Dealing with chronic pain

It’s awful. I know. I have lived with chronic pain for the past 8 years. I have been given a variety of paid medications. It was the opioids that helped the best. Opioids are used in surgeries or in the medical practice because of their use as effective and rapid acting analgesics or pain killers. It was the physical therapy and clinical psychologist who helped me to get off of the opioids. My Internal Medicine doctor suggested it and made resources available to help me to deal with my pain, eventually without meds.

These are the meds that patients are becoming addicted to for killing pain. Most of the time, the pain is more than physical but also emotional. In my case, it was both. They called it sympathetic.

Chronic Pain Statistics: Facts And Figures Behind This Epidemic

What Is Opioid Use Disorder?

An online article written by By Elizabeth Hartney, PhD | Reviewed by a board-certified physician stated some interesting facts.

“Probably the most well-known and notorious type of Opioid Use Disorder is Heroin Use Disorder, yet less than 10% of people aged 12-17 years old in the United States with Opioid Use Disorder take heroin. Most people with Opioid Use Disorder use analgesic opioids, or painkillers whether they are prescribed for themselves of for someone else, or obtained some other way.

“Symptoms of Opioid Use Disorder

The diagnosis of Opioid Use Disorder can be applied to someone who uses opioid drugs and has at least two of the following symptoms within a 12 month period:

• Taking more opioid drugs than intended.
• Wanting or trying to control opioid drug use without success.
• Spending a lot of time obtaining, taking, or recovering from the effects of opioid drugs.
• Cravings opioids.
• Failing to carry out important roles at home, work or school because of opioid use.
• Continuing to use opioids, despite use of the drug causing relationship or social problems.
• Giving up or reducing other activities because of opioid use.
• Using opioids even when it is physically unsafe.
• Knowing that opioid use is causing a physical or psychological problem, but continuing to take the drug anyway
• Tolerance for opioids.
• Withdrawal symptoms when opioids are not taken.”

What is addiction?

According to Psychology Today website; “When referring to any kind of addiction, it is important to recognize that its cause is not simply a search for pleasure and that addiction has nothing to do with one’s morality or strength of character. Experts debate whether addiction is a “disease” or a true mental illness, whether drug dependence and addiction mean the same thing, and many other aspects of addiction. Such debates are not likely to be resolved soon. But the lack of resolution does not preclude effective treatment.”

Taking Control…

“I had many deficits; I was tired, felt defeated, could not spell words, and I was not sure I could do anything anymore. I needed counsel from someone I could trust who could translate my needs for me.” I did not know what to ask for.

What I have realized is that I was the one who had to do whatever needed to be done. No one else could do it for me. I had to find some way of taking control of my situation instead of letting my situation take control of me.

25.3 Million Adults Suffer From Pain Daily

“Prescription pain pills should never be the front-line treatment for chronic pain. By their very nature, they can help with acute cases of pain–like a fracture or post-surgery. But, they don’t work for many patients on a long-term basis. “

Prescription Drug Abuse Facts

The American Academy of Pain Medicine reports on its website:

“Prescription Drug Abuse Facts from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)

• Prescription drugs are the second-most abused category of drugs in the United States, following marijuana.(12).
• Among 12th graders, pharmaceutical drugs used non-medically are six of the ten most-used substances.(13)
• From 1998 to 2008, the proportion of all substance abuse treatment admissions age 12 or older who reported any pain reliever abuse increased more than fourfold.(14)
• Prescription painkillers are considered a major contributor to the total number of drug deaths. In 2007, for example, nearly 28,000 Americans died from unintentional drug poisoning, and of these, nearly 12,000 involved prescription pain relievers.(15)
• Nearly one-third (29 percent) of people age 12 or older who used illicit drugs for the first time in the past year began by using prescription drugs non-medically.(12)
• According to a 2008 Department of Defense survey, about one in nine active-duty service members (11 percent) reported past-month prescription drug misuse.(16)
• The estimated number of emergency department visits linked to non-medical use of prescription pain relievers nearly doubled between 2004 and 2009.(17)
• In 2009, the number of first-time, non-medical users of psychotherapeutics (prescription opioid pain relievers, tranquilizers, sedatives, and stimulants) was about the same as the number of first-time marijuana users.(12)
• Approximately two million adults age 50 and older (2.1 percent of adults in that age range) used prescription-type drugs non-medically in the past year.(18)
• Substance abuse treatment admissions for individuals age 50 or older nearly doubled from 1992 to 2008, climbing from 6.6 percent of all admissions to 12.2 percent. The percentage of primary admissions for prescription drug abuse among older individuals increased from 0.7 percent to 3.5 percent over the same time period.(19)”