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Andygirl
08-28-2008, 02:03 PM
No matter what I do or try or what Dr I go to...my pancreatitis is not curable. Period. I hope that one day it will be...but until then I have a DISEASE that cant be cured. That is the difference between disease and addiction. I was born with this...I did nothing to bring it onto myself and theres nothing that can be done to fix it...just help it. Addiction has a plethora of things that can free a person of its hold. All you have to do is want to get better. HUGE difference.Both are horrible and both can change your life...they have similarities....but they are not the same.


Addiction is not curable. I also have a disease that cannot be cured. It is often fatal. I was also born into it and did nothing to bring it onto myself. There are not tons of treatment options for addiction, in fact, there are very few (12-step programs, counseling, methadone, suboxone, cold turkey). It is not as simple as wanting to get better. If that were true, millions of people wouldn't struggle with addiction their entire lives.

No, they aren't the same, but they are close enough. You don't have to agree with it for it to be true.

Sophia, I know plenty of recovering addicts who consider it a disease, some who have been clean for 20+ years. But I've never heard any of them say they are incapable of ever relapsing. I don't think a true addict could ever say that.

Maybe you aren't an addict, since it was so simple for you to stop using and stay clean. You could have been dependent on heroin and had withdrawal when you stopped, but that doesn't necessarily mean you were an addict. I honestly don't know. I can't speak to someone else's experience, only my own. Believe what you want. I'll stick with science.

CKXXX
08-28-2008, 02:04 PM
Sophia im morbidly curious do you think anorexia or bulimia is a disease?

I dont know about her, but I"d classify them both as more of an addiction then a disease. And lest anyone think I have no say in it..I've suffered with and overcome both.

i.breathe.in
08-28-2008, 02:05 PM
adddiction is a disease. part mental part physical part biological. i dont think that it should be used as a crutch to not try and overcome your issues but it doenst change what it is.

im bowing out, were all just talking in circles anyway and the thread is way derailed.

Mily
08-28-2008, 02:07 PM
I agree... I've dealt with some incompetent docs. I think the extent to which drugs are restricted is pretty outrageous. Like... I can't get antibiotics over the counter? #### that!

Military doctors are the freakin' WORST, too. They don't even actually go to medical school... they just go through a military-funded medical school which is like not even HALF the length of what a REAL doctor would have to go through to get certified. It's such a nightmare. Unless you were in the military, then it's hard to explain. It's a screwed up medical world to put it mildly. Especially now with all of these disabled troops coming back from Iraq. It's so SAD. :(

Sophia_Ashley
08-28-2008, 02:08 PM
Sophia im morbidly curious do you think anorexia or bulimia is a disease?

No, I consider it an illness not a disease. Again genetically I am prone to it. My grandmother has it, still! She's 86 now. It's more of learned trait in my case. My mother had it, she learned it from her mother and seriously they just summed up ..portion control in extreme forms and being a "lady" it wasn't known as an ED for many years. I did go to rehab for this. I don't think that's a huge mystery here.

I have a hard time with triggers. It's a vice to restrict, to purge and to binge. I am not trying to demean or make ED's seem less than serious .They are VERY serious. Mine is more looming than drug addictions without a doubt. I have come to terms with my ed being simply a behavioral issue, and a coping device that I used to deal with stress. It's self mutilating and IMO little different than cutting yourself.

I feel it's a coping device many of us use, when the world falls apart we can only control ourselves. When you learn how to cope and how to stop yourself you are a step ahead of the curve. You may always think about it, but as you learn how to cope it's less and less of a looming thought.

You can't learn to cope with lupus and cancer to the point it "goes away".

However, a lot isn't known about ED's still. Genetically and behaviorally a lot of men and women have it and the illnesses it causes is heart breaking. I look forward to hearing more research progress on this illness.

Andygirl
08-28-2008, 02:08 PM
Also, anecdotal evidence is not useful for anything more than explaining one person's experience. You can't expect it to accurately represent anything more than that.

i.breathe.in
08-28-2008, 02:09 PM
I did go to rehab for this. I don't think that's a huge mystery here.


thats why i asked.

Sophia_Ashley
08-28-2008, 02:11 PM
Sorry Andy, I was a true addict and I am incapable of relapsing. You can take that to the bank. Why can I say that? Because I'm not going to wreck my children lives or mine simply for a fix. That's immature and stupid for me to do. But if you want to consider me NOT a true addict because I no longer have that weakness go right ahead. But I have the trackmarks, damage done and lost years to prove otherwise. Point is, I WAS an addict. Now, I am a functioning recovered addict less worried about a relapse.

I dont' feel there is any drug out there that is worth me losing my children or my life over. I have a lot to live for and that's how I KNOW for a fact I will not relapse.

Iv'e had plenty chances to use heroin again. Plenty. I didn't even think about it. Im simply better than that and I know it.

Sophia_Ashley
08-28-2008, 02:13 PM
Also, anecdotal evidence is not useful for anything more than explaining one person's experience. You can't expect it to accurately represent anything more than that.

I wasn't aware that I was representing anything other than my recovery. I stated "I feel" and "I think" statements.

Andygirl
08-28-2008, 02:22 PM
I didn't say you aren't an addict. I just said that maybe you aren't since you had such an easy time controlling it. Most addicts can't do that on their own.

Disease:
1. a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment. 2. any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.
3. any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society: His fascination with executions is a disease.
4. decomposition of a material under special circumstances: tin disease.
–verb (used with object) 5. to affect with disease; make ill.


I don't see how addiction doesn't fit the criteria there.

Sophia_Ashley
08-28-2008, 02:25 PM
I want to know why it is, when someone isn't currently being effected by cancer it's called "remission" and when someone isn't currently being effected by addiction it's called "recovery"

If it's a disease like the medical community says, the terminology should be the same not different. If they (the medical board) would like to be taken seriously with their statement(s) of addiction being a disease than they should embrace the same form of terminology that they use for other diseases as well. It wouldn't leave a gray area.

Zia_Abq
08-28-2008, 03:41 PM
A comment on the whole disease not a disease discussion.

I think it’s more semantic than anything else because addiction is often genetic like a traditional disease and like disease care it requires some kind of treatment or active behaviors to get well, even if that treatment is just abstaining from use of the substance or activity.

Just my :twocents:

Sophia_Ashley
08-28-2008, 03:47 PM
^ To that I will agree, and that makes sense. My argument is just that people seem to use the term "disease" as an excuse as to why they aren't responsible for their moderation issues. not all people, just most that I've encountered. Usually though, these same people are the ones that never really want to get clean. They only do so to please everyone around them.

CKXXX
08-28-2008, 09:04 PM
Well magically my sleeping pills showed up at the pharmacy...dont know if it was a glitch or what but I get to sleep yay!! Which is lovely since I have slept exactly 2 hours in 5 days.

Now I can just cross my fingers until my appt with the specialist on the 9th and hope he can either fix my problems or give me meds that will actually work without having to take a whole bottle of them...because that cant be good for me plus its Freakin' expensive to have to keep refilling it.

Crossing my fingers that I dont have a seizure until then....

i.breathe.in
08-28-2008, 09:05 PM
Crossing my fingers that I dont have a seizure until then....

i really hope that wasnt a cheap stab at my comment earlier...

CKXXX
08-28-2008, 09:08 PM
i really hope that wasnt a cheap stab at my comment earlier...

huh?? I'm hoping I dont have a pancreatic seizure before I can get meds for it. How does this have anything to do with anyone but me??

i.breathe.in
08-28-2008, 09:49 PM
huh?? I'm hoping I dont have a pancreatic seizure before I can get meds for it. How does this have anything to do with anyone but me??

you must not have read my post then. nevermind.

CKXXX
08-29-2008, 09:07 AM
you must not have read my post then. nevermind.

NO I did,but I've also said in the past that my pancreatitis causes extremely painful seizures which is one of the reasons I take the meds I do. the pancreatic meds keep those seizures at bay about 80% of the time....the pain meds are for the other 20% when I am screaming in a ball of pain on my bed.

I wasnt talking about withdrawl....the seizures are WHY I take these meds.

i.breathe.in
08-29-2008, 10:21 AM
NO I did,but I've also said in the past that my pancreatitis causes extremely painful seizures which is one of the reasons I take the meds I do. the pancreatic meds keep those seizures at bay about 80% of the time....the pain meds are for the other 20% when I am screaming in a ball of pain on my bed.

I wasnt talking about withdrawl....the seizures are WHY I take these meds.

apparently i missed your post! derrrrr

i have my moments. can i blame it on my klonopin? :D

thechaosfairy
08-29-2008, 07:15 PM
Ugh..I shouldnt HAVE TO fucking resort to that. My Dr should damn well know that chronic pain condition + high tolerance + drugs dont absorb in me correctly = I go through a lot of them when I have a fucking attack. HE'S the one who told me to keep taking them until the pain receptors stop firing. It isnt right to treat someone with an actual physical condition they DIAGNOSED as an addict trying to score a high.

Fuck everyone who abuses prescription dugs...you have no idea the hell you put the rest of us through.

It's not the abusers nearly so much as it is a government which makes a lot of money off perpetuating the cycle of drug abuse, addiction, and illegality.

The US gov't has a lot of fingers in the illegal opiate pie.

Divide and conquer is their strategy... get citizens sniping at each other and they don't even have to work very hard to keep us all down. Makes me so mad I could scream. I've known people who have liver damage from taking vicodin for chronic pain because they put acetaminophen in to prevent addicts from taking it. Of course it doesn't prevent anything -- just gives the addicts liver damage too, punishes everyone, and saddles the health system with more costs. Just what we all need, huh?

In many parts of the EU, they treat addicts like human beings and don't usually try to fire doctors for treating pain patients; at least so I've heard.

I hope you find what you need, CK... you're in my thoughts.

txchick008
08-30-2008, 08:07 AM
The things I need are controlled substances. I need to take more then usual because of 1) my high tolerance and 2) my pancreatitis causes things to not get absorbed the way they should,so I only get a fraction of the meds I take.

My Dr is treating me like a junkie even though I've explained this many times. It is INFURIATING. I HATE that people take these things for fun....it makes it SO FUCKING DIFFICULT for those of us who actually have conditions that need them to get them.

If you are referring to pain medicine (when you said "narcotics"), go to a pain management specialist. Your Dr. will give you a referrel if you ask.

People who take narcotics daily are GOING to have a tolerance. Pain specialists understand this, and will not treat you like a junkie if your pain/condition is legit. My Dr./specialist takes very good care of me. I never have to wonder if I'll be able to get my pain meds, or risk ordering them illegally from overseas (I wouldn't risk that!)

PM me if you want - I have lots of exp. with this.