Curvy Jones on: A Very Special Dr. Phil
Yesterday afternoon I happened to catch the last 20 minutes or so of the Dr. Phil show (don’t judge me!). He was profiling people who were in recovery from addiction to painkillers. A timely topic since 80′s heartthrob Corey Haim, a known prescription addict collapsed and died in his apartment.
A twiend and I were discussing the program briefly after the show. She broke her ankle earlier this year and said her doctor had no issues with writing her script after script for pain meds, but she would often sit in pain because she didn’t want to become dependent on them. I could definitely relate.
I am the kind of person to try every other remedy before I pop a pain pill. I hate pills anyway (they stink!) but also because my father suffers from chronic pain on a daily basis. Debilitating migraines and back and neck pain plague him to the point where he now takes shots to alleviate the misery. The minute something begins to hurt, he calls for his pills. He has a cabinet in his bedroom that looks like a pharmacy shelf, full front to back with both over the counter and prescription medications and pain killers like Oxy and codeine.
I once went home for a visit, said I had a headache from the flight. He handed me a pill and like a dummy, I took it. I figured at the worst it would be Tylenol 3.
Soon after I took the pill, my mom asked me to go to the store. Safeway was just down the street a few blocks but it took me forever to get there. Once was there, I had forgotten what I went to the store to buy. After wandering the store for a few minutes, I remembered that I had made a list, slowly picked up the items and drove home. “I feel funny,” I remember saying as I dumped the bag of groceries on the counter. “But my headache is gone.”
My mom looked at me, her eyes narrowed, talking to my father over my shoulder. ”What did you give her?”
My dad shrugs. “Oxycodone.”
It was then decided that my dad was no longer allowed to give me pain medication. A headache, to him, means gripping, searing, illness-inducing pain. So pain releif, to him, is a prescription medication.
I’ve had several friends that suffer from chronic, debilitating pain as well. It hurts my heart to see them have to seek out others with the same prescriptions to get a little relief, when doctors are so afraid of patients getting hooked that they don’t prescribe enough to keep a patient pain free. To the other end of the spectrum, a doctor that was a guest on Dr. Phil’s show said t drove it home by saying, “If 11 manatees washed up on the beach every single day, there would be outrage. But these are people, and nothing is being done.” It’s not only celebrities that are dying from overdoses! It’s regular people. It’s you and it’s me. That’s frightening, to me!
I don’t think that my dad is abusing his medications. I do think he is dependent upon them, and that’s something I’ve never wanted to be. I guess maybe that’s why I have such an aversion to medication. ANY kind of medication, since I also refuse to go on antidepressants. I’ve seen my dad pop a pill for something my whole life. There’s something about it, that is unappealing to me. It’s not what I want to be.
While I am sure there is a middle ground between ‘pops a pill for everything’ and ‘never takes pills, ever’, maybe I just like being different but I haven’t ever been tempted to explore it. I feel like I am such a black or white, off or on, hot or cold person that my pendulum would simply swing to the other end. You never know, I could be staring at myself up there on the Dr. Phil show!
Becoming dependent on something, to me, is a loss of freedom and control. And if it’s one thing I like, it’s being in control.
Filed in: Daily Grind · Morning NewsTags: 2010 · drugs · stuff I watch · tv
I’m sitting with you in the “afraid to take anything” corner. Of course, I have never had debilitating pain.
Such a hard path to go down. Nobody wants to be on Intervention, nobody really WANTS to be addicted to something. But if it means a better quality of life, then I’m all for it (all for taking the meds the way they are prescribed, not for the abuse part). Abuse of such things makes it harder for those who have debilitating pain and have to use medicine as necessity to function.
I remember you telling me about you taking that pill your dad gave you and your head just swimming, LOL. DaddyJones makes me laugh.
Pills are also one of those things that addicts somehow manage to justify, too, which is dangerous. It’s like…oh I’m not shooting shit into my toes, it’s fine, but obviously shit like Corey Haim and Heath Ledger and a ton of other people proves otherwise.
I’m with you on the avoiding pills unless absolutely necessary part. As evidenced by the fact that I got stoned off Advil PM, haha.