Opoid crisis in the USA

The information that there is an opioid crisis in the USA is also somewhat of an issue in Germany. There have been some documentaries on television and often newspaper articles. I would like to know, now that opioids have been demonised, what are patients with chronic pain doing?
In Germany, different opioids are used than in the USA. For example, tapentadol, tilidine and tramadol. Because of an accident, i took tapentadol until 2 years after my accident and was able to stop it well.
But that hardly makes you dependent. I have also taken Tilidin and Tramadol. These two active substances also have an uplifting effect. But a medium risk of addiction. You can buy them here relatively easily on the Internet. Tilidin and Tramadol residues have been in my drawer for ages. Well, I still have packs of Tilidine and Tramadol, as leftovers, but I don't take them. The effect is unpleasantly stimulating. Tapentadol is best, is that also common in the USA?

Doesn't seem like a big deal. Maybe affected pain patients are ashamed to write about it. Or many are already dead?
Well, I'm concerned with this question. I see here in Europe in the media a vehement campaign against pain medication in the USA. Demonised and outlawed, so to speak. I ask myself, what are the pain patients doing now?
Cannabis is not an alternative I can think of. I know cannabis, for example, for neuropathic pain cannabis does not work at all. In Germany, by the way, especially hospital patients are given a lot of matamizole.

Honestly, I had a problem with opioid dependency in the late 90s til 2000. My first ever experience with relatively strong opioid pain medicine was when I had 4 badly impacted wisdom teeth removed in 1990 at 22 years old. The pain and swelling was serious, so the maxillofacial surgeon prescribed Percodan(oxycodone + aspirin) and prescription strength Motrin(ibuprofen). Honestly, the Motrin was perfectly adequate at wiping out the pain, but the oxycodone provided an unparalleled euphoria that wiped out the depression and anxiety I was going through at the time. It was like being wrapped up in a silk-lined, down-filled blanket of heavenly comfort!

Unfortunately, there were surgical complications that the incompetent surgeon refused to properly investigate(ie. X-ray). So I went through about a month of recurring swelling, infection and pain, after the initial wisdom teeth surgery had temporarily healed. It turned out that the idiot had left broken shards of teeth or jawbone inside the wound, but we only found that out 4-5 weeks later!

So, I was taking generic Percodan daily for a total of 8 weeks or so. I think he realized how badly he screwed up, and he kept writing prescriptions for 10-30 more Percodan every 3-7 days! At one point, he had his assistant tell me to make SURE I was NOT getting the scripts filled at the same pharmacy! He told me to "spread it out"!

After the supply ended, I had a MAJOR pulled back muscle in 94 that ushered in a few more weeks of "heavenly blanket euphoria". I also managed to occasionally find a Percocet here and there, usually traded for work. But then I discovered a regular source of stronger, less legal opioid in 1996, and was addicted by early 98. The next 2 years were rough....

I went back and forth from clean to relapse up til 2002, then swore it all off, including alcohol(in 97), and cigarettes(in 2012).

ModerationNow! said:

Honestly, I had a problem with opioid dependency in the late 90s til 2000. My first ever experience with relatively strong opioid pain medicine was when I had 4 badly impacted wisdom teeth removed in 1990 at 22 years old. The pain and swelling was serious, so the maxillofacial surgeon prescribed Percodan(oxycodone + aspirin) and prescription strength Motrin(ibuprofen). Honestly, the Motrin was perfectly adequate at wiping out the pain, but the oxycodone provided an unparalleled euphoria that wiped out the depression and anxiety I was going through at the time. It was like being wrapped up in a silk-lined, down-filled blanket of heavenly comfort!

Unfortunately, there were surgical complications that the incompetent surgeon refused to properly investigate(ie. X-ray). So I went through about a month of recurring swelling, infection and pain, after the initial wisdom teeth surgery had temporarily healed. It turned out that the idiot had left broken shards of teeth or jawbone inside the wound, but we only found that out 4-5 weeks later!

So, I was taking generic Percodan daily for a total of 8 weeks or so. I think he realized how badly he screwed up, and he kept writing prescriptions for 10-30 more Percodan every 3-7 days! At one point, he had his assistant tell me to make SURE I was NOT getting the scripts filled at the same pharmacy! He told me to "spread it out"!

After the supply ended, I had a MAJOR pulled back muscle in 94 that ushered in a few more weeks of "heavenly blanket euphoria". I also managed to occasionally find a Percocet here and there, usually traded for work. But then I discovered a regular source of stronger, less legal opioid in 1996, and was addicted by early 98. The next 2 years were rough....

I went back and forth from clean to relapse up til 2002, then swore it all off, including alcohol(in 97), and cigarettes(in 2012).

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I also gave up cigarettes more than 10 years ago. Nicotine develops a very strong psychological dependence. Many people do not make it and relapse. Here in Germany, cigarettes are built up at every supermarket checkout. So that people have the cigarettes right under their nose when they put their goods on the treadmill. For some time now, disgusting photos on cigarette packs have been mandatory. Of diseases that smoking causes. You have to look at them. The dealers they don't remove the cigarettes at the supermarket checkout.

In Germany there is also Metamizol, as I mentioned earlier. Many patients are fed with it. Actually it is a good potent painkiller, but a dangerous side effect.

Oxicodone + Ibuprufen is a strange mixture. I think the problem in the US is that very high potency opioids have been used. The tapentadol I took only has an affinity at the opioid receptors of about one-fiftieth of morphine.
Mostly in Germany they prescribe Tilidine and Tramadol, these opioids are not very potent. I do not like these two opioids. The effect is stimulating and many side effects are possible. I've had this stuff in the cupboard for years. But don't ask me to take it.

I can already see drama in the demonization of opioids. Because there is no alternative. I know that in the USA Tilidin is completely banned. Tapentadol is very expensive, I don't know if it's prescribed in the US. Metamizole is also banned in the USA. I think that's good.
But in Germany, patients in hospital are given Metamizol as standard. In the morning, at noon, in the evening and then a big pack for later at home.

The only alternative for chronic pain patients is tapentadol. Because I know from my own experience that there is only a rather weak danger of addiction.

But I suspect that in the USA the use of opioids is not adjusted but generally demonized. And many patients are now left alone with their chronic pain. I would be interested to know if Tapentadol is prescribed in the USA. Or if it is very exotic and unknown similar to Tilidin. Tilidine is much better tolerated than Tramadol. But the opioids are very different. For example, in chronic pain, low-dose amitriptyline (10-25 mg) prescribed. This is not possible in combination with tilidine and tramadol. With tapentadol, however, amitriptyline harmonizes very well and offers a basis for long-term pain therapy.

Novalis said:

I also gave up cigarettes more than 10 years ago. Nicotine develops a very strong psychological dependence. Many people do not make it and relapse. Here in Germany, cigarettes are built up at every supermarket checkout. So that people have the cigarettes right under their nose when they put their goods on the treadmill. For some time now, disgusting photos on cigarette packs have been mandatory. Of diseases that smoking causes. You have to look at them. The dealers they don't remove the cigarettes at the supermarket checkout.

In Germany there is also Metamizol, as I mentioned earlier. Many patients are fed with it. Actually it is a good potent painkiller, but a dangerous side effect.

Oxicodone + Ibuprufen is a strange mixture. I think the problem in the US is that very high potency opioids have been used. The tapentadol I took only has an affinity at the opioid receptors of about one-fiftieth of morphine.
Mostly in Germany they prescribe Tilidine and Tramadol, these opioids are not very potent. I do not like these two opioids. The effect is stimulating and many side effects are possible. I've had this stuff in the cupboard for years. But don't ask me to take it.

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When you say that Tillidine & Tramadol have a stimulant effect, do you mean a pleasant stimulant effect, or an unpleasant, shaky, nervous effect? With oxycodone based pain killers, the euphoria can be so great that you feel so content, comfortable and happy that you want to do fun things. In that way it does "stimulate" you, but it's not the same effect as with real stimulants. It causes increased happiness, which encourages activity.

Tramadol, is about 7 hours stimulating, many people in Africa take it. I had seen a report a while back. A cheap drug used by the poor in Africa. The stimulant helps people cope with the hard daily life.
Tilidine has a similar stimulating effect but does not last as long and is generally more digestible.
So if you have the choice you should prefer Tilidin. This is my experience. But I do not like these two opioids, as written.
I don't know if Tramadol is also forbidden in the USA. It would be strange if the more digestible Tilidine with fewer side effects was banned. But the "worse" Tramadol is on the market.

Dihydrocodeine is also an alternative but is very metabolism dependent in its effect. It works differently for everyone. Therefore no general statement is possible. My opinion is slightly better than Tilidine, but also clearly worse than Tapentadol.

ModerationNow! said:

When you say that Tillidine & Tramadol have a stimulant effect, do you mean a pleasant stimulant effect, or an unpleasant, shaky, nervous effect? With oxycodone based pain killers, the euphoria can be so great that you feel so content, comfortable and happy that you want to do fun things. In that way it does "stimulate" you, but it's not the same effect as with real stimulants. It causes increased happiness, which encourages activity.

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With Tilidin you can easily walk up mountains. It also produces an opioid-typical rush of well-being but not as pronounced because of its low potency. But, one can easily get circulation problems or also often very strong headaches. I once had such a strong headache that I had to puke all day long. It was brutal.

I read smart. Tramadol is allowed in the USA, and is increasingly being prescribed as a substitute for the highly potent opioids that have fallen into disrepute as a result of the opioid crisis. However, it has now been recognized that tramadol also has addictive potential.

This seems to take longer in the USA until basic things are understood. In my opinion, tramadol is disgusting. You'd better get a prescription for tapentadol.

Tilidin is a bit better than Tramadol, but you won't get it anyway because it is forbidden in the USA. Probably Tilidin would be abused as a stimulant in your performance society. So you feel fit because of it and you can climb mountains. The effect is euphoric and stimulating. But I often had headaches, that's why the tablets rot in the drawer.

The other day I was in the hospital for 2 days. No major problem, it was only about an examination. There is a shortage of specialists here in the province. I would have had the same examination with an appointment, as an outpatient treatment, only in 4-5 months. So I was hospitalized for 2 days. You get the examination so quickly.
On the subject, I was an inpatient in the hospital. In the hospital where I was are usually 2 patients in one room.
Last year I still had a hospital single room insurance, but I had canceled it. So, with me in the room was a grandpa, diabetic. The toes on his foot died. The grandpa was ten days away from amputation, of his toes.
The grandfather was in so much pain, he moaned and groaned all night. There was not 5 minutes of rest. The nurse gave him Metamizol. It is logical. When the toes turn black and die, that is neurophatic pain. So nerve pain.
It's logical, metamizole doesn't help with nerve pain. When the feet rot away.
I say to the grandpa. They have to beg until they get morphine. Otherwise, they won't give them morphine. The grandpa then begged and got morphine. The dosage was so low that it didn't help. The grandfather then said that nothing could be done. So he believed that it does not work and one could not help him.

I find that really hair-raising. The patients are treated by ignoramuses and bunglers. It goes without saying that a patient has to be put on opioid painkillers. So try different means, and different dosages. Until it works well, and the pain is acceptably reduced.

The bunglers in the hospital give him maybe 10 milligrams of morphine and then say they can't give more.
The nurse said reproachfully to the grandpa, "They've already been given a narcotic. I can't give them any more. Such complete idiots. In our hospital they are too stupid to give people the right painkillers. People whose feet rot away. It makes me really angry.

You guys in the US are screwed now too. Opioids are demonized and despised. And when your feet rot away, you get an ibuprofen. Beautiful future...

Grandpa should get a bottle of oxycodone drops as soon as possible. This diabetic foot rot can end badly. After the amputation, further circulatory problems can occur. So that with salami tactics the limbs rot away first and then are amputated.
With such a number one should better gas himself with nitrogen.
I do not want to become so old. It's better to gas yourself at the age of 75 at the latest, before such degenerations get out of hand.

That's the way it is here in Germany. There are no firearms here. If you want to make an exit, you have to gas yourself with nitrogen. Or put your neck on the railroad track....

There are few people with guns. My brother, for example, has a hunting license and firearms. But he has to keep the weapons in a safe. For example, if I borrowed a gun from my brother. To blow my head off. Then the brother would get in very big trouble for that.

So that would be irresponsible of me. So better to gas it with nitrogen...

Well, but at least we have social welfare. I get about $1000 a month when you add it all up. If you're a little bit handy on the side and do a little bit of trading or something, you can get by as bachelor.
But, better no expensive chickens, or something...