Quote:
Originally Posted by msabona
As far as Morphine, the thought of that scares me. Will I be able to function on it? Does it impair motor skills or speech? I dont know much about it. I also heard that it's habit forming and can be very hard to come off of.
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Hi
msabona,
Most of what you've "heard" applies to illegal/recreational use/abuse of narcotics.
Morphine and other powerful pain medications are intended for people who are in chronic/intractable pain, and likely will be for the rest of their lives, or for a very long time. For those people, these medications are often the only way they
can function and have any reasonable quality of life. In the event things change, they can be gotten off of gradually, with their doctors help.
ALL medications have potential side effects. Opioids are no different, but for most people, those side effects (as with other medications) are temporary, and fade after a few days. People who take them long term do not have impaired motor skills or impaired speech; most can drive and perform their day-to-day tasks without impairment from the medication.
"Habit forming"? It's important to understand the definitions of, and difference between, terms related to these medications.
Dependence ≠ Addiction.
http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/...finitions1.pdf
Opioid medications often/usually do produce physical dependence. So do gabapentin, Lyrica, topiramate, and many many other NON-opioid medications. Statistically, less than 3% of chronic pain patients prescribed opioid medications become addicted, and those few almost always have histories of substance abuse or psychological problems.
http://www.health.com/health/conditi...9482_1,00.html
Doc