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Most of us take painkillers at some point to help alleviate pain. For serious pain, doctors sometimes prescribe narcotic or opioid-based medications. However, the use of prescription painkillers has become a serious problem over the past several decades.
As the patient’s body becomes used to the drugs, it requires more and more to achieve the same effects. Furthermore, there are various short-term and long-term side effects that develop from the continued and ongoing use of various painkiller medications.
To learn more about how painkillers affect your body, read this infographic by Retreat Premier Addiction Treatment Centers:
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Stephen says
When you have had very serious damage to your spinal cord and nerve root it leave you with pain that keeps you unable to fuction. I was hit by a drunk driver and have had 5 spine surgeries. # neck and 2 low back. Major reconstructive low back fusion and the surgeon said I will never under stand how you are able to walk. 2 neck fusions and last one the surgeon fused my neck to upper back when told C2 to C5 and he did C2 to T2 when told C2 to C5. Their is a story to this but will not post it. Surgeon was greedy for money because he open two new state of art office with neurosurgeon to do spine injections. Well when you have pain so bad you can not do nothing unless you take pain pills. I would rather take what amount of pain med mgs to live a life of the most fuction one could have and die years sooner. Why suffer by not taking pain meds but live longer in pain and unable to not be able to do nothing and end up in rest home stuck to a bed and still living in brutal pain – that is torture. Rather take powerful pain meds and be active and live shorter life than suffer, unable to not do the things you could be able to do but can’t do with out pain meds and end up in rest home still in brutal pain stuck to a bed. If people are stupid enough to over dose and die, that’s their fault. If you take your pain meds like told it want happen. Now I suffer more than I have to because of highly asinine people who abuse pain pills. I have been a pain patient since Oct. 2007. I was walking and working out because I was getting the amount of pain meds I needed but with new laws and this brutal neck to upper back fusion plus the vendictive surgeon who could have fixed my neck in 4, 2013 and he had the MRI but run me threw his PA’s only to be told steroid injections in spine so he could get 4 thousand dollars pure shot and they would not have done nothing to help my problem. He finaly looks at MRI again while at his office and was told I would see him but got another PA who said spine injections and never examined me, I said no again and PA get’s surgeon and checks me out and said this is bad, looks at MRI again and said we must operate asap. Look at the damage to my spinal cord and nerve root damage that feed my arms and upper back. You can’t tell me I’m not in such brutal pain. I would rather take what ever amount of pain pills and get back to walking and working out and live a shorter live than suffer now till I’m in a rest home stuck to a bed and suffer all the long years. Give me life or give me death – no one should have to suffer because of junkies. Chemo kills more than 50% of people treated with it for cancer – well maybe chemo should not be used in large amount for long periods. It’s a shame that a MD can not do his job because of government not letting him over pain pill abusers and junkies. Yes I’m angry and have a right to be plus all the other true real pain patients being under treated. Doctors kill more than 250,000 people per year – that’s more than people over dosing, gun deaths, car wrecks, suicide per year.