Moving to MPLS and scared! (Minneapolis, Plymouth: real estate, homes, to buy)

[west336]

It's attractive to ANYONE who uses it for more than a couple times....not just younger people.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by west336

It's attractive to ANYONE who uses it for more than a couple times....not just younger people.

Drugs in general are just more attractive to young people.

But, you are right. There are even older and elderly people abusing rxs.

Just like in the movie Requim for a Dream

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

My wife had fairly major surgery in college, and had people hassling her for painkillers. It was ridiculous.

ADD medicine is popular with the college kids too. Which from what I gather, is somewhat similar to meth.

[west336]

Originally Posted by knke0204

Drugs in general are just more attractive to young people.

But, you are right. There are even older and elderly people abusing rxs.

Just like in the movie Requim for a Dream

Well, to be frank, I am 100% addicted to opiates and believe me, it was far from intentional. With chronic low back problems doctors threw prescriptions at me all of the time, and eventually I learned how to ask for them. The drug of choice was Percocet, but as my tolerance increased it got to the point of using Oxycontin and Fentanyl as well. At first the problem starts with pain, but the more you use the drug the more your body creates residual pain (referred to hyperalgesia) and you think you have a chronic pain issue (and sometimes you do, but often the drugs exaggerate the problem) and you require more and more medication to solve the problem, along with physical therapy, spinal injections, accupunture -- you name it, they try it! After 6 years of trying one thing and another and another and another, I needed to get off the meds or risk losing everything, so 6 months ago I quit and had only 1 relapse 3 months ago. Now I'm on Suboxone (a safer, modern day Methadone) to quelm the cravings/anxiety/withdrawal and, even though I have already cut the dose by more than half from where I started, I'll have months to go before I can get off of that safely without significant risk of relapsing. Dependency and withdrawal are absolutely terrible and the disease of addiction is largely misrepresented and misunderstood by the public. Anyone and everyone can become addicted to anything, but opiates in particular will claim anyone who uses them even a little too often. I am a husband and a father, I have a college degree with a high GPA and a steady job; so it's not like I'm the typical demographic -- which is just the point.

I never sought drugs but became addicted anyways (legally). The real problem isn't necessarily the drug, but that doctors just don't understand how addiction truly works and how dangerous the drugs they are prescribing are to their patients. I mean they know of SOME of the risks, but almost all doctors have no idea how incredibly powerful these things are and what they will do to people's lives! The best way I can put it is they become like food or water to your brain, and you don't think you can function without them (just like you wouldn't starve yourself of food or water willingly), and quitting feels like killing yourself. It's AMAZINGLY deceptive!!

Just thought I'd share that....since I know people don't always understand addiction.

[audadvnc]

Sorry to hear about your addiction. Your description closely tracks with what heroin addicts have said about their drug dependency - it's a slow chipping away at your defenses, until one day you wake and realize you can't walk away from it anymore.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by west336

Well, to be frank, I am 100% addicted to opiates and believe me, it was far from intentional. With chronic low back problems doctors threw prescriptions at me all of the time, and eventually I learned how to ask for them. The drug of choice was Percocet, but as my tolerance increased it got to the point of using Oxycontin and Fentanyl as well. At first the problem starts with pain, but the more you use the drug the more your body creates residual pain (referred to hyperalgesia) and you think you have a chronic pain issue (and sometimes you do, but often the drugs exaggerate the problem) and you require more and more medication to solve the problem, along with physical therapy, spinal injections, accupunture -- you name it, they try it! After 6 years of trying one thing and another and another and another, I needed to get off the meds or risk losing everything, so 6 months ago I quit and had only 1 relapse 3 months ago. Now I'm on Suboxone (a safer, modern day Methadone) to quelm the cravings/anxiety/withdrawal and, even though I have already cut the dose by more than half from where I started, I'll have months to go before I can get off of that safely without significant risk of relapsing. Dependency and withdrawal are absolutely terrible and the disease of addiction is largely misrepresented and misunderstood by the public. Anyone and everyone can become addicted to anything, but opiates in particular will claim anyone who uses them even a little too often. I am a husband and a father, I have a college degree with a high GPA and a steady job; so it's not like I'm the typical demographic -- which is just the point.

I never sought drugs but became addicted anyways (legally). The real problem isn't necessarily the drug, but that doctors just don't understand how addiction truly works and how dangerous the drugs they are prescribing are to their patients. I mean they know of SOME of the risks, but almost all doctors have no idea how incredibly powerful these things are and what they will do to people's lives! The best way I can put it is they become like food or water to your brain, and you don't think you can function without them (just like you wouldn't starve yourself of food or water willingly), and quitting feels like killing yourself. It's AMAZINGLY deceptive!!

Just thought I'd share that....since I know people don't always understand addiction.

That's a lot to share.

I have had two very close friends that went to treatment multiple times for opiates.

Both had anxiety issues from their childhood, where they took RXs for it, but never really did the trick. Eventually they found Vicodin and both started using that. That turned into oxy. The Oxy got so bad that they would be crushing and snorting 3-5 80mgs a day. that turned into methadone usage when the oxy ran dry that eventually led to heroine.

I definitely feel you man, keep strong

[west336]

Thanks guys!

Like I said, I'm 6 months clean (3 months with the relapse) and I feel tons better! Anxiety is definitely a trigger and I believe what contributes to my back pain (aside from some structural deformation and damage) is tension, and it's called "Tension Manifestation Syndrom", or basically putting your stress on other parts of your body instead of dealing with it. I used to play sports to relieve physical or emotional stress/anxiety, but with the back it limited much of what I loved to do, so I had all of this pent up energy that went straight to my back and caused moderate to extreme chronic pain for years.

I am pretty certain that I got "hooked" after a surgery that required me to be on Roxicet for 2 straight weeks -- shortly after that I injured my back and painkillers were the "cure". So although they are very helpful and completely necessary in certain situations, for me I KNOW that I can't use them outside of a hospital setting -- I just CAN'T! I've tried and tried and tried, and I absolutely can't manage them for myself, and 99% of the time the pills are legitimately prescribed by a Dr.

So maybe this is why I'm very anti-drug and don't want to live anywhere near them?

By the way, I'm not trying to be a "Debbie Downer", I just want to enlighten anyone who has addiction issues, knows someone who does, or just doesn't understand addiction or resent people who have it. It helps me to cope better by being open about it and "getting the monkey off my back", so to speak.

[audadvnc]

Thanks for bringing up anxiety and its relation to drug use. People play down marijuana as a dependency drug, saying it doesn't have psychological effects. But some (not all) people I've known with long-term pot habits have anxiety issues which they self-medicate with weed. The question remains whether they were anxious in the first place or whether the pot caused the Jekyll/Hyde personality shift they experience. My guess is that (for some people, perhaps 10% of users) pot plays a part in that pathological cycle - which may be good enough reason to keep it illegal.

[west336]

Maybe. I know a good portion of the people in my group are there because they are addicted to marijuana, which I did not know was an addictive drug! They say it totally is, and quitting gives you withdrawal and cravings no different than other drugs/alcohol. This surprises me, because most people I know that smoke deny its addictive properties.

Anxiety or stress is probably the most common reason people self-medicate. I have generalized anxiety which sort of runs in the family, but it's pretty manageable for the most part. But if stressed/overstressed it can really put you in a state of panic. In regards to whether pot can CAUSE anxiety, I'm pretty sure it can. The reason is that when you use drugs your seratonin levels are extremely high, and when you come down your seratonin drops very low, causing anxiety and depression. After a while your brain begins to expect the seratonin re-uptake (not to be confused with a Selective Seratonin Re-update Inhibitor -- SSRI -- a safe medication) you can't produce healthy levels of seratonin without the drug. Makes sense to me!

[audadvnc]

Great info, west - I hope it's OK that I copied part of that last post (without attribution) to a photography forum which has a similar topic going right now.