Vicodin/oxy-contin burnout

[wildbeast]

Background:

Swim is a Loooonnnggg term quitter of alcohol. Actually that isn't completely true as swim does now imbibe a tad but NEVER goes overboard.

And while swim enjoys his newfound moderation he also carries with him the fear dread and loathing of slipping back into chemical dependancy of other means. Oddly enough during his heavy drinking daze (over 23 years ago) swim never much used pills or recreationals besides Pot and he'd quit THAT before booze.

So this "fear" of pharmaceuticals probably comes from ordinary caution combined with a once massive "overdose" of A/A meetings.

In fact those former 12 step meeting dysfunctions were a reason why swim avoided medications that would have proved to be very helpful to him had he been able to accept them. Swim had a fierce panic attack disorder and refused standard treatment for many years. Xanax (alprazolam) ended up being a very effective stopgap/emergency measure for attacks. And what really helped was a blood pressure/beta blocker known as Atenolol (Temormin).

So back about ten + years ago swim finally figured out that he COULD take prescription "narcotics" with out slipping into misuse, abuse and excessive use. This was a turning point for poor swim.

OK fast forward to spring 2005

Swim has a dislocated career, business is failing, forced to move to nasty neighborhood, dump his business for a while, take on a regular job, life sucks then you die set of complications beyond which he had no control and which weren't really his fault at all.

Did I mention swim's divorce and separation? Living in a vehicle for over two years and his kids moving in w/mom?

Well shit that can happen and it wasn't swim's fault at all. Swim has always been a good provider.

OK now one day at work swim gets a teensie piece of cast iron filing stuck in his eye. Doctor prescibes vicodin. Uneasy about chemicals swimn still takes the whole 30 tab bottle home. Hell it was painful.

And within a month or so swim finds to his happy surprise that these vicodins kinda make his square peg fit in the round hole at work.

Happier and more productive swim decides to keep on taking vicodin and or oxy contin as it helps the job.

Swim's life starts coming together.

Gets a better apartment in the suburbs, restarts his business things goin well.

And vicodin or oxycontin use peaks at about two 7.5 watsons a day or two .5 oxys a day or maybe it's 5 mg oxys. Whatever the smaller tabs are.

Now of course swim is concerned as he's heard dreadful tales of oxy and vicodin addiction from other sources throughout his whole life.

And yet swim's own personal experience shows that he "burns out" on taking oxy's or vicodins somewhere around the above listed dosages if done on a regular basis.

And swim defines this "burnout as:

A state where he no longer wants to increase the dosage as additional amounts can lead to lethargy or the blues.

And.

The postive effect provided by the vic's or oxy's is slightly diminished.

OK here's swims analysis:

Swim may belong to a category of people who aren't as susceptable to substance abuse matters from the oxys. This may be a combination of his discipline and or body biology. After all swim never found nicotine to be addictive either while most smokers end up hooked. And while i doubt there is much crossover dimension between nicotine and oxy's his guess is that the general principle applies; Swim has the tendency to moderate either through bio factors or personal control.

And remember the Xanax matter: Swim STILL keeps few refils on hand but rarely uses them. His anxiety has almost disappeared.

More later.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Increased use of opiates/opioids tends to lead to a burnout like SWIY describes, where the enjoyable, euphoric effects of the drugs begin to diminish and are eventually overshadowed by the negative effects. For most people, this occurs after theyre already addicted. SWIY seems to have a lower threshold for this, before the addiction is too advanced. SWIM wonders about the proportion of the general populace who responds to drugs like SWIY, and what the basis for this different response could be due to.

[blinkKDX]

swim suggests to take a look at your situation closer and see if there's a better way to fix the problem.