Prescription Drug Abuse at Home
I suffered from muscle pain after we arrived from vacation. My knees, legs, back and shoulder are so painful to bear that I opted to take muscle pain reliever before going to sleep. The next morning when I wake up I feel so fine, relax and energetic again. So instead of just staying at home the whole week we went to the gym to burn the fats we gained from our short vacation and last night we had a leg exercise after few days of chest and back exercises. As expected my legs and thighs are sore after doing few squats and leg press instead of taking muscle pain reliever I just sleep early so I can rest my tired body. My mother told me once not to take medicine all the time because it will make my body immune to those medicines and it might lead to addiction.
Pain reliever medicines are mostly over the counter drugs and don’t need prescription that’s why it sometimes lead to drug abuse which is not good for our health. If you are interested on what are the side effects of pain reliever addiction you should consider reading about the side of effects of oxycontin detox addiction, like other pain relievers OxyContin is usually prescribed to treat pain.
Hi, It’s Me again,
Dangers of Prescription and Over-the-counter medicines, especially pain killers and psychiatric medicines:
My ex-wife got in 2 major car accidents back in 1984 and became a brittle Diabetic when the steering column of her car smashed into her chest upon impact and made a giant, wheel-sized, deep plum purple bruise on her chest, between her breast and belly button areas. Her Diabetes began at that moment of impact, but we didn’t know it for over 7 to 9 months later. She was having so many health problems and becoming lethargic and it was not diagnosed in the Hospital or emergency room. She became very lethargic, listless, achy, depressed, and dysfunctional including what is known as “Loss of Consortium”, a legal term meaning “inability to perfo9rm wifely duties in just about every way, physically, mentally, functionally, and intimately too. When they finally figured out her underlying root problem of Diabetes and the unpredictability of her Pancreas functioning they found it next to impossible to regulate and control her blood sugar content and so she suffered with extremely high blood sugars among many other problems. Her Pancreas virtually almost stopped functioning, at times, and even on the best days, months, years, and moments she suffered with much pain, including “soft tissue injuries” to her muscular system, nervous system damage, Angina heart pain, Diabetic Neuropathy in her nerve endings of her feet… neck, back, and shoulder cramping, feminine pains, multiple Heart Attack pains, severe Depression and emotional pain and suffering as well as developing addictive drug abuse problems that all began with simple pain relief medicines and antidepressants and escalated to a point where she became dependent upon prescription Psychiatric drugs and everything from such active ingredients of the non-prescription pain killers Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, Naproxin Sodium, and Aspirin right up to intense prescription pain killers like Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Percocet, Percodan, Morphine, and many more over the years, not to even begin to mention a whole plethora of Psychiatric medicines that seemed to steadily worsen and even change her personality for the worse over the years. She is alive to this day and has a team of Visiting Nurses, Home Health Aides, a Case Manager, Respiratory Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, and so many others from her church who now help and volunteer to assist her also. She has gotten off of all illicit street drugs now and her physician team is aware of how messed up by drugs and medicines she once was so they cooperate now better than ever before and carefully monitor her case details closely. She divorced me and ran off with her druggy boyfriend who got her hooked on street drugs after they had detoxed her so many times from so many separate Doctors playing chemical soup with her mind and body… irresponsibly so. Over 14 years of the most extremely hard marriage you can imagine I came to a lot of conclusions:
A.) Less Medicine is sometimes “good medicine”, and even lessening or changing medicines before a patient forms addictions to them is critical.
B.) Don’t over-medicate or take it for granted that different Doctors are properly coordinating your care together with any cohesiveness, especially when it comes to drugs, prescription or otherwise. We must advocate for our own healthcare and ask why we are getting more and more medicines at times and re-evaluate whether we need them or not. One bright Doctor finally asked to see all of her medicines as she took up to 60 different pills every day for all of her problems. He found out that he could cut some out completely that were virtually for the same problem but from different Doctors as well as some that she should have been taken off of after a certain time but was kept on them all as if she was set on autopilot. Others were actually counteracting the effectiveness of opposing drugs that other drugs so as to be as if around 40% were sort of cross-cancelling any benefit of a few of the other medicines. Like I said before, her body was full of such “Chemical Soup!”
C.) Choose a good, attentative Doctor for your primary physician who will be very concerned and stay abreast of ALL of your care… sort of like a watchdog overseer type. AND, it is YOUR JOB to oversee his attention to detail of your case. Ask many questions, suggest things and don’t be shy. Take a more active part in managing and double-checking the Doctors, especially when seeing many Doctors and Specialists. If you feel you are not getting the best care or attention to detail a Hospital Ombudsman (a professional Patient’s Rights Advocate) can be requested through the Social Services department. Every Hospital has a Social Worker, too, and often Quality Management representative. Use these people to advocate for you if you feel your treatment is not adequate or seriously out of control. The old saying that applies best here is that “The Squeekiest Wheel Gets the Grease”, so seek the input and feedback of other staff or departments but do so through proper channels and always politely. Be assertive, but not bullying. Insist that you can talk to someone else on staff or have a second opinion or input and discussion about your case and particular needs when you feel it’s necessary.
D.) Always evaluate your own care and think critically about ways that you can get the right attention to detail on your particular case. When visiting your Doctor’s office for routine physicals or aftercare checks ask the Doctor right up front to do simple things that you don’t want to make separate appointments for. Example: I had a check-up and asked if the doctor could remove minor skin problems too, while I was there, such as skin-tags, strange small moles and things like the one that was large like a raisin that kept getting irritated when I wore short-sleeved shirts and a few on my face for cosmetic reasons. He was happy to oblige me because I spoke right up at the very beginning of the appointment and I got him to do a lot for me that day. That’s another way to take an active part in your own great healthcare.
E.) ALL non-prescription pain killers and many Prescription ones too have the serious potential to cause permanent and potentially FATAL damage to the Stomach, Kidneys, Liver, Heart, and other organs when used mindlessly and should be used in as small a dose as will make pain “tolerable” (not completely gone) and don’t use them over long periods of even days, months, years or in regular repetition or extreme mega-doses at all, too! Doctors in England and Singapore are calling for the sales of Paracetamol to be stopped globally and a British Doctor stated he believes it is the largest single cause of organ transplant necessities because it has been even over-used in Hospitals worldwide and has caused organ failures again and again worldwide for the past 30 plus years or more! It has been banned in many countries as a result of new research and should be in EVERY country, according to reports readily available online. Type in “Paracetamol Ban” into a Google Search and read the many reports for yourself and the lists of countries that have already banned it. It has the same active ingredient as other over-the-counter pain killers that are still overused and over-recommended as if they were as safe as candy or foods. They are NOT! (Not when used to excess or over the long haul and they may be cumulatively poisoning people’s bodily systems for life, according to new research being done now!) Beware ANY medicines that are unneccessary, as in my ex-wife’s case.
F.) Have your family members or good friends help you to prepare to ask questions of Doctors and Nurses and Medical personnel of all types ahead of any appointments or hospitalizations. Like the Boy Scout Motto says here in America: “Be Prepared.” The WORST thing to do is to be so afraid or overly trusting of seemingly superior people like Doctors as to clam-up and ask NOTHING and participate in your own healthcare advocacy NOT AT ALL. Do NOT be too shy or do NOT fear embarrassment or thinking yourself to be a Neiusance! ASK! ASK! ASK! QUESTION! QUESTION! QUESTION! The life you may save by being curious and wanting input, feedback, and answers may be your OWN, or the lives of your loved ones! Participate!!!
In my ex-wife’s case, all I can say is that God truly answers prayers, because she was so close to death so many times over the last 28 years, and I believe in Jesus Christ’s resurrection power to heal! (He heals some people again and again, and the human body itself has such incomprehensible powers to heal in itself!) I hope this information helps anyone dealing with chronic, critical healthcare issues and even people who were priorly healthy and unknowing about such things. God bless us all!
Hi Mr. Straus, I am sorry to hear about your ex-wife ordeal. It is really bad to be drug dependent, it will not just ruined our body but our life also. Thank you too for your helpful information and eye opening message, second opinion really matters. You are right God is the main healer of all. God Bless and I wish you the best in life 🙂