A new prescription for the pain of painkiller addiction

By MARY JANE HOLT
Contributing Writer

I was reading just recently of Rush Limbaugh's reported addiction to prescription pain killers. And I am reminded of the various pains that lead so many to become slaves to pain killers of a thousand sorts. From drugs and alcohol, to sex and food, we reach for anything we can find to alleviate our pain.

I don't know when and how it happens, but in the search for such pain relief there are those who eventually trade their souls and families and even their very identities for such relief. Oh, they don't know they are doing it. They don't have a clue what artificial pain relief costs.

In the case of legally prescribed medications, it is not ethical, in my opinion, for doctors to opt to write a prescription instead of addressing the real issues behind the need for the pain killers.

Now, this is where I know I could get into trouble. But, seems like I've done a lot of stepping out over the years onto limbs of various strengths. And God only knows how many times I have butted into affairs or circumstances that may be no direct concern of mine.

So why do it? Two things come to mind.

One -- I cannot live with regret. I can live with just about anything else. Other emotions may take their occasional toll, but nothing gets to me like regret.

Two -- I have to look in the mirror. When applying my makeup, no matter how hard I try to look only at the face on certain days, I see the eyes. I see the soul. I see the heart of me. Yeah, the mirror can be either my best friend or my worst enemy on any given day.

So, when I see a need that I believe I can meet, or help to meet, then I remember what it feels like to regret not acting and I also remind myself that sooner or later I'm going to be looking in another mirror.

Therefore I'd like to ask doctors to spend more time with patients who hurt. I want them to listen. I want them to care. I want them to stop writing so many prescriptions for pain killers and tranquilizers and sedatives and other mood-altering drugs. I want them to stop passing their patients off to other professionals or organizations so liability can be shared in case everything goes wrong.

When a patient first begins to fall apart emotionally or physically the family doctor is usually the first person to whom that patient turns for help. And drugs have become big business as a way to move more patients through an office faster. In fact, there may not be a bigger business in America. And I'm talking legal drugs, folks, not the illegal street variety.

We Americans are a spoiled people. We have things to do, people to see, places to go. We do not have time to be brought down, slowed down, or even influenced by our pain. So we turn to anything we can to alleviate any pain that dares to slow us down or stop us from achieving all our goals and being all we want to be. And, oh yeah, we also reach for drugs or alcohol or sex or other potential addictions to relieve the pain of not having goals.

So, just now instead of sitting around thinking that somebody ought to do something. I am reminded that I'm somebody and since I have this little forum, I'd just like to ask any doctor who might be reading these words to think twice the next time he is about to write a prescription for a pain killing or mood altering drug.

Is big business really the best treatment option for your patient? In the long run? In the light of eternity?

We who are somebody (that's you and me!) should not moan and groan about how somebody ought to do something about some thing and be unwilling to be the somebody who will do the some thing.

The Rush Limbaughs, Liz Taylors, Betty Fords and so many other celebrities who have become addicted to legally prescribed drugs aren't even a drop in the bucket when it comes to looking at the magnitude of this problem. Yes, it's time somebody did something…

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