Quote From: cndrllaI worked in the medical field for many years in a clinic pharmacy. When I worked there I saw many people who became addicted to pain medications and it was scary!
I was lucky..I had access to the drug information so I made it my business to learn about the side effects of all the meds we dispensed. I read labels, and the package inserts as well as the PDR book we had in the pharmacy....information is definitely power....I don't take ANYthing myself unless I have no choice....and on the occasions when I had to take pain pills, I took less than were prescribed, for the shortest amount of time, because I'm so afraid of them.
One thing I learned was that pain meds cause what is called a "boomerang effect", which means that when you are in pain, THE MORE PAIN PILLS YOU TAKE, THE MORE INTENSE THE PAIN BECOMES!! So you take more pills to kill the pain and it boomerangs. Take them only as prescribed for the least amount of time possible. NO pain pill COMPLETELY gets rid of the pain...they are designed to make the pain BEARABLE.
Doctors are too quick to prescribe these dangerous medications without enough information!! If you want information about what you are taking, ask the PHARMACIST, not the doctor. The Pharmacist has access to that information and will give you the package insert if you ask. Doctors are too busy to learn about the drugs they dispense...they only go by what the drug reps tell them, and the reps tell them just enough to get the doctors to start writing prescriptions for their drug.
Again, Knowledge is power....arm yourself with it!
I need to clarify what I said in my first posting, about how the "boomerang effect" works exactly:
When you are in pain, you take the prescribed dose of your pain med. This will not kill the pain entirely..it's not meant to. It only makes it bearable. People think the pain should completely disappear and when it doesn't, the usual response of the patient is to then take another pill, exceeding the prescribed dose, and to take it more often. What happens is that your body reacts by intensifying the pain...so you take even more pain pills....which again intensifies the pain....hence..the "boomerang effect", and addiction before you know what happened.
Doctors and/or pharmicists should be clear to their patients about this so they know what to expect.
