On Jul 25th, 2007 Sal Mirasola wrote:

Iam a victum of addiction just as it is described in this blog. Iam searching for a way out as I type this message. The problem is that I don't have the money for an expensive rehab center and I must continue to work as I fight this horrible addition. Iam open to suggestion. Thanks Sal

On Jul 31st, 2007 k Ran wrote:

I am dealing ithmy mom who is addicted to painkillers just like this blog. Iwant to know the best way to help her.

On Aug 14th, 2007 smartin wrote:

k Ran,
I am dealing with my mom as well -- she has been taking valium for 25+ years. It is so hard and i am so tired of the never-ending struggle with her addiction. My mom doesn't think she has a problem -- it is the 'rest' of us. i want to know how to get her help as well -- i feel i have tried everything -- and don't know what else i can do.

I just wanted to wish you Good luck and let you know you are not alone.

sma

On Sep 27th, 2007 Mr. Addict wrote:

I have had a bad pain killer addiction for about 2 years now. I have had times where I stopped for several days and they were just pure hell. Eventually by the next day or so I would reload. Spending most of all my money that I make on them just to feel NORMAL!

MY QUESTION IS....how/what can I do if I DON"T have health insurance and no money to spend on rehab? Is there things such as tylonal, asprin, ANYTHING that can be taken to dull the pain of the withdrawls??????? Please advise.

THANK YOU

J

On Oct 2nd, 2007 sad and ashamed wrote:

I want to stop, I need to stop. I have a problem but no one knows but me. I hide my pills, and take too many. I want to hurt myself to just end the pain. There has to be some way out. Help me please

On Oct 8th, 2007 kiel wrote:

is anyone there?? i am ceizing the use of painkillers tomorrow and i would love some support

On Feb 5th, 2008 pendelton wrote:

is there a club?!!!may i join plz...

On Feb 9th, 2008 Renee G wrote:

I am dealing with my mom and her boyfriend who are both addicted to oxyconto (SP) painkillers. They live in CT, both are so messed up they are actually crazy and unrational. Losing their house, jobs, everything. Iwant to know the best way to help them, I even think they'd do rash things. We've all bailed them out financially, but I can't anymore and they're angry with me because I have to sell their home, which I bought to save from Foreclosure, but now they have ripped walls and floor out, the roof and furnace are going and they have no money. I'll lose my credit and kids college, I can't do that to my kids. I feel awful. They don't think the meds are a problem. But her boyfriend takes them until he looks like he' going to have a heart attack. We have the same family doctor, can I talk to them legally?

On Feb 29th, 2008 Rosemarie wrote:

The problem with pharmacutical medication addiction lies within the medical community and the Legislative. Laws have not been passed that hold the medical professional accountable. Instead, ineffective social programs are implemented and maintained with our tax dollars. The simplest solution would be to pass stick laws governing the medical and pharmacutical industries and holding the industries accountable for rehab cost instead of the individual and taxpayer. This in turn would require elected officials to declare issues and plans with quarterly reports to constituents as to action, reaction, and alternative measures taken. IN this manner we could gain control of legislation and thereby make the elected work for us instead of financial backers/lobbist. It is totally illogical to seek help considering the ineffectiveness of help available in Wisconsin today. I don't know about other states but suspect similiar situations exist there also. I was appalled when I looked into the amount of public monies spent, the administrative costs, and salaries and benefits, the small numbers of persons served and lastly the even smaller numbers of persons fully rehabed. It is no wonder that WI govt is broke considering the way our tax money is squandered for state employees and contract service providers salaries/benefits.

On Mar 19th, 2008 Cara wrote:

I have been with my boyfriend for 5 years now and we have a little 2 year old daughter together. I have been dealing with addiction to sleeping pills, tranquilizers and anything else he can get his hands on for all this time now. I have left him, given him a 100 chances to change and am now still with him hoping for some kind of light at the end of this tunnel. I have threatned him, sworn that I am going to leave and take our child away, aaahhhhh ... so many things. Things have gotten so bad that he is now lying to me about it. When I can tell from am mile away he is high. He has also started going behind my back, with my money and buying this crap. If he can't get a prescription he will buy the strongest, most effective stuff over the counter. I don't know what to do anymore. This is affecting my relationship once again and he has become untrustworthy and dicietefull. He is only 22 years old and I am 24. I am a lot maturer than him and feel I often lose the plot when I finally get it out of him that he is on this stuff. He has family members that join him in this addiction and well I am now at my ends wit.
Please, I need some advice as to what I should do. I don't want my child growing up with this. Also I dont know if I can trust him with her either as he is untrustworthy in every other department.
Should I leave for good this time and move on with my life? Take my little girl away from this and never let her be apart of it? I just can't take it anymore!!!!!
PLEASE I am desperate.

On Mar 19th, 2008 Renee wrote:

I am an addict. I have been addicted to pain killers of all kind for about a year and a half now. I am a recovering meth addict. I used for 4 years and have been clean for 3 but now this is the worse I have ever been. I have been kicked out of my house because of my addiction and now I am supposed to continue to work and fix my life. I dont know what to do. Any advice will be appreciated.

On Mar 27th, 2008 G. Andrew wrote:

Addiction is inevitable if opioids are taken long-term or in high doses—and the risk of addiction is very high for short term use.

This myth stems from confusion about the nature of addiction. Many people believe that addiction is simply needing a substance to function—but if this were the case, everyone would have to be considered addicted to food, air and water. “To the average person, addiction is going cold turkey— they view addiction as physical dependence,” says Pasternak.

In fact, psychiatry defines addiction as compulsive use of a substance despite negative consequences—and it is this craving, impairment and loss of control that people fear. However, while most people who take opioids for long enough will develop physical dependence and suffer withdrawal if the drugs are stopped abruptly, addiction in pain patients is rare.

“The reality is that addiction appears to be distinctly uncommon in patients without a prior history of addiction or a family history of addiction,” Portenoy says. In his own research on more than 200 patients treated with OxyContin for chronic pain over three years, no new cases of addiction were reported.

“Over 30 years, I’ve seen a few thousand patients with cancer and sickle cell [disease] and other [conditions], and less than five that I’m aware of became addicted,” Payne says.

On Apr 23rd, 2008 Deb wrote:

My daughter is an addict. She started with pain killers prescribed to her by the dentist when she got her braces on at the age of 14. I don\'t think it became a problem until she was 15 or 16, but nevertheless, it escalated into other drugs, and ended with heroin and a year in jail, 2 months in a rehab and 4 more months in a halfway house, all mandated by the court. She will be on parole for 5 years. I also feel like I\'m on parole for 5 years. All I can say is ask for help. Stop torturing yourself, stop torturing your parents and others that love you and get help and live. Live long and happy!

On May 29th, 2008 rx popper wrote:

Hey everybody. I'm new 2 this website, but I just went thru & read all the blogs on prescription pill abuse. I am living proof that it can be beat! I struggled with the addiction, on and off, for almost 7 yrs! I took lortab/ vicodin/ percocet, any pain pill I could get my hands on. And I don't mean like one or two, @ my worst I was taking 15- 20 10's a day! I had a $200 a day habbit. That's $1,400 a week, $5,600 a month... ALMOST $70,000 a year! I mean, yeah, occasionally, I'd get a script from my doc. In fact, when I was 16 I got my molars removed. I got a script of thirty 5 or 7.5 mg. lortabs. That was the best week of my life! Sleep in til 10 or 11, wake up, eat a lil sumthin, take a couple pills, feel good 4 a lil while, go 2 back 2 sleep, wake up, take a couple more, & so on & so on! If only I could step back in time & scream @ myself... "DONT TAKE THEM, U WILL GET ADDICTED, U WILL DO HORRIBLE THINGS 2 PEOPLE U LOVE, JUST 2 GET $ 2 FEED UR ADDICTION!" Now, that I'm older, I c the occasional commercial talkin bout how kids don't even have 2 leave home 2 get high anymore, they just go in their parent's medicine cabinet. It's SO true & I wish I could explain the w/ds I went thru 2 them 2 try & get them 2 understand. The vomiting, skin crawling, itchin, & hurtin, layin in the bed 4 DAYS @ a time, just tryin 2 scheme up sum way 4 me 2 get @ least $100- $200 2 get me thru that day. I had been seein the same doctor as my whole family, 4 years and years. Well, I fucked that up! I did something really stupid & never went back. I think more out of bein just plain ashamed of myself. Obviously, I was embarassed & completely terrified 2! Terrified they would press charges, terrified they would tell my family, JUST TERRIFIED! So, then what? Well, I go about a mo. or 2 w/o a doc. & just buy from these 3 women I know... but, that started addin up REALLY fast! I went thru about $50,000 in less than a year! So, I get a new doc. I go 2 my 1st appt. & wear sum lil short shorts, revealing top, u know the drill! Well, he's married, obviously not lookin my way any more than he should, & 2 top it all off, he knew my, @ the time fiance & his whole family! I think that day I wound up havin 2 go 2 the emergency room & I only scored like 12 5's... like that would even get me thru the day?!? If u think that's a lot, that's not even the half of it! After that, I started gettin braver & braver, until 1 day I got BUSTED! I woulda stayed in jail, got a lawyer, & tried 2 do it on my own. But, my husband called my parents b/c they were the only people he knew that had the kinda $ that was needed 2 get me out. God & a really (expensive) good lawyer got me outta that 1. WHEW!! Things were horrible, I wasn;t sure if my engagement was on or off b/c of the issues we were havin due 2 my addiction! It was causing family problems, obviously I was killin myself slowly, my finances were dead & I was about 2 wish I was! My lady that I could always go 2, even if she just had 1, she'd give it 2 me so I wouldnt have 2 b w/o. Well, she went out of town for a week. I knew it was coming, so I tried to prepare myself, I bought all that she had b4 she left. I even made up a chart tellin me @ what time, on each day, how many lortabs I could have! Needless 2 say, I didnt stick 2 my chart & I ran out 2 days b4 she got home. That was the most painful experience I have EVER had 2 go thru in my whole entire life, but it was also what SAVED my life! I distinctly remember standing in the laundry room, with each hand on the bleach bottle, & I just kept thinkin "if u swallow it fast enuf, it wont burn 2 bad & b4 u kno it this will all b over w/ & u will no longer feel all this pain!" But @ that moment, I believe my grandmother, God rest her soul, was lookin over me. I couldn't do it, it's not suppossed 2 end this way. I wanna be welcomed in2 the gates of heaven & c all my loved 1s I've been longin 2 c! At that moment I called a doctor's office # that I had been researchin about. They treated opoid addiction, which, if u didn't kno is pain pills AND HEROIN! I had no clue all that time I was messin w/ something equally as fatal as heroin. But, 2 wrap this up & so that y'all kno there is @ least 1 success story out there & maybe u can be the next! As odd as this sounds, I actually got sum sleep & was already beginning 2 feel better, just b/c I knew I was about 2 get help. When I got to the doctor's office, the doc ran sum simple tests on me, asked me a few ?s, & then gave me a script 4 suboxone & sum ambien 2 help me sleep. I'm tellin u not 15 mins. of the med. bein under my tongue, the w/ds wwere almost completely gone. I'm not gonna lie, I hadn;t had anything in so long, it made me feel a lil "speedy." I think really though, it just gave me a much needed boost of energy! I have 2 say thanks 2 my husband tho b/c if not 4 him, I would probably not be alive 2day. He told me that he would give me the $300 if I would just go & get the med 2 get me off the tabs. I know sum of u mite be thinkin, well, isn't that just tradin 1 pill addiction 4 another 1? That's what I thought, until I took Suboxone. It's chemical structure is made up 2 whee that u won't keep needin more & more. In fact, I started out @ 3 a day & that was in September, just 9 mos. ago & I'm off!! As of today, I have been clean goin on 10 mos! I got married May 10, we just got back from our honeymoon, & we hope 2 expand our family in the near future. To do that, I've gotta have my body as healthy as possible! So, 4 all u folks out there who think life isnt worth livin anymore b/c addiction is killin either u or a loved one. Save up the $. U don't have 2 have ins., in fact the doc. I went 2 said that they couldn't accept ins. 4 suboxone treatment anyways. Think about how much $ u r waistin on pain pills now? Instead of spending $ 2 kill urself, save up the $ 2 save ur life! Every day that u walk this green Earth, u should bend down and kiss it & thank ur lucky stars. The decision is all urs, live or die?

On Jun 17th, 2008 Karoline wrote:

I am dealing with my mother who is addicted to pain killers for about 30 + years. She just recently fell and broke her neck and is now paralyzed so now we are dealing with and addict and a spinal cord injury. I am so done and I need assistance from whoever to just get through it.

On Jun 25th, 2008 kimberly wrote:

RXPOPPER is right. Just dont take pills.One day you will just be taking some of your parents pain pills to get high,the next thing you know your ADDICTED and you wont just want them--you will NEED them.I was on pain pills-but mostly just snorting oxycontin Everyday-for two years.And im only sixteen.Dont for one second think you cant get addicted to it because once it happens your life will be completely upside down.Your life will revolve around your pills.Everything you do Everyday will first be about if you have pills.And if you dont have pills--all i can describe withdrawals as HELL.I\'ve been clean for a couple months,but i noticed for pain-pill addicts they are addicted for the rest of their life whether their clean or not.And i believe that no matter what i do, I know i will always have that part of me that will want pain pills to do simple things like getting up and going to work.So think about it before you take one to get high.