Chrissie,
Kathy is right regarding the addiction definition. Like she said, if
you are having pain and take a pain pill, addiction is not the problem.
When you take them and there is no pain or reason, that is addcition.
People tend to confuse addiction with tolerance. The two are very
different. Tolerance occurs with a disease with increasing pain level,
such as ARD. This happens when the duration of pain relief is
shortened. This is why pain medications such as Oxycontin and MS Contin
work well, it is a time released pain medication, unlike Percocet,
Darvocet, or Loratabs. Most are effective until it is digested, then
will last a short time after that. The Contin type drugs release slowly
over time. A problem occurs with most ARD suffers allowing the levels
of pain medications within their systems to drop to nothing, thus having
the need for more to reach relief. If the pain is severe, which most
ARD suffers have, follow the instructions regarding the time frame.
Keeping the level up where it is having effect and not dropping it down,
can prevent the roller coaster effect. Most of the ARD suffers know
this ride.
Hang in there Chrissie, and do not give up.