Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Road To Recovery

I heard the saddest story today. A friend of mine was telling me about one of their family members who had to take prescription pain killers after a very serious surgery. This person was on these highly addictive pain killers for several months. Eventually this family member became addicted to the medications. He had a vicodin addiction. It was really hard on my friends family to watch one of their family members life fall apart. This person eventually had to seek treatment at a drug treatment center. He was there for several months and it was a long road to recovery for him, but he did it. He now is back on the road to putting his life back together piece by piece. He found himself a steady job with great pay. His wife stayed by his side through the entire ordeal. I was so glad to hear this story had a happy ending. My question is what are doctors thinking when they are giving out these highly addictive drugs? This might sound silly, but do people with addictive personalities become addicted more easily to prescription drugs? If you have a substance abuse problem, please know that there is help out there. You just have to ask for it. Remember you are not alone in this terrible journey.

7 comments:

  1. I don't know if there's an easy answer. But I've had way too much experience with every type of addiction and it's very clear that an addictive personality is an addictive personality whether its smoking, drinking, gambling, or Rx.

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  2. The same thing happened to a family member of mine! She is even in the medical profession and got hooked. She went to rehab is now sober for 2 months but it has not been an easy journey for her or her family.

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  3. Yes, it is often found that people who get gastric by pass surgeries end up with some type of other addiction soon after. It is a more visable case of treating the symtoms instead of the disease.
    I have been addicted to pain killers myself, I have been on and off all kinds of meds since I was 9 from chronic back pain. So I knnow excactly what you are talking about. I am glad your friend had support, I've what happen to those (and the children) that don't have support.

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  4. That is so sad. I hope if there is anyone reading this that has a substance abuse problem that they seek proper treatment.

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  5. i went to very serious surgery twice and have taken vicodin for pain; i didn't get addicted though. i just think sometimes it depends on the person taking it esp. if that person depended on it to relieve pain. my bishop at church where i attend to warned me about it, and i was glad because my doctor didn't say anything about the medicine when it comes to side effects.

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  6. I'm so glad your story has a happy ending. So many people have substance abuse problems and it really is hard on the whole family.

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  7. I guess we just have to remember to "just say NO". I've been prescribed heavy pain killers before and I try not to take them as soon as possible. I'm not afraid of a little pain and would much rather live with that than an addiction.

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