[NJPain]

I've been prescribed pain meds for so long you would think I would have this problem licked by now.

My back is SO broken and the meds really do help SO much that I find myself taking them earlier then supposed to or, I run out early every month of my break through meds.

I definitely don't think I am under prescribed at all and I do believe it's a mental thing.

When you've been prescribed pain meds for so long, there is no "high" associated with them any more. Like I tell my doc, I exist in a binary state. Either I am in terrible pain and my functionability is extremely low without the meds. With the meds I can get pretty close to how a normal person feels......normal.

I know for a fact that I do NOT have an addictive personality cause I've had plenty of chances to develop addictions over the years. I dated a beautiful girl that smoked so, consequentially I smoked while with her. That lasted for a year and after we broke up, I never picked up a cigarette again.

I drank like a fish all through my 20's and now in my 30's I might drink a 6-pack in a 3 month period....MAYBE.

I smoked a ton of pot in my 20's and it was totally understood that I was going to be a lifelong pot smoker. People older than me said it was gonna happen and I never believed them but, sure enough the "paranoid" thing happened to me too. Obviously it doesn't happen to everyone but I've heard a lot of people say that when they hit their 30's, pot always made them very paranoid. Haven't smoked in years.

Closest thing I ever got to being addicted to anything was probably sex. I was in my early 20's and hooking up with beautiful, I mean beautiful girls often and the sex was incredible. I learned the hard way that it wasn't going to last forever.

Anyway, back to my pain medication. In the beginning I stuck to my schedule fine. A year afterwards I'd say I started come up short at the end of the month. It's weird cause I think it's totally mental cause the meds can only do so much. I don't know how many times I went thru the trouble to take more of my meds and sitting there saying to myself, "this didn't really help me much at all". Like I mentioned previously, I don't associate my meds ever with "getting high" cause with my broken back, it's like I can't feel that way....you know??

The only way I've found to successfully take my meds exactly when I am supposed to is to give my filled up monthly pill dispenser to my dad. He locks them up in his safe and gives me a day's worth of meds at a time.

With my physical situation getting worse every year AND tolerance, I am prescribed a higher dose of meds then when I first started years ago.

I appreciate the time it took for you to read my long *** post so here is the question. Are there any tricks or things you might do........or tricks/things other people you know might do, to make sure you take your meds exactly like you are supposed to????

There's no high associated with my meds and when I take extra I really don't feel like it physically helped me. I hate to admit it but I think it's really mental. I've been into this for a long, long time so I don't think I am over or under prescribed. I hate bothering my father and want to tackle this problem on my own. Well, with your help too. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.