Hi dear Mads ~ Of course we are friends! I too think we have a lot in common!

Those that told you that you can't keep enabling your partner were right. HE has to learn to stand on his own 2 feet, without someone tripping the land-mines for him. Alcoholics never faced responsibility in their lives - they always had someone else there to do things for them. They can't live life on life's terms so they turn to alcohol. They're in pain, emotionally/spiritually -- and until they surrender totally, they'll never get well. They have to get sober for THEM -- no one else. No amount of begging, pleading, screaming, crying, etc., is going to get them to stop drinking. Until they lose everything -- their jobs, family, car, home, money -- until everything is gone, they'll keep drinking. All you can do is pray they don't die before the miracle happens. I'm glad you got away from him. You need to have a life AWAY from that!!! It's toxic for you.

As far as meds, I'm on OpanaER, 40mg twice a day, Lyrica 75mg twice a day, Topamax 200mg twice a day, Cymbalta 60mg twice a day and he just put me on Norco 10/300 for breakthru pain (HAH -- this will NEVER work) LOL

Personally, I don't believe our pain has anything to do with "spiritual enlightenment." I'm sorry, but our pain receptors have gone awry -- once they begin getting signals in they keep sending pain signals out whether there's pain or not! I'm not saying we DON'T have legitimate pain but for instance, lets say that some miraculous day they cure me (tehee) -- I would bet that I'd still have the same pain because the pain receptors can't stop sending the pain signals.

I've had every single procedure done that a pain specialist can do, including the burning of nerves to try to "kill" them temporarily cause they grow back. I've even had the Spinal Cord Stimulator implant, but it had to be removed cause the idiots didn't take into consideration how small I was - and the darn thing started working itself OUT of me. I didn't have enough "fat" content in my body -- so they had to remove the whole ball of wax. LOL Now there's scar tissue in my upper back that drives me nuts.

And foggy brain?? Good grief. Since I'm a recovering alcoholic (almost 20 yrs sober) I pickled my brain from all my drinking, and now I have foggy brain? Have you ever talked to anyone with a foggy pickle? DUH

I'm so glad you found us --- I also go to the sister site of this one - -- Psych Central. That's a GREAT one, and much busier than this one. It's great for mental health issues. It's www.psychcentral.com I'm a community liason officer there. But you'll like it there too.

Anyway -- I'm glad you found this place. These two sites are about the ONLY places I go to. I hope we talk more. You can private message me too. Hugs, Lee