My Fight Against Addiction To Back And Neck Pain Medicine
Posted on October 12, 2009
Filed Under Neck Pain | Leave a Comment
Do you suffer from neck or back pain? Do you take pain medication to ease your pain? If you do, then you should read this story. I want to share my professional experience on this subject with all of you out there suffering through this problem. I have a patient who had been on pain medication for over ten years, prior to seeing me. A lot of people can not deal with the pain on their own, or their pain is severe, so they turn to their doctors for pain medications. The end result, in many cases, is addiction.
The battle with back pain for Mike (not the real name for my patient) started over ten years ago. He had seen several medical doctors, over the years, and he had even been to specialists. The results were, always, that he was given pain medications. At first, the medication worked well. It ended the pain and helped Mike to sleep. He would only take the medicine, as needed, for pain. So, it was not taken all the time or even every day. About five years ago, he had to start taking even more pain medicine, because his pain was getting worse. On top of that, his body was becoming used to the pain medicine, so it was not working the way it did in the beginning.
Mike can not really say exactly when he became addicted. Mike actually told me about two different ways he had been addicted to pain medications. First was the type of addiction where he would take just one extra pill more than he was supposed to have taken, because his pain was worse than before. Then he would notice that the extra pill made him feel even that much better, and it would give him energy and put him in a good mood. So the next time, he would take an extra pill again. After a while, that extra pill did not work anymore, because his body had also gotten used to that level of medication. So, he would then take two extra pills. He soon realized that he had a problem when he realized that he was driving away his family. The thing with this is, he never really suffered from withdrawals with these medicines when he did not have them, so he assumed he was not in trouble.
His second addiction was nothing like the first. His doctor the put him on a pain patch, about fifteen months ago. It was wonderful; the pain seemed to just disappear. He would put a new patch on every three days, so that the medicine was always in his system. He never had to wait for a pill to start working again. He didn’t have to worry about taking to much medicine when the pain was bad, because it was just always there. He didn’t worry about the possibility of abuse the medicine any more. This was a plus to Mike. He was on the patch for a few months when it ran out on a Saturday; the doctor was not open, so he was not able to get the patch. He didn’t think anything of it, because he was not abusing this medicine. He thought he would be fine, and he never considered being addicted, because he was using the amount of pain patches prescribed for him.
He ended up in the emergency room that night in full withdrawal. Mike was cold, hot, shivering, sweating, vomiting, and his whole body hurt. It was scary and painful. The doctors gave him his medicine, and after a while he was fine. He just assumed that because he was not abusing the medication any more that he was not addicted. But he had become addicted without realizing it. It had scared him so badly that he wanted to just stop the medication all together. Just be done with it. But he still had to deal with back pain.
Please don’t think I’m trying to scare you. However, I want you to understand how this addiction can affect you. You may not know you are addicted, until it is too late. Do not assume that because you are taking the medication as prescribed that you will not become addicted.
Mike has wondered numerous times, was it worth it? I don’t know if I’m the one to answer that for everyone, but for Mike – he thought it was. He had suffered through the pain without the medication, and the pain is crippling. He could not function doing even everyday tasks. He would like to be on a pain medication that is not addictive, but the pain medication was only masking his symptoms of back pain and not treating the underlying problem.
Just keep in mind that it is a serious chance you take when dealing with pain medications. Neck and back pain can seriously alter your lifestyle. There are alternatives for treatment of chronic and severe back pain that do not include pain medications and invasive procedures such as surgery. Take time to invesigate the options, because you can take your medication exactly how it is prescribed and still become addicted. Mike did not know this in the beginning, and thank goodness he discovered a successful option that did not include pain pills.
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