lead to mental & emotional misery when we encounter people who are too naive or thick headed to understand.

I have never made a secret of what meds I take. Yes, I've had people hint around that they'd like some of this or that, but my response has always been that I need what I have and getting pain meds is hard enough. I simply cant put myself in a position where I might run out. (Except for this month, which I did with the help of Excress scripts, but not because I shared my meds)

The only exception to my no holes barred theory is my Mother-In-Law. Her son was too good for me before I got this sick, I don't need her harping on my meds. Heck, you'd think it were a contest for her to have less specialists than I have. She actually asks me how many Docs I have almost every time we visit. I think next time I might just ask if we're in a contest. Well, I do have to have at least one more than her, after all, since her hysterectomy, she no longer needs a GYN. LOL

I've always been a stubborn, thick-headed, Irish-woman, who never really cared much what others thought, as long as I was comfortable with whatever I was doing. This has carried over to my use/need for opiate pain treatment. Maybe I'm too old to change or maybe all the years I spent working in Health Care were a part of it. I've just never believed that sick people should suffer in pain and now that I am sick, I need that relief. I will not tolerate anyone telling me that I don't need or deserve that relief. The few times that I've had someone question my meds, I've used it as an opportunity to teach that person.

Honestly, I believe that I've had more problems with side effects from Neurontin than I've ever had from narcotics. When they had me on high doses of that I couldn't remember squat! That's never happened to me from narcotics.

I know this is a really tough issue for so many people and I think we each need to find our own peace with the issues involved. The key though, is for us to keep talking about these issues with others who really do understand them. We spend so much of our lives among those who wouldn't make it a block in our shoes.

Feel Good Everyone!