Are Muscle Relaxers the Same as Pain Meds???

[shay4bliss]

Hi Mike and Tyme,

Just thought I'd chime in here on Soma. I have dabbled with it in the past, but moreso, I know alot of people who have used Soma.

It is ssssoooo very addictive! And really changes your personality after building a tolerance! I've seen extreme memory loss, and anger come from use of Soma! Whatever you do Tyme, stay away from it!

Mike I'm surprised your doctor wasn't more concerned. In the "drug world" it is in big demand and highly abused as much as hydro.

Tyme, if you've never tried Flexeril, you might give it a try. Many people like it, but it just makes me real weird and doesnt' do the job. But it might work for you! I've tried Skelaxin too, and it didn't help me out either.

Good Luck
Shay

[Tyme4Changes]

thanks everyone. I had been prescribed Skelaxin years ago but don't recall that it made me feel too "anything" ....I doubt that the doctor will prescribe it for me anyway, as I have to work on ME getting relaxed on my own. I just cannot give away my arm for someone to manipulate for me, which is unfortuantely what I am REQUIRED to do. So therapy isn't going too hot for me right now. I just cannot offer up an injured arm to trust someone to not yank it up too hard. I actually think I am relaxing and the person tells me everytime, no, you're not, not in the least. So it hurts while I'm doing it and it wouldn't hurt if I could relax ...which I can't.

So, I think the bset thing would be to have a good stiff drink before each time! Problem is that I don't really like alcohol though, so frankly there's not much hope here.

and like i said, I was pretty much expecting that muscle relaxers had to be addictive in some way or the other. But in my case, I don't think the doctor would agree for how I'd be using these, to mentally relax my mind and personality (not necessarily the muscles).

thanks everyone

[feelbad]

I do think that instead of trying to rely on any med to try and relax you,you really need to get to a good relaxation therepy type of class,where they can teach you a whole bunch of different ways just to relax without any med involvement at all.

i see you live in the metro area too,there are some really good pain management facilitys in st paul that you can be referred to just for specialized treatments like relaxation therepy type classes,injections or other treatments without actually being'their' patient,you know what i mean?i was actually referred many years ago for TP injections at the very same pain clinic i had to start going to post SCI,about three years later.NOW i am an actual patient there.so you can be referred there just for certain treatment options by your primary.they just Rx a certain amount of sessions for you or whatever it is you need.my PM has alot of different modalities to try and control pain,and part of good pain management is the ability to relax,so they do offer this within their list of modalities.

we tend to just look at meds sometimes as our only options when there really are so many other options for most of our issues.i think its just what we are used to doing with pills in general ya know?i just think learning relaxation SKILLs,that you can use at anytime anywhere would benefit you much much more in the long run.why continue to take any pills when we actually have the ability to just think about things differently and learn new skills,espescially when there is any possibility of activating the addiction crap again.the majority of the most effective muscle relaxers will all generally carry that same risk of addiction with us.just some thoughts for ya to contemplate.there are good programs out there in our area,just speak to your doc about a referral to one of them.i wish you lots of luck with the relaxing and therepy.take care and please keep us posted,K?Marcia

[Tyme4Changes]

well, what I meant about relaxing was that I am supposed to know how to relax now, immediately, while doing these "passive" exercises. I'm a typeA personality and that's just not going to happen because someone tells me that I need to do it. Yes, I know that I need to do it, but I can't ....will take a major act of God to get me to do that. But these type of phy.therapy exercises should have been done from the very start, with me totally relaxing and allowing someone to manipulate my arm for me ...but I haven't been able to do those properly, because I can't be passive about it. Within the next couple of weeks, then suppsoedly I can do active therapy ....tomorrow I go to have an x-ray and that is supposedly going to help tell how the surgery has resulted and I'm hoping will give some indication if what I've been doing (NOT relaxing in the best way) has been so detrimental or not.

Yes, I do agree: I coudl stand to chill out a lot more. I've just come to the conclusion that I will just have to keep on as I'm doing this next week or so, since there's not much else I can do anyway. After I get thru this whole thing, I hope that I can relax a little.

[Tyme4Changes]

YIPPEE -- I no longer have to do passive exercises ! I can actually engage my shoulder myself, so I don't have to worry about this anymore (or, not as much, let's put it that way). I was cleared to take off the slings and can start working out at real physical therapy and start getting back to normal, on several fronts! I am glad that I found this board as it did help me out, that I *was* doing the right thing (stopping pain meds altogether) and gaining back control over my life. thanks everyone!