hi all. when you look at it, most of the things that people are prone to become addicted to (via ingestion) don't really have a practical purpose in society. cocaine, heroin, alcohol, etc. (hey, i love booze, but c'mon, its for fun) my point is that when you have a problem with one of these and you successfully go through rehab, there's no reason for you to retake any of them except for just weakness. BUT, prescription pain medication, this has a useful purpose in society. so, my question is, if you have a addiction problem with, say, vicodin, and even if it started with you using it just medicinally, and you go through rehab and come out feeling great and kicking the problem, what happens in the future? what do you do when you get into a car accident? fall out of a tree and break your arm? when you have a legitimate need for pain medication. if you've beaten aa addiction problem with this in the past, can you take them once again to help through an injury?

For myself, my drug of choice is cocaine, however I do not take any mood or mind altering substance. But, there is a matter of pain or even surgery. The NA program talks about this in their basic text. It is all about judgement and honesty. First I ask myself, am I really in severe pain, then I take tylenol or motrin ( something not addicting). If this does not help then I will take something stronger, but i have to be honest about my pain. I call my sponsor and try to hit extra meetings during this period. I always make the prescribing physician aware of my addiction and recovery. My recovery is my responsibility and all Dr's are not educated in the feild of addiction. Sometimes, they are not aware of triggers that can send someone back out. Even though my drug of choice isn't prescription pain meds, my body dosen't know that...In the brain, it's very difficult to tell one addictive substance from another, and this is how cross-addiction occurs. I've always heard that if you start taking another drug/substance other than your drug of choice....one of 2 things will occur....1- It will lead you back to your drug of choice...or..2- It will become your new drug of choice. I have have tested these theories and in my experience they were always true.