How do you Live with Physical pain and ailments without taking prescribed medication??

Robby D · Newbie

How do you Live with Physical pain and ailments without taking prescribed medication??

Ruhig · Senior Member

Take meds as prescribed. Talk to your doctor about your concerns.

bikerbill · MIP Old Timer

As Ruhig

vixen · MIP Old Timer

Here is a a pamphlet put out by AA on the topic: Medications and Other Drugs

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

For me ?,...

I found it key to let my doctors know exactly who they were dealing with ... meaning that I told them about my alcoholism ... I said I want the pain pills when necessary but I was aware of the dangers for someone like me and felt they should know ...

This has worked well for me in the past ... I took the prescribed doses and knew better than to ask for more unless there was 'really' new pain I couldn't deal with using OTC drugs ... ... I was lucky to get weaned off all the prescriptions of the pass this way ...

Today I'm on heart meds that make me sleepy and a little loopy ... Oddly enough, I don't like that feeling any more ... go figure? ... and I'm real close to taking myself off the sh_t cause I just don't want to have to take them ...

Take Care and good luck,
Pappy

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

Given a good diet, lots of water, and good vitamins the body does an amazing job of healing. Albeit more slowly the older that we get. I'm 52 and have some on going issues like mild arthritis, tendonitis, along with old injuries that ache and new injuries that I acquire through skiing and other sports. I'm also an active Carpenter, build decks daily, tote lumber. Lower back used to get sore everyday, till I got orthodics for my work shoes (and ski boots

) In the last 4 years, rotator cuff injuries (9 months healing to 1 year on the other), both shoulders from skiing and dirt bike falls. Completely snapped my right ham string (2 years to heal). Healing an LCL (right knee) from the last ski trip. I don't take any pain killers (none in 23 years), just advil, ice, elevation, hot tubs, massages, mind over mater etc.... I don't do novacaine when my dentist drills. Whats a couple of minutes of pain compared to the rest of the day having my face feel like a bag of sand. lol I think the bigest issue with pain is the idea that "you're dying" or that it will never get better. Once I learned to get over myself and focus on that pain is just a nerve sending a signal to the brain and nothing else, I learned to block it out. I do use a few different knee wraps, ankle, elbow wraps. I use a Tenz unit if pain gets intense. Those are the micro electric pulse generators (size of a pager) with sticky pads. Work great to block pain and massage the area. There are tons of ways to manage pain without taking narcotics. But if you've just had some wicked surgery and need to take them for a few days, just take them as prescribed and toss the rest when you don't need them.

Mr_David · MIP Old Timer

vixen wrote:
Here is a a pamphlet put out by AA on the topic: Medications and Other Drugs

Great pamphlet Robby, I hope you read it. Welcome to "MIP"...

Rob84 · MIP Old Timer

Robby,

Welcome to the MIP board! Yes that is a great pamphlet. I was just talking to a lady with a very solid program and long term sobriety, she had a surgery and needed pain meds for about 1 week after. She was really irate when she stoped taking them and went through withdrawls the next few days.

She had told them about her situation and they still prescribed some presribed some type of opiate based meds. (After she complained to the Doc, they told her they had other complaints about the drug and they where going to stop prescribing it.)

I guess I just want to give everyone a heads-up, sometimes the Doctors don't even know what they are prescribing or the just prescribe what the drug rep is pushing.

Take care,

Rob

Mike B. · MIP Old Timer

Welcome Robby! To thine own self be true- comes to mind. Be honest with yourself, God, Dr and your Sponsor. The rest will fall into place. smile

Fyne Spirit · MIP Old Timer

I have always thought taking a drug to relieve pain is ok but taking it to prevent pain might indicate a problem developing. But I have never had to test this to any real extent and I have no history with meds. I have found in sobriety that dispirin, when taken for something like toothache or a headache is much more effective that it ever was when I was drinking.

justadrunk · MIP Old Timer

The alcoholic inside me went to extreme lengths, but otherwise, I was very very careful to not take any medicine and still am. It felt (just a little) strange to be taking a multi-vitamin, calcium, probiotic, vitamin d supplement in the winter, and milk thistle every day, with a glass of wine. FOR BREAKFAST! *smacks self on head*

I would go to great lengths to grown my own food, eat organically, and then wash it all down with 3 bottles of organic wine! Such a waste.

When I had a c-section after 33 hrs of constant labor with Max, I realized from that point on, that there was no amount of pain that I couldn't mentally overcome. But when it came to alcohol, a totally different part of the brain was/is at work.

After Max was born, I was shaking for an hour, just completely exhausted, wiped out - actually, had it not been for medical intervention (I was determined to stick it out with a mid-wife until the end) we both would have died. So, sometimes modern medicine is obviously needed, and you need to discern where taking things too far is just ridiculous (in my opinion). Having realistic expectations of yourself is key, and like it was mentioned above, if you're honest with yourself, your sponsor and God about it, things will work out. You can not expect to never need another medicinal intervention for the rest of your life, but TODAY is all that matters right?

After they brought Max (and Layla too) to me in the hospital bed, I was fresh from surgery, but needed to nurse. Which meant moving. It was so painful to adjust in the bed allowing me to do this, that I was crying and sweating through it. I wanted them to have what they needed and the best possible beginning. The amazing thing is, Mothers all over are doing this very same thing right now, always have, and always will. But motherhood unfortunately does not cure alcoholism or any other disease. The wonderful thing is, that same instinct intervened when I thought my children would be taken from me if I did not stop drinking. This is not the case for all alcoholic Mothers sadly, but for me, that ultimatum was bottom. Walking through the door to AA was very similar to ensuring my children got the colostrum their bodies needed after birth. I was crying, I was sweating... it was painful... but for the first time in a long time, I was sure I loved my children again, just as much as the moment I saw their little faces. What I was grateful to discover in those rooms, was that I loved them all along. Today, only 5 months later, I have achieved a new 24 hr accomplishment. I haven't yelled at my kids in 24hrs. I am 2 months sober, but AA's fingers are touching the lives of my children and our family in a big way today.

I am so thankful.

I hope you do keep coming back.

-- Edited by justadrunk on Thursday 24th of May 2012 02:18:06 PM

Pythonpappy · MIP Old Timer

Thanks for sharing Tasha, ... keep up the good work ...

You reminded me that I drank so hard for so long that I truly lost the 'ability' to love anyone or anything, other than my bottle ... A truly sad way to live life, if you can call that living!!!

God Bless,
Pappy

justadrunk · MIP Old Timer

I had just read Ruhig's thread about beating up her husband, and thought the two posts were by the same person - hopefully she reads this : )

Ruhig · Senior Member

Thanks for thinking of me Tasha. I read all of it :) even the pamphlet PDF

Jerry F · MIP Old Timer

Aloha Robby D...years ago in the 60s I was in a pretty nasty head on accident (he was drunk...we were totaled...I was toast) and then on all of the meds any one doctor had a prescript pencil for. A later neuro-surgeon pulled me off the drugs cause my body is built in such a way that the high tolerance to alcohol and drugs meant that they had to overdose me to see the normal affect they were looking for. He pulled me off all drugs and told me I was going to have to learn how to live with the pain cause he also refused to do surgery to correct the damage. I took "learn to live with the pain as make the pain my brother" and so the relationship began. I woke up every morning close to my brother and over time the expectation of the pain fuzzed my focus on it. It was always there and I knew and relied on it. There were times when it flared and got hot and jagged and I learned the use of psychocybernetics thru reading the book on that Title by Maxwell Maltz. Simply its about mind over matter and I still use it daily. Recently in November of 11 I was assaulted by the police which reverse the healing that came over years of the practice and now I am back on it again like I was in the 70s.

I recommend it...look it up and read it and then practice. In support. smile