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I've taken prescription opioids multiple times after various surgeries and never had any issues (not counting constipation).
I've had to take painkillers, and I learned that you take one, and it eats the pain, but doesn't get you high. You don't take them every 4 hours like the instructions say. Instead, you wait til you are in pain to decide if you really need another pill.
I think that's where some people get in trouble. They take too many or they take them too often when they are not in enough pain, so they get high, and then subsequently enjoy the experience so they keep popping them.
People with non-addictive personalities are probably not going to have issues.
I have a neighbor who has had kidney cancer and diabetes, his heart is failing, he has had multiple heart 'stents' put in, and he is on dialysis 3X a week. My Dw volunteers at a food pantry and I bring him a bag of groceries every week. Last week he was experiencing chest pains, he was admitted and they did the heart catheter to inspect his previous stents, his cardiologist says that there is nothing more they can do for him, they think he should have over 6 months left, and they sent him home with a new med. I visited him today to verify that he still wants food delivered tomorrow. He told me about a new drug they gave him, he really likes it, as it has removed his chest pains. Hydromorphone.
He says that it is helping him.
From my googling, it appears to be a derivative of regular morphine.
I suspect he may be on it for the remainder of his life.
I keep hearing/seeing all these commercials like "I took prescription opioids for a week and now I'm addicted".
First, are the commercials just hype?
Yes. It's all about money and legislating and creating jobs for people who think they're special.
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Originally Posted by Berteau
I've taken them and never experienced a high.
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Originally Posted by villageidiot1
Same here. They may have reduced pain but I didn't notice any kind of high. My brother has had the same experience after several surgeries.
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Originally Posted by steiconi
I never got the high, either.
Wow. Okay. I thought I was defective. I guess not.
I have paradoxical reactions to the diazepam class of drugs. They make me bounce off the walls. My mother told me my grandmother was the same. I've never really taken amphetamines so I'm not sure if they would work like they're supposed to or not.
Minor stimulants like caffeine, yes. I'll drink 2-3 cups of coffee in the hour before I go to bed because it doesn't stimulate me.
I've had actual morphine and lots of opium derivatives back in the 1980s and early 1990s before Oxycodone existed and 6 surgeries in the last 10 years and taken Dilaudid and Oxycodone. I could describe the experience in many ways, but "high" would not be one of them. I just assumed I was experiencing a paradoxical reaction but from the comments here, obviously not.
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Originally Posted by Deserterer
It's pure nonsense and lies. If they stopped after a week, they wouldn't have become addicted. It's that simple. Nobody is addicted after only a week. Physiologically impossible. The problem is that they kept taking them long after the week was up, and kept on taking them until they were addicted.
Some drugs are psychologically addictive. Some physically addictive. Opioids are both.
Hospitals noticed 2 things on their surveys of patient satisfaction:
1) People who experienced little to no paid rated the hospital highly and sang their praises and extolled their virtues even when the medical treatment or surgery failed or didn't produce the desired results
2) People who experienced pain rated the hospital poorly calling them the hospital from hell and other expletives and they did that even when the treatment or surgery produced the desired outcome.
Those surveys are what led hospitals to pressure pharmaceutical companies to come up with a wonder drug for pain and someone came up with Oxycodone.
And, yes, the pharmaceutical company outright lied about it. All opium derivatives are physically addictive. Period. People cannot take opioids for 6 months and not be physically addicted. That's a biological medical impossibility. All doctors and nurses know that because they're required to take classes in pharmaceuticals and you can go read the textbooks yourselves (there are only 3 or 4 texts in use) and it doesn't matter if they were published in the 1990s or the 2000s because in the section on opium derivatives there are repeated warnings that opioids are addictive.
Then you have everyone pushing the bizarre "no pain" narrative that no one should experience even an iota of pain ever so people who had a pain level of 2 out of 10 were given the wonder drug.
I keep hearing/seeing all these commercials like "I took prescription opioids for a week and now I'm addicted".
First, are the commercials just hype? Or are some people really that sensitive to the meds that they really can addicted that easily?
I've taken prescription opioids multiple times after various surgeries and never had any issues (not counting constipation). There's nothing special about me, so are there risk factors that make you mor susceptible to getting addicted?
It's definitely a "pleasant" feeling. I took them for a week after hip surgery, back in 2014, and I took them only because it was prescribed (percoset) and they told me to take them. Even after just a week, I wanted more. I was convinced that I could not sleep yet without them. I called for a refill, and they called me back and wanted to know more about exactly what was going on...and that was enough to make me slap myself, and not bother with more of them. I could see how stupid easy it could be to fall into an addiction. The next surgery (7 years later - other hip!) they gave me another weeks prescription, but told me to NOT take them unless I could not control the pain with Tylenol. Turned out that Tylenol was all I needed. I still have the prescribed opioids in a closet somewhere.
So for me, who rarely EVER takes pain relievers, yeah...it was THAT powerful.
personally I was more addicted to prescription sleeping pills than the oxycodone I was on for a while after coming down with an auto immune disease..some people crush them up and snort them looking for that euphoric rush..and then they chase that first high forever...never to really find it again..
All people react to and metabolize drugs differently. But I believe most addictions are psychological.
Take the nicotine patch as an example. We thought the reason people get addicted to cigarettes was nicotine. So we thought, give them their nicotine through a patch so they stop inhaling that smoke into their lungs! But it doesn't work well. Clinical trials show the patch is merely 5% more effective than the placebo.
Talk to a smoker, the reason they smoke is because they associate smoking a cigarette with easing stress. I'm sure something similar is happening for a certain subset of people on opioids especially when we write Rx for these meds to alleviate their suffering.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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opiates (oxycodone, morphine, fentenyl) makes me nausea to the extreme.
I can not understand how anyone can use the stuff, when I feel extreme seasickness.
opiates (oxycodone, morphine, fentenyl) makes me nausea to the extreme.
I can not understand how anyone can use the stuff, when I feel extreme seasickness.
Because we are all different. I've had approximately 50 operations, and thankfully pain meds have been my friend throughout my ordeals, however since I've been on opiates for almost 20 years, they barely work anymore. For instance, Fentanyl has no effect on me whatsover. For people like me the current govt. regulations only allow so many morphine equivalents per month, and that really leaves me in pain most all of the time. My pain clinic has to abide by those regulations and I'm screwed, but so many others aren't, which is fine with me.
People can abuse almost anything, and many people do. Whatever.
I was on Vicodin for arthritis for years and hated it. ( I never felt "high." ) But when I went to stop taking it, I felt like crap. I wanted to wean myself off because it sometimes gave me nausea, and I really didn't feel like it was helping that much. Also when it was getting close to time for a pill, i'd start to feel nasty. I had to stop slowly. But if someone close to me had a bottle of Vicodin, he would not "do well" with it. He had a whole different background with drugs. We both now use THC for our medical needs and everyone is healthy and happy.
"GENETICS are still the number one predictor of addiction, followed by early onset of first use. (40-60% is Genetics) Data findings have demonstrated the validity of these factors, but there are others that treatment professionals must also consider when diagnosing substance use disorders.
Aside from a family history of addiction and the age a person began using drugs or alcohol, they have to look at the complex interaction between a combination of biological, psychological, social, and spiritual determinants, including:
Environment: Those who grow up around peers who use drugs and alcohol are more likely to begin using themselves. This is especially true for children of alcoholic parents who repeat behaviors they observed in their childhood.
Potency of substance used: Certain drugs, such as fentanyl and heroin, are stronger and more addictive than others.
How substance is consumed: Injecting a drug produces a greater dopamine rush, making a user that much more likely to become dependent on it.
Mental health: Those already struggling with mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, may be more likely to seek out unhealthy coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, including drinking or using drugs." ( from 'Mountainside' )
If you've ever used heroin you may understand opioid addiction more. It affects your brain chemistry, as do some other opioids. (That's why they kill pain so well.) Depending on the person, it happens quick. It is super-addicting. You will crave it after one use. This is your brain telling you to use, it takes a lot to fight that. And then along with the withdrawals that the body goes through. It is an evil poison.
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Even after just a week, I wanted more. I was convinced that I could not sleep yet without them. 
I called for a refill, and they called me back and wanted to know more about exactly what was going on...and that was enough to make me slap myself, and not bother with more of them. I could see how stupid easy it could be to fall into an addiction. The next surgery (7 years later - other hip!) they gave me another weeks prescription, but told me to NOT take them unless I could not control the pain with Tylenol. Turned out that Tylenol was all I needed. I still have the prescribed opioids in a closet somewhere. 
