There you go. When you're doctor shopping under three different names, the problem may just be the man in the mirror. Now there's no denying how addictive these pills can be. But taken responsibly, they do A LOT more good than bad.

Amen....and no one is getting paid to give or not to give them to you....that is pure nonsense...lunches, dinners or any food is not going to coerce any physician to prescribe a certain medicine over another.

It sounds like your doctor should of given you seaqurel (don't know how you spell it) an anti-psychotic that's more of a tranquilizer

That's the thing though. These kinds of pills and pain killers are frequently abused by low life douches. I knew quite a few of these kinds of people in high school. Poppin whatever pill they could get their hands on, or crushing it and sniffing it like a line of cocaine. Fuckin assholes had no life

Hope the opposing team never have to go through something like that and experience it for themselves...

Exactly the point of my post and thank you for backing me up because IT IS true. Every time I go to the doctor there are drug reps there and it is just like you said.

And oldschool why do you think certain doctors only write a certain type of med? I had one pain doctor one time only write me Kadian for my back (extended release morphine). So when I told him the side effects were too bad, he called me a drug seeker and refused to write anything else. Every note pad in the damn place said Kadian as did every damn calendar and everything else. Why do you think that is? Because he gets perks and shit from whoever makes Kadian. He refused to even try anything else on me, that should tell you enough. He could have cared less on what the drug was doing to me, and of course I told him he could shove that bill up his ass too and walked out.

Boy you are very naive if you think that way. My best friend is a RN and has told me many stories of drug reps and their relationships with doctors. Why do you think they treat the doctors so good? It's not because they think their drug is THAT GOOD. If a doctor has a patient in that has some extreme pain and his thoughts come down to a mild pain killer like Loratab or Vicodin but he knows if he writes enough Loratab's that the rep will send him to Vegas what do you think he would write that patient? And you think that is perfectly fine and he doesn't gain from that? You really need to wake up dude.

And I agree on the benzos. I take Valium for when I travel on storms (10mg I think?) as I used to get anxiety when I travel on long trips and still do at times so I take one and relax. Most of the ones that have problems are taking a shitload and then have to stop for one reason or another and that's why it's so dangerous, just as it is for most pills that are strong in one way or another.

Dixie..I feel your pain thru the internet...but I can tell you that I am certainly not naive...and drug reps may be friendly with physicians but that is the extent of it..what else can they do...pay them off?...now you are being very naive if you believe that...you have no concept of how regulated the medical industry is and the extraordinary scrutiny under which we operate on a daily basis....and let me assure you that no one is going to Vegas or anywhere else for writing Vicodin or Lortab...which, by the way, are not considered to be mild pain killers..they are schedule II narcotics...that's the highest you can get prior to IV preparations which are schedule I....I can go on with this thread to try and shed some light on this subject for some here, but I think it would be quite meaningless, as the next intelligent thing written will be the first.

Quit trying to twist my words, I just used the Loratab/Vicodin deal as an example. Drug reps are promising junkets for a reason, but I guess it's all scouts honor eh? Or let me guess, certain doctors just think Loratabs are just that great? Get real, like I've said I've seen doctors refuse to change meds for folks (including myself) just because they promised to write only one type of med. You tell me why? They must know about all those healing powers the drug makers don't tell us about.

I know all about pain killers too, I have to take Opana daily for my spinal issues so you are pissing in the wind trying to prove I know nothing about pain killers. Have had to take them for almost 10 years now, and started at Loracet and moved up the ladder to what I'm on now before finally finding one that lets me function like I need to with minimal problems all because I found a doctor that doesn't sell out. If you think there are absolutely no kickbacks then yes you are naive. They don't spend all that money to get doctors to write scripts for their product for no reason. If it is that good they don't need to sell it and give shit away to get doctors to write it.

Again I'm not saying every single doctor does this, but it happens a whole lot more than you will admit. And yes to those who ACTUALLY hurt, Vicodin and Loratabs are mild. To the dopehead down the street who is snorting it, no it isn't.

Dixie....where to start? First of all, Vicodin and lortab are the same medicine and neither are even sold by drug reps because they are generic drugs (hydrocodone) and have been generic for years. I can assure you that there are no kickbacks. Opana is available in two forms...I hope you are on the ER version for your sake. If you have other questions or comments about pain meds or otherwise, I would be happy to answer them....seriously. Pain is a very serious subject...but all this talk of kickbacks and enticements is all bs...if you believe otherwise, that's your prerogative, but it doesn't happen...unless you consider a lunch to be enticement...the truth is reps aren't even allowed to leave a pen or pad in a doctor's possession....trying talking to Ted Kennedy or Nutsy Pelosi without coughing up 50k...that's ok, but let a physician accept a pen, and you are breaking the rules..that may make sense to some here, though I'm sure.

Once again you missed the point and still ignored the fact that I said I used Loratab and Vicodin as an example ONLY. I'm done talking in circles.

I don't think I missed a thing.

Back in the early 80's, I was having trouble falling asleep. My Dr. prescribed Halcyon. It worked, but it made me depressed--and I'm not a depressive person. So, I stopped taking it, and the depression lifted after about a week.

Later I read that Halcyon caused a rash of suicides. Now I hear that dentists use it as an anesthetic.

Had one doctor give me antidepressants for ankle pain one time and to "help me sleep" as well. It's a well known one but I forget the damn name. Made me suicidal as well and I quickly got off. Told them they better never write me anything like that again.

Now I'd rather take over the counter sleeping pills for sleep than I would Ambien or anything of the such. Even took Melatonin one time and wont do that again either, crap makes you NOT want to wake up, you think you've only been asleep for 2 hours instead of 10

That Lexipro is some nasty shit! The doctor gave me a script for it and I took it for about a year and then decided to stop taking it. Coming off that stuff was rough!
I would get constant brain zaps (like an electric shock inside your head) took me months to ween myself of that crap!

Yeah. I stopped taking it before my college exams because I was worried that it would fuck up my how I did in them. It also plays havoc with your sex drive! At least it did with mine.

Roaccutane is another drug that has some fucked up side effects. I was travelling home with my mother and she gets a phone call from my brother saying he's in the shed and he's thinking about hanging himself.

We were two hours from home. That wasn't a fun drive!

Well Moe, BigBrooklyn50 and Turnbull, you guys can relate. Thanks for your comments. Sorry about your bro Moe. I do hope he's well now.

Thanks stern and he's fine now.

Is that the same as Accutane? I took Accutane for acne at like 12 and I don't remember why I was taken off of it, I think it didn't work or some crap. Said not to be outside yet I had to help my Father and Godfather run catfish baskets and trot lines out in the summer heat

Then years later I read that crap was causing kids to kill themselves and boy was I glad I was off of that crap.

The anti-smoking drug Chantix has been linked to over 500 suicides.

Google--- Chantix - suicide

im in my early seventies. I was taking ambien for sleep, took it for about a year, worked great, then my doc took me of it, when I asked why? he said "some older patients are taking it and they are not waking up" well, he switched me to lunesta.

and it doesn't work at all. I miss the ambien, but, he won't prescribe it. old school have you heard of ambien?

I have prescribed Ambien hundreds of times, and it is by far, the most effective sleeping agent we have ever had...however, like any medication, there are precautions and contraindications...being elderly, is not an absolute contraindication, but should be used with discretion...if used cautiously, it can be a great benefit to patients, even to the point of being life changing to some particularly bad insomniacs.

I've been on benzos for almost 4 years now... at my peak I was taking between 2-5mg of xanax a day, then I switched to Klonopin (clonazepam) 2mg, tapered to 1, 0.5.. now I'm taking around 3mg of Valium a day, divided in two doses.. which is a really big decrease. I'm worried about having permanent effects from my benzo use... it's just one of those scary thoughts I try to leave at the back of my mind.

On top of that I've also been addicted to prescription opiates for 3 years, also tapered to a minimum. I've been making good progress the last 6 months, but recently I've been losing my motivation. The thing is, I'm only in my twenties. This all happened after a major spinal surgery I had about 3 years ago.

All I want to say about the opiates is how dangerously addictive they are. I tried them first when I was about 18, it was codeine.. then Oxy, etc, etc. Some of the highs have honestly been probably the best feeling I've ever had or will have, and I've done a lot of things.
Thank god though at least I never injected anything, never went down that road. Unless you got iron willpower, you should never try to get high on opiates.

Malandrino that is what I like about the Opana's, they don't give me that high feeling and I don't have any side effects. I also don't wake up with my body wanting one like the Percocets and others used to do.

Get help bro if you can't get off. When I quit smoking I told myself I was going to suffer and I did, but I quit them cold turkey after smoking 1-2 packs a day.

Opanas used to be one of the most abused prescription opiates in the US, back when the old, crushable formula was still around, but if you don't screw around with them, pretty much every opiate is good if used as prescribed.

I used to smoke cigarettes, smoke weed, drink heavily too... not to mention taking antidepressants. I've quit all of them. I rarely drink nowadays and when I do, I don't get shitfaced. I've never had a hard time quitting these, the reason being that these weren't things I really enjoyed that much in the first place. With opiates it's different because I still enjoy it, even at low dosages and with a high tolerance. Those other things were just addictions, the tough thing is when you're psychologically addicted and you ENJOY what you do.

I hear ya Maladrino. What Benzos do to the brain is cause our GABA receptors to shut down and it messes up the Central Nervous System. GABA is what keeps us calm, when they are tarnished from Benzos or Alcohol they take quite some time to deregulate and for our brains to get back to homeostasis (getting back to normality). Benzos are only supposed to be taken no more than 1 month at the most, but people take them longer. Look up "Benzo Withdrawal" on the net, bud. Take care!

Serious question: What did you do to stop smoking? I created this bad habit about a year and a half ago from stress at work and I want to drop it ASAP before I am dead at 50.

Take some wellbutrin it's anti-depressant that was oringally brought out to quit smoking

That has worked with some people, but I wouldn't really recommend it. My Mom used it when she quit and I told her if she could quit that I would do the same. The best is always just dropping them.



Honestly bro I just quit cold turkey. I was one of those like others that quit all the time. But honestly you have to get your head right before attempting to quit. If you are going to find reasons to smoke (woman leaves you, you get laid off at work, etc.) then you will never quit.

I told myself that no matter how much I suffered and no matter what happens in life I was going to stop them no matter what. I refused every excuse to smoke, including when I was being tested for Lymphoma because they thought I had it. It wasn't easy that's for damn sure, but until you get your head right it's not even worth quitting yet. It's like when you have poison ivy and it's begging you to scratch it and you know you can't and you refuse to. You must do the same with this. After about 2-3 weeks it is gravy from there. Only once or twice a month do I even crave one and I pretty much hate to be around cig smoke anymore...




Yes I was on them then as well and had to change meds because there was a huge shortage when they changed the formula. They don't feel as strong now as they were, but they are still the best pain killer for me. And you are right, when you need them they are good for you. If I couldn't take anything I would probably be bedridden, and now I can get out and drive and work and you can't even tell I'm on anything.

I don't know about that. That's pharmaceutical sales reps jobs. They want their product on the shelves in the Dr.'s office and I'm sure good relations and great lunches can make that happen.