PainPill Tolerance Question

[Phlox]

I have been reading some of the posts here, and I just have a quick question on Tolerance. I have 2 relatives who have been having problems with painpill addiction off and on for years now, and one question that I never got a good answer to all this time, is how did they build up such a tolerance?
I mean, one relative told me how they were taking up to 20 lortab pills a day, while the other said that one day they'd take 3, the next day they'd take 30, off and on depending on what they could get. So I have 2 questions from that:
1) How could they take that many pills and not overdose? From what I understand 8 is the max lortab you can take b/c of Acetaminophene, but isnt the narcotic dangerous too? Cant they overdose on the narcotic itself? How can their bodies handle this?
2) To spin off the last question, I know that your body can build up tolerances over time, but even then, how could someone take 3 pills one day and 30 the next, off and on, since its such a drastic difference and doesnt let your body adapt......so how is that possible without overdosing? Do you think maybe they HAVE overdosed but just never have had serious consequences? I just dont get it....I would think that even if my body were used to them and taking the recommended amount for awhile, if all of a sudden tomorrow I took 16 pills, wouldnt that fatally jack your liver?
One relative has been in "recovery" off and on for awhile now, and I just wonder when he starts back again and has a "binge", how the heck does he do that without dying or something? He hadnt had any in months, then takes 20 pills and is ok? I dont get it.
Thank you in advance for any information!

[no patience]

Originally Posted by Phlox

I have been reading some of the posts here, and I just have a quick question on Tolerance. I have 2 relatives who have been having problems with painpill addiction off and on for years now, and one question that I never got a good answer to all this time, is how did they build up such a tolerance?
I mean, one relative told me how they were taking up to 20 lortab pills a day, while the other said that one day they'd take 3, the next day they'd take 30, off and on depending on what they could get. So I have 2 questions from that:
1) How could they take that many pills and not overdose? From what I understand 8 is the max lortab you can take b/c of Acetaminophene, but isnt the narcotic dangerous too? Cant they overdose on the narcotic itself? How can their bodies handle this?
2) To spin off the last question, I know that your body can build up tolerances over time, but even then, how could someone take 3 pills one day and 30 the next, off and on, since its such a drastic difference and doesnt let your body adapt......so how is that possible without overdosing? Do you think maybe they HAVE overdosed but just never have had serious consequences? I just dont get it....I would think that even if my body were used to them and taking the recommended amount for awhile, if all of a sudden tomorrow I took 16 pills, wouldnt that fatally jack your liver?
One relative has been in "recovery" off and on for awhile now, and I just wonder when he starts back again and has a "binge", how the heck does he do that without dying or something? He hadnt had any in months, then takes 20 pills and is ok? I dont get it.
Thank you in advance for any information!

phlox thats an awesome question i was on vicodin a few years ago and i could take any where fron 10 to 15 a day and some times 3 at a time i dont know much about tolerence but i do know that your body just gets used to them and the amazing thing is i stopped taking them about 2 1/2 years ago because they switched me to methadone and ive been off that for almost 3 months now im back on vicodin for chronic back pain and i still have a tolerance to it i think alot of overdoses happen when the person doesnt have the drug in their system for a few days cause they ran out etc and then go back to taking the same high dose im not an expert but i hope this sheds a litttle bit of light im sure some one on the board knows more than i do chat later kelleigh

[Twinlynn]

I wish I could answer your question. I have always wondered the same thing. I cannot take more than one vicodin at a time--it makes me sick. If I took more than six in one day, I'd feel so awful. I've become "tolerant" in that I don't feel much of anything from them anymore (until I stop taking--and then I feel withdrawal)--but my body has never developed a tolerance to the number of pills I can take at once or in a day. I get as sick if I take two pills at once now, as I did when I first started taking them. Strange....

Hope others who know the answer will see this post and answer it! best, Lynn

[Phlox]

Thanks for the replies I guess thats part of why Im asking too, it seems strange to me that ppl who can take SO much into their body dont overdose, while I read somewhere that someone who actually was taking them for awhile overdosed somehow. Its confusing. I would have expected at least one of my relatives to have accidentally killed themselves by now.
Does anyone know the answer to this? From what Ive been reading on here, some of the ppl seem to have as much knowledge about painpills as a pharmacist or doctor does, so Im surprised nobody has answered with a medical explanation yet.
Can someone explain how tolerance works with Pain Meds please? How/When does someone actually reach the point of overdose? And why dont some ppl overdose that are clearly going way beyond what their bodies can handle, regardless of tolerance? Is it just a gamble, even if your body is used to it? Thank you for any information!

[feelbad]

Sorry, i cannot answer the big question that you have but ,I just have to ask if either of your relatives has had any labs done on their kidneys and liver.Even though the labs might look okay when done, there is damage going on in there.it just hasn't reached the level where it shows up on the labs yet.You cannot possibly take that much acetaminophen into your body at a time without having damage to the cells,it is impossible.I have polycystic kidney disease and have these really huge cysts(the one in my right kidney is now 5cm and has bled into itself at least once,and my liver also is quite covered with polycysts,but all of my kidney and liver labs still come up within normal ranges.so believe me, you can have all kinds of destruction going on in there and still have normal labs.But one day, when the cell damage has reached a certain point, sh** will hit the fan in a really big way.

Believe it or not, my son was down to only 20% of his liver function left,and showed no real big signs of actually being sick.He never even showed any signs of jaundice until just before his transplant was done.The other organs in the body will all work together to do some of the jobs that the liver no longer can do.so these organs will actually compensate for the liver ,but only up to a certain point.and then the dams open up and you go into panic mode.i was always under the impression that if the liver was sick, the first sign was the jaundice(yellow eyes and skin)not so, in my sons case, it was one of the last signs.i believe that this was the case with Bankers mom, who OD'd on lortab.

Sometimes an overdose can be sudden, or it can be accumulative,over time.your organs can only go for so long getting hit with the high doses of the acetaminophen before they say ENOUGH!it really IS a gamble.kind of a game of russian roulette.you just don't know how much your body will take before it goes into a crisis mode that requires immediate attention.also when you combine alcohol into the mix, you are giving your body a double whammy of a really toxic combination of chemicals.alchol and acetaminophen are a really destructive combination to your liver.The destruction of the liver increases quite hghly when these two things are used together.

Sorry I can't give you the tolerance info, i really don't understand just how that all works myself.I hope this helps some. Marcia