There is a world of difference between physiological tolerance for a narcotic/opiate and addiction.
Anyone who takes a narcotic for an extended period of time will become physiologically tolerant of the medication. That is, the body becomes accustomed to a certain amount of narcotic as a baseline and will go into withdrawal if suddenly removed.
Medication tolerance is an issue with several classes of medications. Anti-depressants and medications to lower stomach acid are both medications where the body comes to expect the medication, developing an acquired tolerance.
Addiction is different than an acquired tolerance. Addiction implies that a person is using more than the prescribed dosing of narcotic/opiate. Addiction also implies that someone is going to extreme measures to acquire or stockpile the drug - often stealing or diverting someone else's prescription or stealing money to buy illicit drugs from other than a pharmacy.
There is an excellent article on the opiate crises and the difference between tolerance and addiction:
http://www.instituteforchronicpain.orgI take prescription narcotics (fentanyl duragesic patch and oral dilaudid) to quell severe bone pain due to avascular necrosis of my hips and jaw (bone death due to lack of sufficient vascular supply). I am obviously tolerant to narcotics but I am not addicted.
Severe, unrelenting pain, 24/7 is not something that many people can contend with. Pain with no end date. Pain that occupies the forefront of every waking moment. Where the only limited respite can be found in sleep, sleep that is interrupted by pain and not restful.
Of all of the health challenges that I have faced, severe and ongoing pain has been the most challenging and the most taxing. Securing a measure of relief from pain has become my most pressed for need of my medical team. I can handle persistent nausea, persistent fatigue, persistent vertigo, persistent diarrhea. My breaking point has become pain.
It is unfortunate to see people with legitimate pain being denied access to pain relief owing to the misuse and abuse of others who are using illicit narcotics to dull emotional pain and other failings in life. The opiate crises has little to do with actual pain and much to do with people who are struggling with socioeconomic shortcomings and personal struggles.
I am on palliative care and still have to "jump" through multiple regulatory hoops to obtain my narcotic prescriptions. I am not an addict. I am but a wee person who has the misfortune of having a "broken" body. Instead of compassion at the pharmacy counter, I am eyed with judgment and disdain. How would any of you feel under similar circumstances?
Behind the face of each person with persistent pain is a personal story.
For anyone enduring ongoing pain, you have my understanding and full support.
Karen
Dear friend to Bella Piazza, former Colon Club member (NWGirl).
I have a permanent ileostomy and offer advice on living with an ostomy - in loving remembrance of Bella
I am on Palliative Care for broad endocrine failure + Addison's disease + osteonecrosis of both hips/jaw + immunosuppression. I live a simple life due to frail health.