Chronic Pain Prolonged With Painkillers?

There is nothing worse sometimes than when you hurt.  When you're in pain, you just want it to be gone as quickly and simply as you can.  If you're a highly sensitive person, pain is not your friend.

Let's face it though, no one wants to suffer through chronic pain or any type of pain.  In this country we will do just about anything to avoid it.  Painkillers often become the way we deal with life, medical conditions, chronic pain and other situations we find ourselves in every day.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2010, enough prescription painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult every 4 hours for 1 month.  (source:  drugabuse.gov).  We all have most likely read just how much painkillers are being abused and overused these days but that statistic is frightening.  I have seen the recent news of Prince overdosing on Fentanyl (Fentanyl Deaths Soar) . 

Pain medications among fastest rising additions...

Heroin and pain medications are the fastest rising addictions in the US according to www.addictions.com. As they discuss, there is great potential for addiction no matter what drug is used.

While painkillers seem to be America's best friend, they are dangerous and according to a new study by University of Colorado, could be more harmful than good.  In the study, they reveal that opioids such as morphine actually increase chronic pain.

Not just long term painkillers...

We are not talking about a long term painkiller that is being used, but just a few days of treatment that ended up causing chronic pain for several months.  In their study, the painkillers were triggering an immune response which caused the release of pain molecules.  Once this happens, it increases the perception of pain in the brain.

I am saddened to see just how many painkillers are being used today and how many addictions result from this practice.  It has been many years since I have taken any prescription medication whatsoever.  I try hard to keep myself healthy or find effective alternatives if something is needed.

Self-Medicating is not helping our bodies...

We cannot keep self-medicating our bodies and expect us to be fully human.  It is not helping us individually or our society, because rather than getting rid of the pain, we are just numbing ourselves to it.  Numbing does nothing but take you further into the darkness of life while helping you believe that you're doing the right thing.

The more we go into the pain, the more aware we are of what is happening in our body.  Yes, when the pain gets to great, then it is very difficult to manage and I do understand that.  However, taking more painkillers is not the answer like this study suggests.  Finding ways to connect with our body and come out of numbness will yield much better results over the long term.

If you want to learn more about how the placebo effect works, take a look at the following blog post on Placebo Effect And Medical Care .

(click image to read)

Question Of The Day

What ways have you found to alleviate pain without using painkillers?

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Fentanyl Deaths Soar

I was shocked to read about this new drug Beth Kassab wrote about in her column in the Orlando Sentinel.  I don't think I had heard of this new drug Fentanyl.  Of course, I'm not always up on the latest new drugs and medications.

From the article, there is a very serious problem with Fentanyl in the Orlando area.  In 2013, there were 18 deaths.  In 2014 there were 34 deaths and in 2015, there were 70 deaths.  Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin.  It most likely affects other communities, but this post is specific to the Orlando area.

While this medication is prescribed for patients after surgery or for patients with terminal illness, it does not take too much of this drug to be deadly.  Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine.

Of course the drug dealers sell it to the addicts as heroin.  Unbeknown to the addicts, they may think they are getting heroin when in fact they may be getting Fentanyl and it could likely kill them as they think they can take the same dosage as they do with heroin.

One would think that the drug dealers would not want to kill off their buyers, but in the drug world, it is different from what I am reading.  It is like a badge of honor if the stuff they sell is so potent it kills off the buyers.  This means other buyers want their stuff more than anyone else.

We're living in a society where we turn to drugs far too much.  I will be upfront and honest in that I'm not a big believer in drugs or most surgeries.  You can call that naive if you want, but there are other ways to heal the body.  I've seen people on pain pills get so addicted that they can no longer feel and stay connected to their body.

There is an escalation of pain killers in our country and I don't think it is a good thing.  What is next?  Surgery to remove the nerves?  I believe in 500 or a 1000 years, we're going to look back and what we do now and wonder why we were so stupid in how we treated the human body.

Yes, I understand that when you're in pain, you want it to stop.  However, taking one escalating drug to kill the pain after another, isn't really solving the issue.  There are many other things you can do which truly heal the body, not just place a band-aid over a gushing wound.

Its sad to see the problems that this permeates out into our entire society.  We cause real issues for our communities and it plays havoc with the dollars we end up spending with very little to show for it.  It really is up to each one of us to wake up and be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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