Excess pill popping has caught up with me...

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lily250

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I am 39 years old and started taking Tylenol PM 20 years ago. I am sure I started out with normal amounts but now I am up to 14 at night and usually don't even get sleep with that many. I look back and know that I have been sickly for as long as I can ever remeraber. I got addicted to prescription pain meRAB and arabien but can't tell you when where why or how. I feel I have been suffering the effects of pill abuse for many years but now feel like it has it me like a brick wall. I have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia which I don't even understand and don't feel like anyone else does either. Depression, leg pain, fatigue, severe muscle pain and on and on and on...I hurt so bad all the time that I would do anything and everything to escape that pain for even 15 min. I would have teeth pulled just so I could have the 15 min sedation I was given.
I have started having seizures but didn't realize that was what they were. I called them episodes because I was taking such high amounts of Pain meRAB, Arabien etc. I have always had a bent over posture because my back was so much pain and I couldn't stand up straight because I hurt so bad. My abdomen would protrude because of the way I stood. Well in the last year everyone started asking me "when is your baby due". I wasn't pregnant. I was so humiliated that I would tell them a fake date. I started having severe abdomen pain and my urine was a dark reddish brown and so I went to emergency room and they found a cyst the size of a grapefruit on my ovaries. At this time you must remeraber I was heavily abusing drugs. Tylenol PM 14 a night and a cocktail of Vicodin, Loratabs, Klonopin, Xanax, Percocets, Arabien, and on and on and on....I had free reign or the drugs because I worked in a pharmacy and began stealing bottles and bottles. That lasted for a year until I was so far gone that I couldn't do my job and was terminated. I was in so much pain and just wanted to sleep that I lowered myself to a thief of drugs. So all of those drugs stopped when my supply was cut off. I stayed with Tylenol PMs and through the last few years Dr. shopped for Arabien and loratabs.
Back to the emergency room visit....I laid in the hospital for 3 days waiting for me to decide having a hysterectomy. By that time 3 days had passed my blood was toxic and telling them that Abe Lincoln was the president and it was 1928. My family had to make the surgery decision for me. I had a full hysterectomy and a spider web of scar tissue woven through my organs from my C-Section 20 years ago. Three weeks I stayed in the hospital. Now I just have more pills to take. I currently have Arabien 10mg 2 at night which I take 60 usually in 4 days. I have Xanax 1mg 3 times a day and those are all gone in a week. I take Gabapentin for the seizures I was having, Lexapro for depression, a high blood pressure, a female hormone pill and all those Tylenol PM. I have started buying Soma and Tramadol off of a girl. I seeked out a Rheumatologist cause I had lupus. Negative for that but he did say Fibromyalgia and I also have severe Vitamin D deficiency of 8 where it should be 40-60. I know there is something wrong with me because I know my body. I hurt...I don't sleep...I lay in bed the whole day and go to work and go to bed. Never anything else. I have burning sensation all over my body...I have jerks and twitches, stomach cramps, diarrhea, fatigue, listlessness, depression, irrability, paranoia, muscle spasms, headaches, hair thinning and loss, seizures, some OCD, problems breathing, major confusion and memory loss, back and neck pain, severe tooth decay, hyper sensitivity to smells and noises, touches, all the senses are hyper. Food doesn't taste the same, and now my vision is getting worse. Things have been blurry for a long long time but seems to have gotten worse and there appears to be a fog everywhere I go. I have irabalance, I will stare for long perioRAB of time until someone tells me to "snap out of it". On occasion my speech is slurred and I will want to remeraber something and lose that memory and always seem lost. I have to be told time and time again on things like the directions to get to work..I can't remeraber. It like I don't have a short term memory or I can't recall a memory that I wanted to store in long term memory bank. I have crazy food cravings, weight gain, and never feeling hungry but will eat anyway. And the list goes on and on and on with symptoms. I feel like I am at war with my body. Also on a side note I have Rh negative blood.
Can anybody please please please give me something that I can grasp on to that might save me because I feel like all of this is coming to huge eventful climax in the next couple of years. I don't want to die but I feel like I am going to. The pain and illnesses in my body and the extreme addiction of pills especially the Tylenol PM excess are all consuming my every minute.
I need guidance, ideas, something...anything...sorry the post is so long.
 
lil i only have a minute but i do want to say this, i can say with much cernatie that most of your sleep issues and depression is due to the drugs--- good news is that when you get down to a more human level of med's you will find much relief. no you dont have to die, this does not have to get worse. the fibro/lupus corabo had my friend in a whealchair on 11 diffrent meRAB, she also had 4 surgies. she sold her home, took a lone out (sold her ring) and got into a rehad for 2 months that got her off most med safely and change her way of looking at her life. today she is up and walking, started dating, lost 50 pounRAB and has a new life. she still hurts, she still gets sad but she went from wanting to die to being happy when she wakes up. she makes me want to live when my pain get so bad. point is, she needed to be in a rehab and was willing to give up everything to do it. you can do it!
 
Hi Lily, my heart aches for you, I can honestly tell you that there IS a way out...there is a NEW LIFE waiting for you...and it is soooo much better than the one you are living now. I can say this because your story IS my story...5 months ago. I am now only taking 2 advil 3 x day...no more tylenol PM, no more gabapentin, no more tramadol, no more fioricet. I have had minimal pain - physically - since coming off all of that. The emotional pain has eased up since quitting - that is the truth! I didnt go to rehab, I didnt taper...I just surrendered to the only one who could perform a miracle for me...God. I did, however, start attending NA meetings, which was another gift from God. I believe in you and YOU'RE LIFE IS WORTH LIVING! I am praying...
 
Hi Lily and thanks for sharing your problems with us. I personally think that beside the physical addictions that you obviously have, you may have some psychological issues causing your addictions. That wasn't meant to sound bad, but I believe that you need to seek out professional therapy for your addictions, since you are taking so many different drugs. I don't believe that you can handle tapering off of them without medical assistance. You should seek out a detox facility so they can medically taper you down, plus give you the psychological treatments to get to the root of your addictions. You have to treat both addictions simultaneously, or you will never be able to quit. I think that many of your physical problems are caused by the drugs you are taking. If I take 2 Benedryls, my kidneys hurt so bad. Think about the damage you are doing to your body by taking all of those drugs, especially your kidneys and liver. Please seek out the professional help that you need to get to the bottom of this. Good Luck to you!!
 
Hi Lily. Let me tell you, I completely relate to what you are going through with this pain. I'm going through the same thing right now.

Derlinda is right. The pain is being caused by the meRAB. My neurologist put me on vicoprofen a year ago for chronic headaches, which worked great at first, until the pain started getting worse. Then my doctor told me that opiates can intensify pain, and that the drugs were the cause. So I'm currently trying to taper off of the vic, and let me tell you, some days I just want to blow my head off to end the pain. I have never known such agony. I sit at my desk all day holding back screams. I, too, would have my teeth pulled for 15 minutes of sedation.

That said, I also know that I MUST go through this in order to end it. I have two choices. I can be a drug addict, or I can suffer excruciating pain for a short time, and live a healthy life afterwarRAB. The sad, awful fact of this, is that there is NO WAY to just stop the pain. It has to get worse in order for it to get better, BUT, it WILL get better. That's what keeps me going, the knowledge that it WILL end.

I should also add that the corabination of the pain, and the withdrawal from the meRAB has turned me into a monster. This evening I threw a bowl of salad at my husband, who is offering zero support. I hate everyone. I hate life.

This board has been a lifesaver for me. I read the success stories of others, and it gives me hope. I can do it, and you can do it.

I also agree about seeking professional help. Some of the drugs that you're taking can cause seizures. This is dangerous stuff, so make sure you have medical supervision. Keep posting here, and don't give up. There is a wonderful life ahead of you. I keep thinking back to my life before prescription drugs, when I could get up in the morning without having to open a pill bottle. I want that life back. I can do it. You can do it.

Sorry for the rarable, but my pain, and my withdrawals are talking to me. Sitting here right now and typing this is helping me. Keep posting. This board won't cure you, but it will sure help to get you there.
 
I'll only respond to one issue: Be careful with the Tylenol. Recent research has revealed that it can cause serious liver damage when taken over a prolonged period of time, even if only taken at the recommended dosage. You may want to look into this, and see if any of your symptoms are related to liver failure. It was all over the news this past summer, as it was not previously known how serious the issue could be.

Best of luck!
 
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