Well if you've read my other posts you know that I've had a headache for 15 days now and despite a ton of tests and brain scans no one knows the cause or solution yet. I've been taking percocets for 10 days and since it's looking like my relief will not be any time soon, I am worried about addiction. I read the website and it says that addiction can occur with continuous usage of just 2-3 weeks.

So far, the pain varies in intensity, so some days I can get by with taking just one, others I am taking one and a half every 4 hours. Although I've never taken more than 3 total doses in a day this way.

I've never been addicted to anything other than caffeine so I am not really sure what to look for or how to know if I am becoming addicted.

So far, I never think about the pills unless I am in pain and I don't really relish taking them.

That's good, right?

How will I know if addiction starts?

Katanya, the rule of thumb is for most people, if you take the medication to actually manage the pain (and not because you like how it makes you feel when you are not in so much pain) you will not probably become addicted.

What I mean is, take the med when you HAVE to not when you WANT to (and don't need it).

Sher is so right. If you take them just because you like how they make you feel, then you are getting addictive. I almost fell prey to this with Ultram and Ultracet. I started wanting them when I wasn't in pain. The problem is that the doctor gave me 90 pills at once, with 3 refills. Maybe the doctor was hooked himself, because that was almost 3 years ago, and he never sent me a bill for the 20% that my insurance didn't pay him.

Oh by the way, I never had them refilled, and after I saw what was happening, I threw about 30 of them away.

As a recovering addict I think I can reasonably say that if you do not like the effects of the drug then you will most likely not become addicted to it.

For instance my drugs of choice were speeds (coke, Meth, etc) I did not like pot, acid, etc so I steered clear of them (Though I could smoke pot socially and drop acid too, I was not enamored of them enough to make them part of my habitual life.)

For me the concern is always there when I get a new prescription for anything that there is the chance that I will become addicted. In this house I have three partially used bottles of vicaden - Too terrified to take them as prescribed, I would take them when the pain got unbearable only - Then stopped taking them when the pain was 'manageable'

I was soundly verbally thrashed by my doctor a few years ago when Danny went with me and told how I took these meds. She said that she gave me a prescription because I had a need, a real need - and she also said she was not in the habit of prescribing things that a person did not need.

I will assume that most doctors are like that, and that they do know a little of what they are doing when they send you home with these kinds of things.

In your case I think you need to stick to the prescription for a while. I would raise this issue to your doctor and your neurologist. They most likely know and understand this fear and will be able to tell you things that will help take this added stress out of an already stressful life. Failing that they will prescribe you something 'safe' in this respect.

Cheers

David

I understand Ron. I realized around the third bottle that I really liked how I felt when I took them. One of the possible side effects is an exaggeragted sense of well-being, and I observed how my mood would go from horrible grouch from pain to "It's all gooood!"...Which is why I have stopped taking them...

The headaches are still there, but I only take something for pain when it's totally unbearable or it's important for me to be able to concentrate. (like at a job interview) I've decided that since it's not going to go away any time soon I need to learn to live with it because otherwise I'm going to destroy my stomach and liver and then REALLY suffer if I manage to make it to old age.

I've gotten a lot better at functioning despite the pain, and even though it's actually gotten a lot worse lately, I'm managing.

Thanks for the words of advice, Ron. I've seen the demon addiction in many forms. I lost my best friend to alchohol and another to pills...I'd endure almost anything rather than to lose myself to it.

Addiction? Here's these 'recovering alcoholic's thoughts on your posts:

Physically:
A big part of the physical problem is that individuals get a tolerance. So they have to take more of the chemical to get the same effect of relief, happiness, painlessness and so on. The more you take the worse the feeling when you stop; the higher the lift the deeper the fall so you yo-yo more and more from one extreme to the other as the pleasant or relieving effects wear off. So you take more to get out of the trough.....and so on.

It sounds as though you may have some little of that now. The true addict's case can be illustrated by my passing steadily from double measures in short sessions to a litre bottle of vodka or more daily ( c2 pints; about 1 1/2 standard bottles) just to feel the same all day.

Psychologically :
The first step is to realize the risk and worry about it; that's done;then see you do have a problem now and not to kid yourself that you are not taking too much already ( that may not be achieved yet); then to stop the overdosing (such as it is) honestly, without saying to yourself that you are allowed just a bit more, "just 'now and then" or finding excuses why you "need" it.

If you can do that then you are lucky to have seen and tackled it so early, well before the chemical owns you. Most of us are not so fortunate. If you feel yourself getting worse,or more confused about it , seek help immediately and please find a group of former sufferers, if you can, just as we drinkers found AA or other ex-drinkers.

Thanks Fred. Although I'm not pain-free I'm now virtually pill-free. 2 weeks ago I got tired of all the perscriptions I was on making me sick, so I threw them all out. All 7 of them! Then I got myself a new doctor. Although I still have the headaches, I feel a lot better physically. I am now on a simple non-addictive anti-inflammatory, which helps pretty well. I found that by lowering the elevation the pillows I slept on, I cut my pain virtually in half, so I think that my main problems may end with a chiropractor. When I stopped taking the percocets I actually started feeling a lot better over-all so I suppose that I must not have been addicted although I think that they may have been self-perpetuating because they were making me feel bad so I thought I needed to take more.

Thanks everyone for your support.

I don't think you have to worry about addiction. You are using a drug for a valid reason, pain. That is the intended purpose. It is when you use a drug like this for anything but pain relief, you are abusing this drug.

I hope this situation stops for you and you get to feeling better fast. The headaches could be from stress. Please don't add more by scaring yourself fearing addiction. Use the medication only for pain and you don't have anything to worry about.

Ironically, one of the symptoms of over-dose for Tylenol is a headache.

I remember one of my patients that kept taking more and more Tylenol for her headache. Turned out, in the end, she had taken nearly 1/2 a bottle in about 8 hours. But it didn't occur to her to TELL ANYONE! So she was being evaluated for things like stroke... etc. AND, get this, one of her PRN's was TYLENOL for the HEADACHE!!! (none was given to her thank GOD!)

She ended up being transferred to a different hospital because our facility didn't have the specific treatments she needed to deal with OD of Tylenol.

That is just a terrible story! I hope people read the dirrections on over the counter medicatons. I have Tylenol myself. I am sure it says not to take more than two pills in four hours. I really hope someone out there can learn from that.

All medications come with instructions. It is our responsibility to read those. That includes over the counter and prescription ones. It is our bodies these drugs are going into. We should at least read what we are supposed to do with them.

One thing that does stike me a bit odd. Would any parent ever give their children cough medicine without triple checking the instructions? Never! Look what we will do to ourselves. That is an awful story. I hope no one makes this terrible mistake with over the counter medications.