We have learned that Jackson's drug addiction began when his scalp was badly burned. He was given Demerol for an extended time.
I was hospitalized several times over two years with a catastrophic illness and received Demeral for long periods; one was forty-two days with 100 mg Demerol every four hours. The doctor told me that I would be addicted but that that was the least of our worries at the time.
I was totally addicted. I then understood how a person could steal her grandmother's heirloom jewelry and sell it to buy drugs. The person did not want to do this. She HAD to. That is the horror, the incidiousness of drug addiction. You cannot understand if you've never been addicted.
Fortunately, I was able to conquer addiction, but I did so in a way you may think strange. A friend, a nurse, brought me some marijuana and told me to try it. I smoked only in my home and mainly after 7:00. At last I could at least sleep. I am ashamed to admit how long I smoked. Then I just stopped with no ill effect. Marijuana is not physically addictive.
Michael was not able to do what I did, and I understand. Because of money he had enablers.
Interesting note: A new nurse commented on Michael's intake of 10 Xanax per day. The other nurse said, "It is an improvement. He is down from 40." 40!
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Comments: 28
I don't see anything wrong with people using marijuana for the sheer delight of it. Why must anyone apologize for it? Surely no one apologizes for drinking alcohol for the same reason.
I accept responsible recreational use of marijuana. I do want it legalized. It is far less harmful than addictive alcohol.
What a crock of sh*t.
The fact, Leo, that you worked to "get clean?" That scores some points with me.
Make good on the things you did when you were stoned, and you'll have a clean bill of (mental) health--and some good, real good feelings about being your owned danged self.
Personally, I think you're worthy---a real keeper.
Blessings,
Wilka
If you don't use more than are prescribed for you, needing pain meds and taking them are not debilitating, not wrong, not the first step down the primrose path. I get very, very tired of having a useful tool - one that makes normal life possible for tens if not hundreds of thousands of people treated as a social disease.
People who take pain meds for chronic pain become physically used to them - so much so that even reaction time isn't affected. We can drive, write, think, sleep and feel like normal people - except that the exhausting, soul-destroying pain is held at bay. If you don't believe me, look at the National Institutes of Health data - though most of it was pulled from the website during the Bush administration as it didn't lend itself to the mass hysteria required to keep funding the War on Drugs. In most situations, a person who requires pain meds and takes them as directed has a 1 in 10,000 chance of becoming an abuser.
The exception seems to be places where poverty and tradition have made a culture of drug abuse. I live in one such place, and because of that I don't get the meds I need anymore. That's the rule rather than the exception. Americans are woefully under-medicated by the standards of the rest of the world..
I've quit narcotics many times for various reasons - it's unpleasant, but not impossible. If I can do it, if Leo could do it, MJ could have done it too.
People like Michael Jackson screw things up for the rest of us, and I find that hard to forgive.
I take Demerol when I need it for pain control. Well, more or less when I need it. I get one prescription a year, non-refillable, for a number of these pills, and I have to ration them out for that year because they're terribly hard to get. Like Sarah, I function pretty well when I take them -- or anyway, considerably better than I'd function if I didn't have them.
Thanks to various individuals (and I count Michael Jackson among them) who abuse pain medications and ruin everything for those of us who genuinely need them, it's a nightmare to get Demerol if I run out or if I have to have an injection instead of a pill. Some doctors will try almost anything to avoid giving a patient narcotics, assuming that we're all just junkies trying to score, although at over $800 a hospital visit without insurance, it would frankly be easier to go to a dealer instead.
Pain relieve is necessary for people in pain. It's not meant for people who have no pain.
I am so glad to hear that you were able to overcome this, and that your pain is gone (I hope for good?). {{HUGS}}
And you are right about Michael Jackson - enablers - it is a shame to have money sometimes. People just do what you say. Scary stuff. Thank god I have family to stop me if I do something silly. I was addicted to Ativan for years and years. Docs just kept giving it to me. However, I cannot imagine 40 per day! That's crazy. I can't believe that he lived this long with those habits.
What do you really want to say?
A habit can be broken in ten days most of the time. There is no withdrawal, only a desire, or compulsion to continue doing what you're used to doing.
And, Leo, what do I really want to say?? Well, first of all, not everyone who's been given pain killers (or even some other drugs) gets addicted. I'm partial to the term "addictive personality."