I've been on a narcotic pain killer since  surgery on my neck 6 months ago. The pain has reduced dramatically but am now finding myself addicted to the level of codiene in Tylenol 4 that I was accustomed to in early "pain management."

There are days when I really beat myself up as I've been in sober AA for a few 24 hours and should have known better that to accept a narcotic in the first place. Now I feel like I'm screwed and I really need help getting off this, so I hope to find confidence in those who care in a nonjudgemental way!

I did try getting off myself, but the physical withdrawls were unbelieveable: the sweats, and body jerks and things I don't care to describe coming out of both ends. If I had insurance right now I would consideer entering a treatment program, so I need help and suggestions. Do I taper or stop cold turkey or what?

Thank you for any input.

Eagle

I can only speak for myself, but my guess that there have been no responses is possibly cause the person viewing has no experiance with what you are going thru, or like me.. thinks that you should seek medical advice on this.

The medical profession is the one who would know how the pills that you are on could affect you and how you should be withdrawing safely from them.

Please see your doctor .

My appologies for not responding earlier. Missed this one some how.

I'm a veterian of a couple of back surgeries, knee surgeries and chronic back pain. Pain killers have been a part of my life wether I wanted them or not (I could give a good long post on that debate alone!).

After my last back surgery they sent me home on oxi, then stepped down to ty4 with codien... Stepping down, gradually withdrawing me, was the best way to go for the pain itself and for the addictive nature of the meds (and my self as I've said before my body never met a chemical it did not like!).

I also really stepped up my program contact during that time with AA's visiting, calling and we even had a meeting or two in my 'recovery room'. During that time I started reading some AA and other recovery material I had been putting off until I "had the time". I also did some journaling which turned into a new 4th step.

Hell when you're laying on your back for a few weeks what else can you do?

The gradual withdrawl, accompanied by the extra work on my recovery/spiritual condition and being a part of the fellowship is what carried me through. Working with doctors who understood and cared were also critical to the process.

Today I still need pain killers from time to time. I use them as sparingly as possible. My wife is the one who used to controle the pill bottle and my doc and sponsor kept a close eye on how much I used. Today my wife just eye balls the pill bottle from time to time and is usually the one to tell me when I need to take one.

Funny thing hapened, my wife was worried some time back about how fast my pills were going down and she commented about it. I told her I had not used one for weeks. After a little detective work we caught one of the kids we had living with us "barrowing them". The pills went back into a controled place.

One last note. For long term pain management the use of exercise, physical therapy, chiropracty, external linaments, heat/ice packs, hot soaks and other non-drug solutions make a huge diffrence for me in many ways.

Hope this helps.

If you need to contact me through my contact line on my profile just put my name "Hobie" in the subject line so I'll jump on it. (I'm averaging 30+ emails a day lately)

hobie

HI there, my name is Kathy and I am an alcoholic. I also work in the addiction field as a Certified Addiction Specialist. I urge you to contact a professional in regards to your withdrawals from the medications. Detox is a medical condition, talk to those trained to handle it.

You can contact your local department of health and human services division for help with insurance and for help with finding a safe detox.  Your county will have an Alcohol and Drug division. You can also get information on finding low or no cost detox or treatment at http://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/  . SAMHSA is a federal agency that oversees the state and county agencies that give alcohol and drug treatment/detox.

Good luck to you. Help IS out there, if you seek it.

I am recovering from an addiction to painkillers and opiates, and I have to say, as somewhat of an expert on the subject, that you need to wean yourself off. Slowly lower your dosage. Remain at a certain dosage for a week or so, and then go down ten milligrams or so. Wait another week, and go down another ten. It is the only sensible approach. Your body has become accustomed to the painkillers, and it needs to be nursed off of them slowly. When you wean yourself off of any drug, it gets used to needing a little less, and then a little less, and eventually it will be ok with none. Going cold turkey will be painful, uncomfortable, and it will probably do more damage to your body.

sking,

If you think you have a problem, you probably do.  The best thing you can do for yourself is to get back to NA or AA, and work the program -- go to meetings, get a sponsor, work the steps.

If you are drinking or using pills every day, why can't you see yourself working toward being clean and sober every day?

Trust me -- it's worth the effort.