Living in the OC (pain killer addiction) Part 1

     As it turns out here lately, the random world of Jessica has not been so random lately. I have mostly posted things that can help people. I have used my powers for good. Well, today is no different. I still have more to say that could (hopefully) help people. This blog is a 2 parter because it is going to be a long one, but if one person could benefit from it, or even learn something, I don't care how windy I get.

     Last night, an old friend from middle school had caught up with me on facebook (yeah, you know who you are *wink*) and we were telling each other a few things to give the other one a kind of idea where we were in our lives right now. Both of us have a child, and are not doing too bad all in all. Then I said "It's refreshing to hear from someone that far back and find out they're not an addict."

     This is were you can place the sound of the record scratching and then awkward silence. A minute or two later she wrote, "Actually, I am an addict. I've been clean for 3yrs now..lol".  Yikes! I had made a real faux pas (although, now I understand also why we use lol when we are not laughing, she was letting me know it was cool, she wasn't angry, which is good.) and what I said had come out wrong.

     The thing is, I'm also an addict (shocked? You shouldn't be if you know me) with 3yrs sobriety. What a coincidence, that we went to the same school, both got hooked on pills, and both had 3yrs clean. But....the only real coincidence was the we both were clean.

     In this area, we have what we like to call an epidemic. In 2008 a study found that of people 12 and over, 6 and a half percent had used pain killers without a prescription(same percentage as Oregon, it's a tie, as the second worse pill problem in the US).  Yeah, and I have an igloo in Antarctica for sale. Take that number, and at the very least, multiply it by 2 and a half, and thats with anywhere you go with a statistic on drug use.

     Back to my story (then we'll go on). So, after typing that stupid sentence I put out in the air, I tell her that I am also an addict who has three years clean. Which, if I was her, I would have called BS, cause first I've insulted you, and now, I'm just like you. Yeah, I totally would have called me out on lying, but she must have known somehow i was telling the truth, or she was just being polite until the crazy person on the other side shut up for a sec, so she could log off (either way, she was very graceful about it).

     Jane told me (we will call her jane so this doesn't get too hard to follow) that she had been in a car accident, and had been ejected from the vehicle and barely made it out with her life. She went through physical therapy, and had many obstacles she overcame along the way. After getting well, she was no longer prescribed the pain medicine she had been taking for quite some time now. She felt horrible, I'm sure (without her telling me) in her mind at the time she probably thought she had some kind of permanent nerve damage. She was probably fine when she took a pill, and she had completed all her therapy, obviously the doctor missed something, Jane needed "pain management".

     And there it is. Those two words, pain management, have been the first two words in the beginning of, what turned out to be the hardest struggle in some peoples lives, or worse the damnation and death of others.

     Hey Jessica, if pills are so bad, why take them? Well, boys n girls (haha), as it turns out, pills have been the one drug to turn people who would have, in normal circumstances, not ended up on drugs. Bad things happen, and when people get hurt, doctors prescribe pain medicine.

     If you know you have a problem then why don't you just stop? That is a good question, and a very uneducated question at the same time. Its hard to understand why people keep throwing their lives, children, money, and possessions away once they realize they have a problem. Most people have never felt a serious withdrawal. At the most, we can relate this feeling to not having coffee for a few days, or to our nicotine dependency if we have one. The easiest way for me to put it is: What ever you are taking that is addictive, what ever it treats, when you stop taking that, that is what it gives you back times 10.

     So, if your taking an anti-depressant and stop, your going to be unbelievably depressed. If your taking ADHD medicine and stop, your not going to be able to focus on anything. So imagine this. Your taking a mild to medium painkiller, when you feel pain from the withdrawal from that, you will hurt pretty darn bad. So what will you do, find more, that's what. You know what else? If you can't find a small dose after a while, you'll just take a somewhat bigger dose. Well, well, well, guess what now, you feel HORRIBLE. So eventually, you'll take oxy, and you know who gets oxy? Cancer patients, major surgery patients, and people who are dying. Because if you're dying, you have no time to have to deal with withdrawal. So, if you take a medicine that is primarily given to people dying, or with mind blowing pain, what do you get when you stop taking that? Answer: A real problem.

     Imagine being so sick you can't even do daily tasks like taking a shower without unspeakable pain. Now imagine that there is a pill out there, and for 30 dollars, you could feel great and get things done, and not be miserable. Would you buy that pill? Now imagine that you did, and the next day you felt bad again (because the pill is not a cure, but only a treatment), so bad you couldn't cook yourself a meal and minutes felt like hours. You have 30 dollars, but you need things for your house. Which one would you buy? It's easy to say things for your house if your not really feeling what I just described.

     It doesn't just stop there though, you would run out of money. Next idea you would have is to sell the things you "don't need". Then to sacrifice the things you do. Then guess what? Surprise! That pill doesn't last all day anymore, it lasts about 8hrs, then later down the road, 4hrs. Now what?

     We are wired to survive, and pills actually rewire your brain to need them as much as you need food and water. Your brain believes you are dying without these. And we will do what needs to be done to survive. The thing is, the survivor in us, they aren't graceful, they aren't pretty, and they aren't nice. Those are luxuries that we now "don't need."




This is the end of Part 1. Stay tuned for part 2. Same bat time same bat channel. (maybe in an hour, or in a few days. Depends on what chores I gotta do around the house)