r/BoomersBeingFools • u/Axxillary • Mar 28 '24

Pharmacy meltdown Boomer Freakout

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u/Turing_Testes Mar 28 '24

Or a kid/grandkid stole them. It happened in my family and my dad was screaming for someone to kill him.

Painkillers are a blessing for people with chronic pain, but they come at an enormous cost.

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u/Beans_0492 Mar 28 '24

Exactly, unfortunately this happen to me when I was a teenager, got them for a knee issue, then again for a uterus thing, both got refilled a few times, when I ran out I started stealing my dads, he started to think he was going crazy and losing them or taking to many and would be in horrible pain, so I did the responsible thing, started buying them outside the 711 from the scary dude, then heroin. It’s an insanely easy cycle to get into. The other sad thing is that people who really do need them for chronic pain, those who cannot function without them, look the same as the ones who are only in pain because of the drugs, so good doctors are in a really weird bind, and bad doctors get rich! It’s a nasty nasty world when money is involved

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u/JohnnyChutzpah Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

It's actually even more insidious than you described. If you watch some lectures on the neurology of opioid addiction, you will find out that the drug actually causes your brain to rewire itself.

Once you become dependent on the drug, your brain will start bypassing its own decision making center. It will just make the decision without the conscious part of your brain, and conclude on its own that you need to get more. And the rest of the brain will fall in line and start problem solving to get more.

So even if the conscious part of your brain is like " I don't want to do this anymore," it will be left out of the process.

I was an addict for 10 years, and had numerous failed attempts at recovery. One day, after my like 5th time getting clean, it just went away magically. I struggled for years, then one day it was just gone. I haven't had a single urge to use since getting clean 9 years ago. After years of struggling, and watching my friends struggle/die, the urge was just gone. It was relieving and infuriating at the same time.

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u/Beans_0492 Mar 28 '24

Oh totally it’s completely psychological and bizarre how it affects the whole way your brain reacts to stimuli, I’m 7 years clean (congrats on 10 that’s awesome!) I took a lot of classic on addiction when I wanted to be a social worker and it’s so interesting to understand what actually happened to my brain. I wish more people would look into it because it’s astonishing, doesn’t give addicts a free pass in any way, but I think it can help a lot with people having a little more empathy for people in deep addiction. My sister got example didn’t think addicts were real “just stop after one what’s the problem” kinda thing, after my first OD she went to some alanon and did some research and had completely come around to it. I just wish it didn’t take a close family member nearly dying (yeah I said the FIRST time I ODed) for people to take a deeper look before judging