Ok - this is going to be a strange question. New to the board. My partner and I have been on narcotic pain relievers (legitimate) for a while now....few months? Her for a knee injury and me for surgeries and medical stuff I don't want to talk about. Anyway - We don't want them anymore and stopped taking them. We did go through about a day of physical symptoms, but are fine. If we were taking them for pain and aren't having these problems that I'm reading about - does that make us addicts or no?
No - not psychologically craving them, no depression, nothing like that....just didn't want them - made me sleepy.???
heres the deal... if you were taking them as prescribed... that is to say...
the right amount.. the right time between doses.. for the right reason.. pain and only for pain... then you were doing it right... even if your tolerance to control pain went up that doesnt an addict make...
an addict is someone who takes them for the effect of getting high.. not for the physical pain but some psychological pain... they take more than rx'd and more often .. they become dependant on them.. the lie and do other things to get their drug...
you can have physical withdrawl symptoms after stopping the meds even if you took them as you were supposed to .. it is just that your body became used to them and now you dont have them... it doesnt mean you were/are an addict.. just that you had a tolerance to them... and your body needs to readjust to not having them in its system....
but.... labels are a problem... becareful .. your and your girlfriend or wife.. whichever.. make that determination for yourself and leave her to make hers.. admitting to the real reason we take these pills is a very very private matter and often we dont want to admit it to ourselves that we take for other reasons... so becareful.... either way... addiction happen to the best of us.. the most educated the most popular .. the prettiest.. ect.. and most of all.. it is a disease.. period.. it is not a moral defect.. it happens but ignoring it or trying to avoid a label by finding a reason to not be one.. only prolongs the agony ... and keep us sick...
hope that helps...
Teresa
the right amount.. the right time between doses.. for the right reason.. pain and only for pain... then you were doing it right... even if your tolerance to control pain went up that doesnt an addict make...
an addict is someone who takes them for the effect of getting high.. not for the physical pain but some psychological pain... they take more than rx'd and more often .. they become dependant on them.. the lie and do other things to get their drug...
you can have physical withdrawl symptoms after stopping the meds even if you took them as you were supposed to .. it is just that your body became used to them and now you dont have them... it doesnt mean you were/are an addict.. just that you had a tolerance to them... and your body needs to readjust to not having them in its system....
but.... labels are a problem... becareful .. your and your girlfriend or wife.. whichever.. make that determination for yourself and leave her to make hers.. admitting to the real reason we take these pills is a very very private matter and often we dont want to admit it to ourselves that we take for other reasons... so becareful.... either way... addiction happen to the best of us.. the most educated the most popular .. the prettiest.. ect.. and most of all.. it is a disease.. period.. it is not a moral defect.. it happens but ignoring it or trying to avoid a label by finding a reason to not be one.. only prolongs the agony ... and keep us sick...
hope that helps...
Teresa
Thank you so much. Yes that does help. We were taking as prescribed or less. I was just concerned because of the physical symptoms. And I wanted to get treatment if those physical symptoms meant that I had a serious problem. I didn't want to ignore something and be oblivious to anything. That does help. I appreciate that.
