Comments on: Getting through Withdrawals http://www.spiritualriver.com/getting-through-withdrawals/ Non-traditional recovery from addiction Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:54:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Andy http://www.spiritualriver.com/getting-through-withdrawals/comment-page-1/#comment-55905 Andy Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:35:18 +0000 http://www.spiritualriver.com/wordpress-2.0.4/wordpress/?p=74#comment-55905 Hi Jen, I found your letter and it really hit home. I have a sister who i am really worried about. She has been taking pain pills for a couple of years now and it started from back pain and partly from the occasional use of cocaine with a friend when it became no longer a secret between friends. She went from one drug to another.I know my sister well and when somethings not right. We lost our father 12 years ago to a massive heart attack, my sister has never been the same without him here. I am aware of her pill usage and she has tried to quit taking them before. She has just about cut me out of her life, and to be honest i want my sister back ! one way or another this way of life has to stop. I saw her today and dropped in, needless to say she was not thrilled to see me i woke her up. But my trip was not in vain, she told me that after spending all of her money on pills that someone stole them and she has to quit now that there's no pills. She has no choice. I told her that this is a blessing the best thing. She can't continue this taking pills and smoking its not good. Today is the first day, I know that her with draws are soon to come, and i am worried for her if she can not only do this alone but also leave these people out of her life that she thinks are friends. I think the worst of it is going to be sleeping or trying. I hope she can do this with out a doctors help. I hope. After all it was with a doctors help that got her onto this road, She was willing but I don't know why these doctors prescribe these highly addictive drugs to begin with. (the money) instead of really helping people with their pain they give them pills to mask everything. Anyway I wanted to let you know that you are not alone! and i know life is not easy but you have to know that this way of life is not for you. Life is so short and to live it with drowned in pills is no way to live. I wish you well and stay with it ! Don't ever give up. Do it for your kids , but most of all DO IT FOR YOU!!! keep in touch Your friend , Andy Hi Jen,
I found your letter and it really hit home. I have a sister who i am really worried about. She has been taking pain pills for a couple of years now and it started from back pain and partly from the occasional use of cocaine with a friend when it became no longer a secret between friends. She went from one drug to another.I know my sister well and when somethings not right. We lost our father 12 years ago to a massive heart attack, my sister has never been the same without him here. I am aware of her pill usage and she has tried to quit taking them before. She has just about cut me out of her life, and to be honest i want my sister back ! one way or another this way of life has to stop. I saw her today and dropped in, needless to say she was not thrilled to see me i woke her up. But my trip was not in vain, she told me that after spending all of her money on pills that someone stole them and she has to quit now that there’s no pills. She has no choice. I told her that this is a blessing the best thing. She can’t continue this taking pills and smoking its not good. Today is the first day, I know that her with draws are soon to come, and i am worried for her if she can not only do this alone but also leave these people out of her life that she thinks are friends. I think the worst of it is going to be sleeping or trying. I hope she can do this with out a doctors help. I hope. After all it was with a doctors help that got her onto this road, She was willing but I don’t know why these doctors prescribe these highly addictive drugs to begin with. (the money) instead of really helping people with their pain they give them pills to mask everything. Anyway I wanted to let you know that you are not alone! and i know life is not easy but you have to know that this way of life is not for you. Life is so short and to live it with drowned in pills is no way to live. I wish you well and stay with it ! Don’t ever give up. Do it for your kids , but most of all DO IT FOR YOU!!! keep in touch

Your friend , Andy

]]> By: Isaac http://www.spiritualriver.com/getting-through-withdrawals/comment-page-1/#comment-48447 Isaac Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:24:06 +0000 http://www.spiritualriver.com/wordpress-2.0.4/wordpress/?p=74#comment-48447 Hello All, I have had quite a rough year to say the least. Beginning the year with the loss of a job, legal squabbles and mortgage woes as surface issues. Nearing the end of January, I was rushed into the ER in an effort to safe my life from a colon obstruction. I had two open surgeries and a stint in a coma. I lost forty lbs. in about a month and a half; I was a skeleton with skin. I spent the next 4 months of my life in the hospital. The pain from those 2 open procedures was INDESCRIBABLE! It was months before I realized "pain" was a personal thing and no could understand it! I was in a pharmaceutical daze with all the pain meds that they administered. For those four months, I was given automatic IV administrations of morphine and dilaudid in addition intravenous breakthrough administrations. With all of the pain, I was given 2 or 3 milligrams of dilaudid by the end of the hospital stay. The damage was unimaginable. I was still very sick by the end of my hospital stay, still nutritionally depleted--and still I had a slew colon/bowel problem. Upon discharge, I was given 30 mg of MS Contin. I was a mess. I was going through withdrawals and didn't even know it since they mimicked my illness. I've gotten through those violent withdrawals and remember the horror that they were. Six months later today, I am still on pain meds, though I've been on 60 mg Oxycontin for 3 months. I don't know. I shake my head as I write this. I feel like I live a life I cannot claim. I spend most of it in bed. I am still very ill with my colon and am just so very frustrated with my illness and not having a clear diagnosis. The thing is, I am still surgically healing after all this time and still need the pain medicine. I HATE that! I still need it for the pain, but I think what bothers me is that it elevates my mood and until I take my dose, I can be a real dick. I am so very torn. I remember the withdrawals and I fear them and after all this time of taking these drugs I can feel this dependence. My body feels better when I take them; I can move better--it just washes the pain away. I understand that I am one of the population with chronic pain at this point but that prospect of addiction frightens me. At the beginning of this year I couldn't even pronounce Oxycontin. I don't like something have so much control over my sense of "well-being" and my moods. I need some guidance. Please can someone offer some much needed clarity. I thank you so much. Hello All,

I have had quite a rough year to say the least. Beginning the year with the loss of a job, legal squabbles and mortgage woes as surface issues. Nearing the end of January, I was rushed into the ER in an effort to safe my life from a colon obstruction. I had two open surgeries and a stint in a coma. I lost forty lbs. in about a month and a half; I was a skeleton with skin.

I spent the next 4 months of my life in the hospital.
The pain from those 2 open procedures was INDESCRIBABLE! It was months before I realized “pain” was a personal thing and no could understand it!
I was in a pharmaceutical daze with all the pain meds that they administered. For those four months, I was given automatic IV administrations of morphine and dilaudid in addition intravenous breakthrough administrations. With all of the pain, I was given 2 or 3 milligrams of dilaudid by the end of the hospital stay. The damage was unimaginable.
I was still very sick by the end of my hospital stay, still nutritionally depleted–and still I had a slew colon/bowel problem.
Upon discharge, I was given 30 mg of MS Contin. I was a mess. I was going through withdrawals and didn’t even know it since they mimicked my illness.
I’ve gotten through those violent withdrawals and remember the horror that they were. Six months later today, I am still on pain meds, though I’ve been on 60 mg Oxycontin for 3 months.
I don’t know. I shake my head as I write this.
I feel like I live a life I cannot claim. I spend most of it in bed. I am still very ill with my colon and am just so very frustrated with my illness and not having a clear diagnosis. The thing is, I am still surgically healing after all this time and still need the pain medicine. I HATE that!
I still need it for the pain, but I think what bothers me is that it elevates my mood and until I take my dose, I can be a real dick.
I am so very torn.
I remember the withdrawals and I fear them and after all this time of taking these drugs I can feel this dependence.
My body feels better when I take them; I can move better–it just washes the pain away.
I understand that I am one of the population with chronic pain at this point but that prospect of addiction frightens me.
At the beginning of this year I couldn’t even pronounce Oxycontin. I don’t like something have so much control over my sense of “well-being” and my moods.
I need some guidance. Please can someone offer some much needed clarity.
I thank you so much.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.spiritualriver.com/getting-through-withdrawals/comment-page-1/#comment-40005 Anonymous Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:46:26 +0000 http://www.spiritualriver.com/wordpress-2.0.4/wordpress/?p=74#comment-40005 also .. how should i decrease.. space it out ? thank you so much for any suggestion.. supplemet and vitamin ... also .. how should i decrease.. space it out ? thank you so much for any suggestion.. supplemet and vitamin …

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