Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a ‘Public Health Emergency’

[Eagle367]

Johnw1104 said:

I've had some rather powerful pain killers offered to me by doctors for various issues. Once I went in to see my (now former) doctor curious about my back (was consistently aching and stiff) and the man basically just prescribed me muscle relaxers and some rather serious painkillers.

I had mostly just been curious as to what the cause was, though, and took up various stretches as I didn't much feel like beginning a lifelong dependency on muscle relaxers and painkillers in my 20's. My back is much better these days and my new doctor agrees that the old one took a very lazy, irresponsible approach to it. There's definitely doctors out there, then, that will just throw prescriptions at the problem long before they might actually be necessary.

The main issue with opioids is that studies have shown they're not particularly addictive so long as you are indeed in serious pain when you take them (I can verify this after a couple major operations), but if the pain is subsiding and you're still taking them they suddenly become seriously addictive. Doctors have begun to prescribe less than they believe you'll need, then, to avoid that dangerous window where they're no longer necessary but you still have a few left, but the more irresponsible doctors will happily offer extra pain killers should you request them.

Yeah I think paracetamol or acetaminophen or aspirin are more than enough for most people in US that are given opiates. I would only ever consider taking opiates as a last resort cause those things have the ability to do great good but even greater harm