Burt Reynolds claims to be in SEVERE PAIN – around 2 minutes into the interview… because of all the stunts he did during his career and states that he was “addicted” to pain meds but suffers now… confusion of dependency and addiction ?
Filed under: General Problems
Hollywood personalities are notorious for having addiction problems, especially if their careers started in the 60s, 70s or 80s.
How many of them either overdosed or committed suicide during these 3 decades? As a matter of fact the original pill mills started in Hollywood and actors, singers and even their families all took advantage of this easy access to drugs. Just look at the history of addiction treatment centers and their locations as well. The point being that having unlimited access to any narcotic you might desire tends to cause a variaty of addiction problems. So sorry Burt, the days of cocktails and qualudes are over.
The directed use of a medication is for treatment and not a cure. The prescribed use of any prescription pain medication is for helping to relieve the pain and make every day life a little more bearable, not make the pain dissappear.
Of course, what complicates matters enormously, is the fact that folks with addiction issues, can also suffer injury or disease, that induces serious pain.
People with a history of past addiction, would benefit immensely from fMRI or any other diagnostic method, to help them to quantitate pain. Numerous experts have titrated patients to the point of being pain free but not even slightly sedated.
The addict does not require further shaming or punishment. Raving until collapsing is not a pleasant experience. What’s actually needed, is a warning system for folks with a history of addiction, which alerts them that they are starting to exhaust themselves.
The present system of prohibitions and punishments does a dismal job of that.
Instead of alerting the patient that he or she is running on an empty fuel tank…the present system commands the patient to give someone else the keys and the throttle to his or her bodily machinery. This fosters retaliatory dishonesty by the patient, causing unnecessary suffering to everyone.