I think a MUST watch

Watched BBC2 Britain Addicted to painkillers_ Opioid Crisis

WOW really learnt a lot from that and I think after living in US I was quite upto date on the stuff.

[oldtimer]

He did qualify in medicine intending to do psychiatry, but never practiced. He does tend to over-simplify things as many journalists do into black and white rather than shades of colour. And TV programmes always have a bias.

[Hidden in reply to oldtimer]

I think I feel that opioids are good for acute pain but I also strongly believe that the layering that happens with drugs on a person can make you think that you need something when actually it is not doing anything at all. So there is mind play too. I have reduced a lot of my drugs this way and now MTX is the main one and vits/minerals. Pain killer when and only when needed as to be honest most of the time nothing ever seems to be that good.

I think the show make people think and that is ok too.

[Agoodlife in reply to Hidden]

Oversimplifying in one or the other direction is one thing but mounting facts on troubles with opioids that are killing people cannot be ignored.

[Hidden in reply to Agoodlife]

One of my close friends in USA was getting pills just like sweets and went from being a beautiful calm and wonderful person to a demon who has now been in prison 4 times a partner died from drugs overdose. She is now in therapy and fingers x.

It was everywhere there and hard to ignore so I am very careful with them.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

And don't even get me started on fentanyl.....worked in acare home there and one of the nurses was pushing a patient towards it and I gave him information and said read before you take it. It was for a bad back. He took up physio instead for his back...............

[Hidden]

It was a medical fact sheet from nurses cupboard with do and don’t and true info on the patch and it’s addictive qualities. Felt he needed to read it rather than the few words given by nurse.

[crashdoll]

Discussions about opioids interest me. I was diagnosed with RA at 21 and due to pain, started on codeine quite quickly. As my pain worsened, I ended up needing more and more pain relief. At one point, I was on the max dose of naproxen, max dose of paracetamol, huge dose of Gabapentin, buprenorphine patch with top up oramorph at night. I was 28 years old and working, driving and having somewhat of a life etc but still in pain. Looking back, it actually really upsets me to know how much medication I was on.

One day, I decided it was ridiculous. I went cold turkey on the opioids which is a very stupid thing to do. Fortunately, I “only” had a few days of vomiting, diarrhoea and feeling like I may die any minute. I’ve halved naproxen and massively reduced the Gabapentin to a small dose. I still take paracetamol. I’ve been off opioids for 2 years. I was given a low dose of codeine in hospital a few months ago and it made me violently unwell.

I was very touchy about people who made comments about opioids and their effectiveness. However, after much research which was guided by my rheumatologist (who had been trying to get me off those drugs for ages) I really began to understand that opioids don’t work for chronic pain and they can make you more sensitive to pain. I am still in pain but no more so than I was when I was taking morphine and buprenorphine.

I had a very bad recovery from TMJ replacement surgery. I now know this was partly because I was already on such strong opioids that I had a high tolerance and needed ridiculously strong pain relief to get on top of my post surgical pain.

Pain is such a difficult thing to live with and I don’t judge anyone for the choices they make. If a doctor prescribes it, you often trust them. It was a pain clinic consultant who had me on the concoction I described above. I trusted him. In hindsight, it was my rheum who had known me for many years who was actually right but I thought the consultant anaesthetist who specialised in pain management was the expert and decided to go with his views.

Anyway, long ramble. Just my experience.

[Nessa28 in reply to crashdoll]

Morning all I have to say that in all honesty I am probably addicted to codeine I’ve been taking maximum dose for 18 years now . At it’s worse I’ve been on oramorph ,fentanyl patches , god knows what else , each one with another contra indication . I stopped all of them except the codeine as I felt so unwell on them . When I was originally given Humeria I didn’t need the gabapentin etc so off I came. I won’t go back the pain killer route as I’ve been there before and it mucks you up . I’m desperately trying to cut down the codeine as I have these wonderful hand and feet operations coming up and I don’t want anything stronger , but this is so difficult when you’re in pain . I think it’s great that we have a vast supply of pain killing drugs but when they were handed out years ago the mentality the same with anti depressants was so different then and as such so many people have suffered . This is only my opinion So please don’t think I’m digging at anyone .🤗

[Hidden in reply to Nessa28]

I think a good response we are all different with different pain levels and we can only read and make a judgement based on what is right for you! I am cutting apart from MTX as many as I can out which for me is better so I can see how the MTX works and then make a decision on how to move forward. Yes I have pain but nothing has ever taken it away.