Replies

Your dad is a rare bird, God bless him. Today's medical culture, highly influenced by the pharmaceutical companies, have been taught that nobody should be in pain for any reason, ever. They dole out pain pills like crazy. They totally addicted my wife after her back surgery. She quit one day, cold turkey, and it was terrible. I've never seen anyone so sick. My son just had 4 wisdom teeth pulled. The oral surgeon prescribed him (he just turned 18) a bottle of 25 Perkasets. Unbelievable. He didn't need any of them, he made it fine on advill.

I've had oral surgery too and been prescribed narcotic pain meds. That's okay I think, a one time script. Normally though I think they give less than 25. If memory serves me correctly usually in those circumstances I've been given ten pills. I've never taken them all though for one incident. They sit in my medicine cabinet and then someday if I get an abscessed tooth or something I'll take them rather than asking for a new script. Those things usually mess with my stomach. There was once when I took them for a few days and got over the upset stomach and I started to see how people could get addicted. It can feel pretty nice to take those. Usually though people only take them for a short period and quit. The ones who take them for longer periods are the ones most likely to get addicted. The longer people take them, the more likely it is they'll become addicted.

Aside from pain meds anti anxiety meds are prescribed like candy these days, benzodiazepines like Xanax. Those prescription are often refilled with regularity and people do get addicted to those drugs. I'm surprised at how many people are prescribed pain meds and benzodiazepines. They'll have anxiety along with their pain I suppose, and a lot of tense muslces too apparently so they'll get muscle relaxers like Soma along with their hydrocodone or Oxycontin and their Xanax. We have so many people walking around, and driving, drunk as can be on all these meds.

Was your wife going to “pain management” doctors? Often they are the worst about just giving people whatever drugs they want and doing it basically indefinitely.