Hell no!
All this fuss is making it even harder to be treated for chronic pain.
I have to deal with this mess on a regular basis.
I use Oxy-codone (percocet) and Oxi-Contin on a 24 hr basis for pain control.
Without them I cannot function in any normal way and my life would not be worth a 25 cent bullet to the head.
As a result of the drugs, I am addicted to them. I control my intake, but you tend to get used to the drug and the effect slowly lessens and you need more.
No body who needs these drugs takes them to get high. That would be abuse.
People who take them for chronic pain on a 24 hr basis get addicted. You cannot prevent it and the alternative is to vegitate and get a case of severe depression.
Rush has apparently let things get out of control and has admitted this. However, it is so easy to have this happen and with his resources, he has gotten the dose so high that he cannot get through the with drawls on his own. (with drawls are very uncomfortable and last for days)
He has made an error in judgement, but his addiction came as a normal side effect. His bank account and desire to keep his show going and on the air has caused him to use more than he should, but not to get high.
He did it to function normally and pain free.
It happened because there is no other option for pain relief.
If Rush has to retire because of this, it will not be because of the drugs.
It will be because of the lack of them and the resulting pain that he will have to endure.
I will say and few words in my prayer tonight for him. I want him to understand that he did not do anything wrong by taking a needed drug so that he could live as normal a life as he could. His mistake was to self medicate to such a degree.
I take Oxycontin as well, and my first thought was,"How will he make it, if he still hurts?"
I hope he didn't break the law to get relief, but it makes one wonder. If Rush could not have his pain adequately, how can an average citizen hope to get help?
When the Rush thing first broke, most defenders here were saying, "Impossible....he couldn't work as hard and as well as he has if he were taking all those drugs."
I was thinking, "No....it was the drugs that allowed him to be so productive."
We have just GOT to get over this knee-jerk reaction to drugs.
(and as we baby boomers, who have always gotten what we have wanted, age and become infirmed.... it may well happen)
Agreed but why did he not simply use a doc like you and many do...including myself at times. He could be on a fentanyl patch or morphine etc if it's that bad. Why buy this ALLEGED huge doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone which from my experience are not quite up to the Class A narcotics level for severe pain....maybe Oxycotin is due to the large time release. I assume he was afraid a doc would not keep him on the level he needed or enjoyed (I know you don't like that but a lot of folks DO use these drugs to get high ...yes...even some folks with pain)
I would like to know more about how much he took and bought and what his medical condition is. Herniated disc is likely to merit a schedule II narcotic either of opiate nature or synthizised like Talwin, a muscle relaxer like Soma or Flexaril or Parafon-Forte and a kicker-anti-emitic like Promethiazine. Myself, I have found that any strong narcotic somewhat under the dialaudid or morphine sulfate level with the Promethiazine kicker works for me. However, folks with certain malignancies such as stomach or bone, need much much more.
If Rush's pain was so bad, most docs would have insisted on more surgery. Mine would. Therefore, I would not discount that his medication initially for pain grew into something beyond that and that is where he is in trouble. If it is simply about pain, then why is he detoxing? He needs to continue and just reduce his dosage or change it to less of something stronger. You know some addicts...particularly heroin...will purposely withdraw a bit so they can get back to getting high again. Once one is super addicted, it's not about getting high, it's about not being sick. Sad...he's not the first but he sure shocked me.
I normally take around 100mg and I dont have a cough at all.
I have met doctors who would not prescribe it at all, I simply find another doctor.
Because basic brain chemistry has been so thoroughly messed up, it could well be lethal to just quit cold-turkey.
Opiates work because they duplicate the effects of internally created opiates such as endorphins (Endorphins = endogenous morphines - Morphines made within your body) and bonds to receptors, reducing pain. As you add opiods to your system, your body reduces the amount of endorphins and enkephalins that it creates. This compensation happens very rapidly, and when the opids are no longer administered/taken, the brain chemistry is thrown quite out of whack for a bit.
Not always. It may be interesting to note that these drugs are being re-investigated for use in patients with severe depression and anxiety. Opiates used to be the drug of choice for these ailments before 1900, and they are making a comeback.
It turns out that not only are they more effective, but they are much safer than modern anti-depressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil which have a similar mechanism of action to the drug Ecstacy, and have a long-term neurotoxic profile.
So, for some chronically depressed people, that "high" would actually be considered a "normal" mood for non-depressed individuals.
Not all opiod use for it's psychologic effects is considered abuse.
Of course, most everyone would agree that taking a quantity to the point were you are nodding out and non-functional is of benefit to nobody ... but mild "euphoria" from low to moderate doses is actually as beneficial to non-functional depressed adults, as it is to non-functional pysical pain inflicted individuals.
Pain is not always only physical.