Comments by "craxd1" (@craxd1) on "Veteran: The VA hooked us on opioids, then failed us again" video.

  1. After two weeks on an opioid, you will have withdrawal symptoms if you are cut off, and you will have to be weaned off the medication. It is according to how severe the trauma was, as to how long one has to take the medication, (some are on it permanently), but it is the physician's responsibility to wean the patient off the drug once the problem for the pain has been cured. Also, some people have an addictive personality, and once on a drug, it is very hard to wean them off, if at all. Thus, there is a difference between an addict and one who is physically dependent. Those who are only physically dependent can be weaned, and they do not crave it while on the medication or afterwards. So, it is the responsibility of the physicians and the VA to wean these men off the medication. Opioids are not the only medication that this can happen with. Steroids, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds, etc, can all cause withdrawal.
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  2. BLACKCROW WALKING It seems that some try to cast a stigma upon people who are on it for a long time, or a lifetime, due to a disease such as severe crippling arthritis, or from an injury which can never be cured, and battle trauma can absolutely cause that. However, some can be cured, and then they are physically dependent, or in other words, will have withdrawal if they are suddenly cut off. They have to be weaned off, and it should be by the ones who started them on it. The ones who need it long term are refereed to proper pain clinics, generally ran by a hospital, where physical therapy and injection therapy are used to help get them better, but for some, there is just no hope, in that they are too physically damaged from trauma or disease, and it's either take the medication, or suffer a lifetime of pain. Cancer patients are another, and to me, nobody should look down upon them. This group only takes it for pain relief, and do not want the high. This group gets punished over the ones who take it for illicit purposes. Then you have the others, whom are considered cured, but their addictive personalities will not allow them to stop, because they seek the high they get from it, instead of any pain relief. The physicians still have a responsibility to get them off of it too, since they were the ones to start them on it. Last, you have the illicit drug users, who take it to get high, then get hooked. They cause problems for everyone.
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