This comes from the New York Times. It's a survey of the class of 2000 at an Ohio high school, detailing the myriad ways in which addiction has touched the 110 graduates. That HS and that graduating class could be any of a thousand across the country.
Link - (
New Window )
I was prescribed 50 Percocets and 50 Valium. I took one of the Valiums the first day home, as I was told that I'd want to get ahead of any post-surgery pain. It made me a complete space cadet...I would have handed over the deed to my house had anyone asked me. So I tossed the rest of the pills...I didn't even touch the Percocet. It turned out the post-op pain was pretty minor - nothing an Advil couldn't handle.
Afterwards, in reflection, I was surprised by the amount of medication that had been prescribed to me for a relatively small amount of pain. But what really shocked me was the number of people that chastised me for tossing the pills. "Why did you do that? I would have taken them!"...I must have heard it from ten separate people. And I'm not talking about obvious addicts...I'm talking about square, successful people with kids, careers, the whole nine yards.
It was really eye opening.
Scary shit.
I had a few surgeries over the years - Wisdom Teeth, 2 Hernias, and most recently smashed my finger int he car door which i got 2 Oxys for. I took them for my hernias but didn't like how I felt (also on an empty stomach since I felt bloated from the surgery) so I haven't taken one in years up until last month when I smashed my finger. I can't lie, it felt great those 2 nights sleeping but I know why I was only given 2, haha.
Generally I won't touch anything that's not over the counter though, just not worth it. Only had to this time because I couldn't sleep, the pain in my finger was too much for Advil to take care of.
Micro discectomy, L5S1. Small potatoes when it comes to back surgeries, but man was it a life saver.
Yes. Unlike many fears, THIS IS A LEGITIMATE FEAR. The availability of drugs and the culture that accepts this behavior is out of control. MUCH worse than when I was a kid growing up in the late 70's. My Son's graduating class of 900 kids had a memorial for 10 of the kids (that they know of) who died of overdoses since graduating in 2009.
What does a parent do...? I don't know the answer, but you have to balance being very active in knowing what your kids are doing and keeping your distance to give them room to grow. Every family's balance is different.
Quote:
One of my biggest fears as a parent.
Yes. Unlike many fears, THIS IS A LEGITIMATE FEAR. The availability of drugs and the culture that accepts this behavior is out of control. MUCH worse than when I was a kid growing up in the late 70's. My Son's graduating class of 900 kids had a memorial for 10 of the kids (that they know of) who died of overdoses since graduating in 2009.
What does a parent do...? I don't know the answer, but you have to balance being very active in knowing what your kids are doing and keeping your distance to give them room to grow. Every family's balance is different.
I honestly think, as of right now (kids are 8 and 5), I'm actually going to do my best to educate them by telling them what to try, why, and what not to try. It's a bit unconventional from the overall say no to drugs, period, but I'm going to tell them I'd rather they smoke weed or something more benign like that than pills. And the hows, whats, and whys.
That way it's kind of saying, hey if you must try something, try this. I'm not condoning it, but if you must....
I didn't need any for the pain, so my friends and I took the rest recreationally with alcohol over the next couple weeks.
we didn't seek them out like some of the kids in the article but if we had them we'd take them.
Junior year in college I sliced a tendon in my hand, had stitches and plastic surgery, they gave me 100 percocets.
my friends and roomates and I took them all over a weekend.
I will say the medical protocols now vs then late 80's/early 90's (or even now vs as recently as 2014) have changed massively.
Doctors are limited with how many they can prescribe, they are required to re-examine patients who need more than the initial prescription and they prescribe lower potency and dosage of opiates. It's got to be really hard to find a pill mill these days, which is probably why synthetics like fentanyl are popular - or heroin.
I mentioned my wisdom teeth above, my daughter had hers out this past fall and she was prescribed 8 tylenol with codeine.
she took none.
It's a massive problem, but one I feel like the current administration understands and is taking positive steps to address. Never had much faith in government to get something right but I think they're on the right track here.
he isn't gov anymore but maybe Murphy can do it.
We managed to avoid making it a political bitch session so far, perhaps you could continue in that direction.
Its a good thing I went into a specialty where I don't need to prescribe opioids.
Its a good thing I went into a specialty where I don't need to prescribe opioids.
Big pharma's target is to hook us all if possible... Biggest dope dealers in existence
Quote:
micro discectomy or fusion?
Micro discectomy, L5S1. Small potatoes when it comes to back surgeries, but man was it a life saver.
Got it. My L5/S1 is herniated (along with L4/L5) and the first year sucked hard but I got back on my feet without surgery. Hoping to keep that going for as long as possible but I'm guessing I will have surgery for it one day.
My father's good friend at work (electrician) was on pain killers for year until he tried CDB - basically cut his opioid consumption by 90% since adding CBD to his daily routine.
it hurt for a day or two, afterwards the pain was tylenol level.
the rest we took recreationally.
over prescribing was probably responsible for a percentage of how this situation got started, but also a lot of it is personal responsibility. People like to get high. the accessibility of the opiates made it easier, but everyone is not a victim, some people, probably the majority, were self inflicted. IMO.
I didn't need any for the pain, so my friends and I took the rest recreationally with alcohol over the next couple weeks.
Junior year in college I sliced a tendon in my hand, had stitches and plastic surgery, they gave me 100 percocets.
my friends and roomates and I took them all over a weekend.
you're a great fuckin friend!
not to poke fun at those who are addicted but i'm one of those people who just LOVE how percs make you feel.
its an ugly thing to get hooked on though. your tolerance for them shoots through the roof after a few days and you need more and more to get back to the original high.
knew someone who would do 10-12 30MG oxy's a DAY. thats like $300 street value every singly day just to feel "normal". really sad.
100% this is on big pharma and some scummy doctors. i'm sure we got heroin for the cheap ever since going to afghanistan... have to push it on somebody right? unbelievable
I was pretty worried going into the surgery about what life would look like after...definitely heard some horror stories. One that I remember is Steve Kerr, of all people...he's had a rough time since his surgery. I'm thankful that mine went well and I've been able to move on with my life with no pain. I imagine the surgeon who operated on me makes a boatload of money, but whatever he makes they should triple it.
Good luck with your back.
I don't doubt that this happens and I am married to a chronic pain sufferer, but you're talking about an opioid crisis that is killing tens of thousands of people each year. The number of people for whom long-term opioid abuse is beneficial and for whom the side effects are not crippling is not as large as you might suppose.
Quote:
I didn't need any for the pain, so my friends and I took the rest recreationally with alcohol over the next couple weeks.
Junior year in college I sliced a tendon in my hand, had stitches and plastic surgery, they gave me 100 percocets.
my friends and roomates and I took them all over a weekend.
you're a great fuckin friend!
not to poke fun at those who are addicted but i'm one of those people who just LOVE how percs make you feel.
its an ugly thing to get hooked on though. your tolerance for them shoots through the roof after a few days and you need more and more to get back to the original high.
knew someone who would do 10-12 30MG oxy's a DAY. thats like $300 street value every singly day just to feel "normal". really sad.
100% this is on big pharma and some scummy doctors. i'm sure we got heroin for the cheap ever since going to afghanistan... have to push it on somebody right? unbelievable
The heroin market has absolutely nothing to do with Afghanistan except to the extent that it is fungible. The bulk of our heroin is coming from Mexico and further south, while Afghan heroin goes largely to Iran, Russia, and on to Europe.
To Greg's point, they would all like you to forget the government's role in pain medication, the studies indicating doctors were too strict in providing pain medication and relieving patients' pain and the pols complaining about it. All that is forgotten now as the doctors have gone back to "take a couple of aspirin."
Trainspotting was a poignant movie to me and one where fiction connected to reality and served as a warning.
I guess I'm fortunate in that my recreational usage never grew beyond opportunistic consumption into something more. Not sure why, but my friends and I never sought out opiates in any other way than if I or a friend had a prescription.
Some of the stories in the article about pooling pills together sounds a lot like my group of friends in the mid-90's.
Only unlike the article none of us went beyond that. People from my town died or became addicts, but no one from my group of extended friends, and no one that surprised us. IOW no soccer moms who broke their leg or student athletes who tore their ACL. the "victims" from my New England town were people who were already on that path (booze, weed, coke, etc.) before graduating to opiates or heroin.
Also, I think if I were that age again, adderall > opiates
It's very difficult to say what percentage of opioid addicts come to the addiction by taking opioids legally and as-prescribed. But even if every opioid user came to the addiction through recreational drug use, the notion that "(s)he's a junkie, therefore his/her life should not factor in the calculation" seems callous. And among non-terminal chronic pain sufferers, long-term opioid use is not a panacea either; significant side effects are the rule rather than the exception.
Which is entirely the norm, as few patients prescribed for a legitimate condition become addicted:
A 2010 analysis in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews found that less than 1 percent of patients taking opioids for chronic pain experienced addiction. A 2012 review in the journal Addiction likewise concluded that "opioid analgesics for chronic pain conditions are not associated with a major risk for developing dependence."
A study reported in The BMJ this year tracked 568,612 opioid-naive patients who took prescription pain medication following surgery and found that 5,906, or 1 percent, showed signs of "opioid misuse" during the course of the study, which included data from 2008 through 2016. Although some studies have described "rates of misuse, abuse, and addiction-related aberrant behaviors" as high as 26 percent among chronic pain patients, Volkow and McLellan reported, "rates of carefully diagnosed addiction" average less than 8 percent.
Link - ( New Window )
I didn't need any for the pain, so my friends and I took the rest recreationally with alcohol over the next couple weeks.
we didn't seek them out like some of the kids in the article but if we had them we'd take them.
Junior year in college I sliced a tendon in my hand, had stitches and plastic surgery, they gave me 100 percocets.
my friends and roomates and I took them all over a weekend.
I will say the medical protocols now vs then late 80's/early 90's (or even now vs as recently as 2014) have changed massively.
Doctors are limited with how many they can prescribe, they are required to re-examine patients who need more than the initial prescription and they prescribe lower potency and dosage of opiates. It's got to be really hard to find a pill mill these days, which is probably why synthetics like fentanyl are popular - or heroin.
I mentioned my wisdom teeth above, my daughter had hers out this past fall and she was prescribed 8 tylenol with codeine.
she took none.
It's a massive problem, but one I feel like the current administration understands and is taking positive steps to address. Never had much faith in government to get something right but I think they're on the right track here.
We are also required to go on a website to check patients history
I believe many student athletes who were injured developed problems.
I don't know that criminalizing possession has a huge net positive impact on drug use. But near-decriminalization (in certain states) certainly hasn't had a positive impact on drug use either. And since drug-seeking behavior (largely theft) and the violence associated with drug dealing are and will remain criminal, figuring out how to shoehorn treatment into the criminal justice context is a riddle that needs to be answered sooner or later.
And the impact on young children, both those born addicted to opioids and those dealing with parents who are addicted. Foster care placements in some places are up five and six-fold.
Quote:
the affect on family and friends. I don't know how many of you have been connected in some way to someone who's dealing with opiate addiction. It turns them into lying monsters. You wouldn't recognize them for the decisions that they make - incredibly selfish and self-serving. It's almost like it destroys their souls. It kills the people around them in ways that are very difficult to discern. The deaths, the statistics are crushing but the people lift behind have got to be in the ten of millions. Their lives will never be the same. Surely the scurge of our time. And, not to be political, grossly under-reported while we spend countless hours on bullshit political witch trials.
And the impact on young children, both those born addicted to opioids and those dealing with parents who are addicted. Foster care placements in some places are up five and six-fold.
Left that out, you're right 1000%.
Although herion and Fentanyl are deadly, prescription Oxy and Vicodin really aren't that dangerous. In fact the acytominophen in a Norco or Percoset is more poisonous than the opiate.
The pills have a number: 5/325 Percocet for example. the 5mg is the amount of narcotic (oxycodone) and 325mg the amount of acetaminophen. Someone taking two 5mg percocets (a pretty commonly prescribed dose every 4 - 6 hours) gets 650 mg of acetaminophen each time which is more than an extra strength tylenol regimen I think.
Just saying, unless you take an opioid that doesn't have acetaminophen you are not reducing the risk of liver toxicity and most of the commonly prescribed ones have acetaminophen.
(in my amateur opinion).