Addiction to Pain Medication; Can that happen to me?

For those who suffer from intolerable chronic pain, medication becomes vital in the quest to control pain. And every true chronic pain sufferer knows the difference between medication that is used to obtain relief and abuse.

But the trap is easy to fall into. Chronic pain and depression go hand in hand. When you find yourself unable to perform simple tasks and enjoy the pleasures of life, depression creeps in, oozing its way past your ability to make rational decisions. As a pain patient, you will come to the crossroads where you start to ask the difficult questions.

Having a good relationship with your pain management specialist is vital to getting the answers to your questions. If you don’t have a doctor that you can talk to and who is willing to take the time to answer your questions, provide reassurance and guidance, leave and find another physician!

I am very fortunate and blessed to have found an excellent physician after navigating the chronic pain physician maze. His expertise, supervision, and care are essential in my personal rehabilitation and quest for recovery to the highest functional level. When I asked my physician these questions, he supplied me with honest and candid advice.

1. Will I become addicted to prescription medications if I take this pain medication over a long period of time?

 The answer is No! You will not develop an addiction if you take your medication as prescribed. You will have a dependence on the medication, but that is not an addiction. Dependence is when you require the medication to achieve pain relief. Addiction is when you constantly strive to increase your dosage to obtain euphoria from the drug itself. Unfortunately, when you take pain medication as prescribed, you will develop a tolerance that will require slowly increasing the dosage to obtain relief, but that is not abuse or addiction.

2. My pain is less today. Do I have to continue my medication even though I am not in pain?

That depends on the medication itself. Long acting medications do require that you take them as prescribed to achieve pain coverage while short acting preparations can be reduced as pain is reduced.

3. Should I take the medication just in case I have a recurrence of pain?

I struggle with this one the most! It is the “what if” mentality. What if my pain gets out of control or what if I get worse, etc, etc. The “what if” mentality leads to worry and fear. And chronic pain sufferers know that stress, worry, and fear lead directly to increased pain. Even with this knowledge, I find great difficulty coping with the “what if’s”. So, take your medication as prescribed and stop trying to second guess. Don’t take extra medication to satisfy the “what if” mentality.

4. I feel worse. Should I increase my medication?

Simple one. The answer is no! If you are still in pain or are having break through pain, talk to your physician. He will guide you, make the decision for you, and prescribe the appropriate medication.

5. I am feeling better. Should I decrease my medication?

Simple answer again. The answer is no! Talk to your physician. Don’t start decreasing your pain medication without the knowledge and consent of your physician. You might suddenly trigger an acute pain attack or withdrawal symptoms that you are unprepared to handle on your own. And of course, I would love to tell you that I have never done this on my own, but that would be a lie. After working in healthcare nursing and administration for over 30 years, I have a tendency to try diagnosing and treating on my own and it almost always ends with a crisis. You would think that after 28 years of chronic pain that I would know better! Like many of you, I sometimes just hate to swallow another pill, but I strongly recommend that you talk to your physician before changing dosages on your own!

6. Is it alright to drink just a little bit of alcohol with my pain medication?

Yes and no. An occasional sip or small glass of wine or alcohol doesn’t seem to hurt as long as you know your medication and know that the effects are increased from alcohol, but there is a word of extreme caution here. Pain can grossly affect your judgment!

I never and I mean never touch alcohol any more, not even wine or beer. As I said, I have endured many years of chronic pain and I have many experiences, good and very bad. During a particularly lousy time in my life, when my marriage was failing and divorce loomed on the horizon, I had slipped into depression without anyone noticing. Then I started to drink socially.

At first, it was fun and it lifted my sour moods considerably and then I realized that drinking with pain medication worked, and it was downhill from there. The improved pain control and relief felt like a blessing. For the first time in a very long time, I was not coping with a degree of pain. We all know the pain scale, 0 to 10 with 10 being the worst ever. At that time, my daily life consisted of a steady 5, but when I drank, my number went down to a 2 or 3.

So what do you think happened? Yes you guessed it. I started drinking more to see if I could improve and I rationalized that it was acceptable to drink a sufficient amount of alcohol to reduce my number to a 1 or 0. And I did. And I liked it very much! But before long, I started drinking more, and taking more pain medication. I didn’t want to live with or experience chronic pain anymore and I thought that I had found the perfect solution!

This is how alcohol and drug abuse begins, slowly at first, it gathers steam, and then you lose control. The road back is hard for everyone. Many addictions begin from a legit case of pain, but when a chronic pain patient falls down this bunny hole, recovery is extremely difficult. A smoker doesn’t need cigarettes to breathe and live, just like an alcoholic doesn’t need booze to survive, although the transition to be smoke and alcohol free requires a herculean effort. A food addict still needs food for survival. You can’t completely stop eating. And just like that, a chronic pain patient requires pain medication to subsist. Without it, life becomes just a horrible existence without any enjoyment.

So it is exceedingly important for the pain patient to follow the recommendations of their physician to avoid the trappings of narcotic abuse. And even though fear abounds each day from a new article in the papers, online, and on the air waves regarding prescription drug abuse with increasing statistics on deaths from overdoses, the pain patient must navigate through this quagmire.

       He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Isaiah 40:29

Even the strongest people get tired, but God’s power and strength never diminish. He is never too tired or too busy to help and listen. His strength is our source of strength. When we feel all of life crushing us and we cannot go another step, remember that you can call upon God to renew your strength. Hold your head up high, proudly step over the stigma and hushed accusation that you too are an abuser. With God’s help, you will survive, and once again enjoy your life!