I am addicted to Klonopin, although the dose I take is very small, less than the child's dose. I had to start it because I was addicted to meprobamate, a much worse drug for people with Porphyria, and could not get off it in a whole year's trying to cut back. Finally the doc said let's go cold turkey onto Klonopin and you can stop Mepro. Yes, that worked, no more Mepro. Mepro was a very very bad drug for Porphyria but it controlled abdominal spasm and allowed me to work. Now looking back I would not have tried to work if it meant taking that drug...but that was a drug which was bad for me, while Klonopin is actually not so bad. My dose is 3/4 of a .5 pill a day, divided into 3 doses, and that's very small, but I have found that if I stop completely I get rigid...and it's not worth it.
I can only take Demerol for pain but I am very far from addicted. If I am not in serious pain it never even crosses my mind to take Demerol. I make a prescription last so long the doctor thinks it's funny. But I need it if I get into serious pain, as I can take nothing else, because I have porphyria. Oh, I can take aspirin but it makes my stomach hurt really badly.
There are other pills that I could stop without side effects, and thus I'm not addicted, but I would have symptoms of the problem for which I take the pill. I take a "water pill,"
Diazide, to control swelling. If I don't take it I would swell. Possibly I could avoid swelling if I reduced my salt intake to almost zero, but that would have other deleterious effects.
I guess the only addiction I have is Klonopin but I am not even sure that's an addiction because what happens when I quit it is spasticity and tremor and I may be just controlling the spasticity and tremor with it. Who knows?
My doctors don't discuss these things with me either, just say that I'm doing fine on what pills I take.
My one really bad addiction was Meprobamate, which they encouraged me to keep taking for about 14 years, and increased neurological burden so badly I had to get off it some way. It was a way to keep me out of abdominal pain and shut up. My husband encouraged me to take it. My son said I should stop it. My son was right. My doctors didn't much care until I just cried and cried because my symptoms had worsened very badly, including Optic Neuritis, dizziness, and emotional exhaustion.