I found this old thread when I was looking for the "laughter is the new medicine" thread or whatever that thread was titled.  I wanted to share a funny pic but this thread caught my attention.

I know someone who is a vicodin junkie.  She is always glassy eyed and always trying to find money to buy more.  It is sad.  Thankfully she has no kids.  her spouse, however, has a legit pain need for them and the prescription  ones they get are for him and he gives 1/2 of them to her and suffers with less pain meds than he needs because of her addiction.  It's messed up all around.

My mother also had a vicodin "problem" as well.  She originally got them prescribed when she had hip replacement surgery.  She still has pain, but she will freely tell you that the vicodin was the only way for her to get through her day (energy boosts).   Her doc stopped them and I think it was because she was combining them with alcohol and the doc found out.  I am pretty sure my uncle (he brother) ratted her out to the doc, I don't know.  She hasn't had them in a year or so but she is still PISSED that she no longer has them.  She wouldn't ever think of buying them off the street though... even if she had the money (she doesn't).

  She also took valium in the 70's.  I remember that even as a little kid.... and when she couldn't get them she was much more of a bitch.

Honestly I wish my mom would just smoke a joint. 

I will admit that I have taken V's for a "bad headache" or something else that was painful but didn't really require THAT kind of pain medication.  I used to get migraines that they couldn't figure out (they were not standard) and I had a script for about 20 Vicodin a month.  I never took that many.  I always had at least 10 to 15 leftover but I refilled the script anyway "just in case". When the weird headaches stopped so did the prescription.  But, I have friends and family who will give me a handful here and there and I *do* justfiy taking them when I have my period because my cramps are really that bad.   But I also must admit enjoying the feeling they give me with how they stop my anxiety.  I am unlike most, I don't get speedy or energetic from them.  I do get "happy" high, and calm though and for ONCE, for a few hours, I am not drowning in anxiety.

I know I should address my anxiety issues with a doc but I have yet to do that.   I take the Vicodin maybe three or four times a month (five of the low dose ones) when I have severe cramps or when my back goes out, and I don't think this is a problem, but I recognize how it *could* be a problem.  Then again, like my mom, I couldn't afford street pills no matter what so it wouldn't be an issue.  

I don't know, just wanted to comment i guess.  Not sure if I have a point.

i took them after my surgery. i can see how the warm fuzzy feeling might help. but, that's not what they are for. and the not pooping thing sucks.

vicoden does seem to make it so I want to do stuff. weird.

It's not only dangerous to take Vicoden w/o a prescription. It's illegal.  Vicoden, when used appropriately, is a very good drug.  This is not, however an appropriate use of it, and using it in this way is what's leading to addictions and maligning a very good medication.

is this a general thing, or does somebody need some help? i can tell you that when i took hydrocodone (generic vicoden) that i DEFINATELY couldn't drive, needed adult supervision in the grocery store(lysol? ok, honey. oooh....butterfly...ooooh, shiny.. omg! make up! i LOVE make up!...and i got lost in frozen foods, lost my glasses, tearfully yelling MARCO! waiting for him to yell "polio" because every other husband in the store said "polo!") and i know he prefered me dopey, and mostly helpless..................so, it was not my thing. i hated feeling like the fish from nemo. but, i can see it as a coping mechanism, when shit is just too much. BUT......at least get different shit. please. if you can.

i am not an addictive person but i could have seen myself getting heavy into vicodin/opiates. they make me feel soooo damn good. but thats the problem- it feels so good that ive been able to look ahead to how easily i could get sucked in into a nasty habit that could really fuck up my life. plus, has anybody else experienced how constipated they make you? its like pooping out a sharp rock. lol. that alone was enough to scare me off.

My BIL was bad on Lortab for awhile. He got so bad that he'd crush and snort them, sometimes he'd even throw in a xanax for fun--so stupid. When he'd been doing it for awhile, he turned into a different person. He was a total asshole all.the.time. Even more so when he couldn't get his hands on any for whatever reason. I have totally jacked a tab from DH before when I worked at Amazon. It helped me finish the day strong and I didn't feel as much like I'd been hit by a truck when I got off. So I totally see where people are coming from here, but I think they're way too addictive and I really wish they weren't so available. There's a new one floating around here called Opana. I'm not really sure what's in it--pretty sure it's not the same as a Vicodin or Lortab, much stronger. Several people have OD'd while using them. Scary shit.

eapple said:

When I hear about moms needing to have something to not feel on the edge all the time I always find myself asking "what happened to smoking a j?" that shit will relax you and make playing with your kids fun instead of a chore.

I'm with you.

@eapple  and @grits and @SchweddyBalls  

I have no objections at all to someone taking a hit or two.  In fact I live with someone with chronic pain due to back injury and nerve damage that doesn't respond to any of the usual pain meds or treatments and in fact, MJ is the ONLY thing that helps. 

I grew up around weed (my brother) and I am completely pro-legalization but I will say that from a personal POV I hate the way it makes me feel.  HATE it.  Even if I just smoke a tiny bit I feel so stupid that I'd be lucky to remember how to wipe my own ass.  Then I get hungry, then I get sleepy, all in an hour or so.   Sometimes my anxious thoughts get worse.

By contrast the effects of a Vicodin for me are totally different.  I feel happy and pleasant and reasonable, I stop obsessing about all of my anxiety related obsessions (which is pretty much anything, really) and I feel like I can just relax a bit and actually enjoy whatever it is I am doing.  I don't get energetic... nothing has that effect on me really.  I just feel "ok" in a way I haven't experienced since I was a teenager.   Just NOT worrying for once.

I wish that smoking worked in a different way for me, honestly. 

deviltwinsmomma said:

Same here @Charlotte_Sometimes I don't like the way weed makes me feel now as an adult. I would rather have a Xanax. And I do like hydrocodone but I'm not going down no mutha fuckin dark alley for it. So if I have it yay me if I don't no big deal I can survive. LOL

Me too.  Except, I haven't had a Xanax in 16 years.   It was prescribed to me when my DS20 was 4, for my anxiety, and I had no experience with it.  The doc wanted me taking it 3 or 4 times a day.  I don't remember what the dosage was but OMG.  It knocked me out cold.   I am that way with many meds... once I remember being at my father's when I was a teenager, and he gave me an OTC sinus medication and I slept for 17 hours!  I am super sensitive to many things in that way. 

So anyhow, I took the Xanax as prescribed, for two days, then went back and told the Doc that it was crazy, I could not function alone with a four year old in the house and take that shit, I kept falling asleep.  He just told me to stop taking it instead of lowering the dosage.  So I haven't taken it since but I have wondered if it might not help me if I had a lower dosage, with my kids older and all.

I think it's a bad, bad idea. Get to a doctor and get something you actually need or you are going to eventually Anna Nicole Smith/Heath Ledger/Amy Winehouse/Whitney Houston yourself because you keep needing more and more drugs or a combo of drugs to get the same feeling you used to get from one pill. 

@undercoverbanana - Moms may think that their kids can't tell when they are taking pills, but I think most would figure out quickly that something is different about their mom when she's on something.

Can I just say I feel that I am damn lucky that I am allergic to most of the codeine family so no lortab vicodein or morphine for me but ya know the lovely demeroyll was nice when in labor!!

@fatchickonabike I worry about the same thing...who is going to drive in an emergency?