Type 2 compared to drug addiction

Maurie,

Discourse only permits you to “Like” a post once. Otherwise I would have done it 5 or 6 times.

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I consider “drug addicts” to be people who make bad choices and abuse illicit “street” drugs. Very different from and not to be confused with people for whom narcotic analgesics were prescribed by a physician for legitimate pain relief, who then subsequently developed tolerance to the effects of these prescribed medications and then became physiologically dependent upon them. There is a huge difference between these two populations of people in my medical opinion and clinical experience.

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AMEN.

I don’t know why this crap keeps popping up. Usually with T1, because hey, addicts use syringes, diabetics use syringes, so y’know… um… something.

I first encountered it in a support group for parents & spouses of addicts and everyone started nodding, and I shut it down HARD, precisely for the reason you state. I don’t take the stuff to feel good–as a matter of fact, if I don’t do it right, “good” is the opposite of what I feel–I do it because if I don’t I’m going to effing DIE.

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It’s more often than not something that people who haven’t lived in chronic pain feel entitled to comment on.

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to me,if the drug, is prescribed by a physician, then it is fine,.

i have to many friend , die from street,drugs,.

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I really liked this post (and I remember acidrock’s description!), and in retrospect my earlier comment was overstated. I hadn’t read the full blogpost at Jackson Lab website, which as a whole is a bit more reasoned than the excerpt that started this discussion.
But still, this is pretty broad-brush stuff. All adverse medical conditions have a genetic component, lots have an environmental part too, and there are lots that are chronic. But there are huge differences between chronic endocrine disorders and chronic neurobiological disorders. If the main point is that the health care system should be more attentive to chronic neurological disorders, I agree with that. For that matter, I’ve read enough on this forum to know that the health care system still has a lot to learn about chronic insulin-related conditions too.

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I well remember a previous discussion in which those of us with long-term chronic pain issues were called addicts even though our “drug use” was carefully monitored by our docs—and by the Federal Government for godess’ sake. I really appreciate the distinctions being made in this thread…

It’s hard enough, as a chronic pain sufferer, to be shamed because “it is all in my head” for years and years—and then to have faced it that one time here was disturbing. Perhaps that is part of why I react so strongly to the ineptitude of the author in the article…Blessings all…Onward…

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A good friend of mine has (a) diabetes, (b) COPD, and © chronic autonomic dysfunction. He spends about 80% of his time in a wheelchair and is in pain the majority of the time. He didn’t do it to himself and he needs BOTH kinds of drugs–the ones that keep him alive AND the ones that make his condition(s) bearable.

Broken record: EVERY CASE IS INDIVIDUAL. I dunno, perhaps if we carved it on Mt. Rushmore it might sink in. Or, on the evidence, maybe not.

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