Mind over matter- can it be done?

[freshstart01]

Norco w/d. Once mentally and physically heeled, is it possible to take med, maybe different type- as prescribed . When needed for extreme pain, if someone holds and gives to u as prescribed? For real pain? Or is OTC better, although doesn't work...?

[overeasy]

I am currently going through this,  Only 23 days clean and then needed narcotics for an accident.  I have someone holding my pills I don't have access and don't know where they are located.  When i got the script I noticed it was for 60 and there is no way I wanted to take 60 and have to go through withdrawals again so I dumped half.  I take only when I can no longer handle the pain- I absolutely refuse to start back at the beginning and go through the 3 weeks of hell I just went through.  The prescription said take 2 every 4-6 hours and I will not take that much.  If I had a year, 2 years- maybe I could do that without withdrawals but not at this stage.  So , I have to settle for pain if I don't want to withdraw again and to be honest I have been dealing with the back pain since I stopped so what the heck is the difference.

[Dane74]

Hang in there girlie, you are doing everything right, and you will be just fine:)  Try putting ice packs on your ribs it does really help numb some of the pain, im sure your collar bone hurts more but you are very dedicated.  Great job on flushing the 30, i had a flushing party too, ahhhh what a great feeeling:)  

[TooThoughtfulDan]

I am glad that you brought this up, as I face possible surgery in a few weeks with only a few weeks clean from Vicodin.  I know if I have the bottle in my hands, I will just take more and more, (and more) until I am sick.  My wife had agreed to hold the bottle and dispense them--incidentally she is a career RN.  My current script is for a too large amount, so I think when we fill it at the pharmacy, we will do partial fills.  I do not need 120 Vicodin in the house.  I am thinking 4 to 8 (they are supposed to be 10/325  4x)  That would get me through two days.  Then we could see if Advil or Tylenol would work.  I have back pain right now, but I manage ok, and I don't have my month's supply of pain med, because I downed them in the first week.
I spent all last night really thinking about your main question:  Can an addict become unaddicted?  Notice I did not say, "become not an addict."  I am very much an addict.  I drank very heavily for 25 years and became sober through AA.  At this point in my life alcohol is very much take it or leave it--I do not obsess about it.  I drank two quarts of beer while detoxing of the Hydrocodone, it helped some,and then I lost interest.  I am totally done with toilet hugging because of booze.  My true addict self however saw no problem setting me up for toilet hugging after Vicodin.  Then after I got off the booze, I replaced it with benzodiazepines.  I was on them for a total of 3-4 years, the last of which I gulped handsfuls of 4mg Xanax.  My behavior became so shameful, we had to leave the town where I was a professor, and just move 5 states away.  I sat on the couch for a year dealing with the most intense anxiety, paranoia, fear, self loathing, and cloudy thinking a person could ever endure.  Because I had messed with the GABA pain pleasure system in the brain to such an extent, months after becoming clean from Xanax, I could not sit and eat in a restaurant with my wife--the panic was so severe I would choke on the food.  It took me two years of a light dose of Elavil and a loving wife before I could make it out the door and work.  I can truly say without reservation that now I have no desire for Benzos, whatsoever.  Am I issue free?  Hell no.  I smoke cigars, chew plug tobacco, and am fighting (successfully) being overweight.  I teach high school kids and still have anxiety issues. I like the clear headed feeling I have today, and I too worry about losing that to another addiction-Hydrocodone.  I do not want to be in super pain, so I am hoping that I can learn to manage this portion of my addictive life like I have others.  Booze is a thing of the past.  I no longer can handle a cigarette, smoked them since I was 12--just an occasional cigar or a little chewing tobacco.  I run from the thought of benzos, I am afraid of them.  I have a life, and with a little thought perhaps I can have a surgery if needed, manage the pain, and not do the taking a few more hydros to feel good ***** that I have learned to do in the past three years.  I spend a lot of time thinking about why I am still an alcoholic, but do not really want to drink---etc., and then prove to myself that I am so powerless over hydrocodone.  I realize that an addict posting that he or she can control addictions will get an uproar on a site like this.  But I am talking about various personal experience with managing addictive things, which came from  the interesting topic about using pain meds successfully for pain management.
Too Thoughtful Dan

[freshstart01]

Dan- your story is inspirational. I also have medical issues,  etc...which is painful. I don't take pain meds unless I have to and will have someone hold them for me. That's the only way I will win. Only 19 days. Too soon to go back. Wish I could postpone surgery.

[Ballgame]

My pain dr says it's all in the brain. The receptors are in the brain and can somehow be managed mentally. It can't, your body physically becomes dependant. I think his point is that if you have to go through wd then you just do it. Easier said than done!
It's the receptors that need the drugs

[freshstart01]

So our pain comes from the brain? I wish I could shut it off. My brain.