Transitioning from Pain Management to Suboxone

Seeking telemedicine addiction treatment in Tennessee is usually a personal choice. Some people know when it’s time to transition from pain management to Suboxone treatment. Others will have family and friends make suggestions based on their behaviors. Sometimes the courts decide when a person needs to start online Suboxone treatment.

How Do You Know When It’s Time to Start Addiction Treatment?

Trust me, you know when it’s time. But, like me, you might wait until things get really bad in your life before accepting you’re addicted and starting online addiction treatment. Anyone addicted to opioids will begin to display signs of their addiction that anyone can spot.

Opioid addicts develop very addictive behaviors that are easy to see in others but maybe not so easy to see in one’s self. In my final years of opioid addiction, nothing meant more to me than what I later named “pain pill management.”

Pain pill management started as a mild obsession. Closer to the end of each month, or rather, when I was within a few days of a medication refill from my pain management clinic, I would begin to count my pills incessantly.

At first, it was counting my pills when only the last four or five days of a prescription remained. I would count them repeatedly each time I counted, sometimes three or four times per day. I had to be absolutely sure I had enough OxyContin and oxycodone pills remaining before my pain medication refills could be processed.

When I was taking 40 mg of hydrocodone per day, being short one or two pills on the last day before a refill wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Occasionally, this would happen as a result of me taking five 10 mg hydrocodone pills instead of four on any given day. I began doing this more and more often due to the immediate gratification of euphoria the hydrocodone provided me.

Knowing I was 4–5 pills short at the end of the month meant rationing the last few days. Over the remaining three or four days, I would try to balance out the remaining 10 mg of hydrocodone pills to make the very last day more tolerable.

This is when I first realized I had a serious addiction to pain pills. For one, I was ending every pain pill prescription cycle with a shortage. Taking too much throughout the month became the norm, not the exception. It might sound silly to normal people, but taking three pills instead of four on the last day before a hydrocodone refill was a big deal to someone like me who was heavily addicted to opioids.

Why Not Just Take a Little Bit Less?

The moment your brain sees that you’re not getting as much as you normally take, it reacts. Even taking a sliver of a pain pill less would start a craving that is indescribable. The only thing my brain could think of was, “Without that last little sliver of a pill, I’m not getting the whole amount.” Knowing I was missing that one little piece of the pain pill literally drove my opioid addicted brain crazy.

The tiny piece of the narcotic pill that I didn’t take became more important than the rest of the pill that I did take. Any attempt to cut back or take less had immediate psychological and physical ramifications. I could often feel very real opioid withdrawals setting in when trying to take less pills.

Then, there were the many times when I realized I was going to be short 3, 6, or even 20 hydrocodone pills at the end of the month. This was perhaps the worst feeling of all. Typically it meant experiencing instant opioid withdrawal and extreme cravings for more pills. Those were the times I was willing to do anything it took to get more hydrocodone pills.

“The tiny piece of the pill that I didn’t take became more important than the rest of the pill that I did take.”

Moving from Family Physician to Pain Management

As my addiction progressed far beyond what my family doctor could deal with. I convinced him many times to refill my pills early due to shortage. He eventually recommended I go to a pain specialist. His prescribing four 10 mg hydrocodone tablets per day was the maximum he was comfortable with. He never once told me I had a problem with the hydrocodone pills he prescribed me. He knew I was addicted, and probably felt bad for helping me along. But, he was a caring doctor who genuine;ly tried to help me.

In moving me to pain management he suggested that my tolerance had grown to a level that surpasses his expertise. He knew I had built up a tolerance to the 40 mg of hydrocodone he prescribed me every day, but there was nothing left for him to do but refer me to someone who could prescribe more powerful narcotics for my alleged pain.

The Drugs are now Running the Person

Put quite simply, when someone gets addicted to opioids, the opioids are now in control of the person. As I mentioned earlier, I would sometimes feel opioid withdrawal symptoms setting in the moment I realized I would be short a pill or two on my last day before a medication refill. I would also experience immediate back pain when even thinking about not having enough pain pills.

Back pain was the tool my brain used against me anytime I tried to take less or even thought about taking less opioids. When I went into inpatient treatment, they took away all my medication and forced me into opioid withdrawal. I was in so much pain that all I could do was lay on the bed curled up like a baby. I remember thinking, “There’s no way in hell I can function normally without pain medication.” I also thought my choice to try inpatient treatment was a huge waste of time and money since I’ll never be free of pain pills.

The Human Brain Will Do Literally Anything to Get More Opioids
Intense back pain was a trick that my brain used against me when it wanted more and more opioids. The pain was as real as any pain I’ve ever experienced. How? My brain made it real. Here’s the interesting thing: After getting clean and sober, my back pain nearly went away. Now, I take two 200 mg ibuprofen tablets and get nearly complete relief.

Compare that to the 250 mg of OxyContin and oxycodone I was taking at the peak of my opioid addiction, which never felt like enough. My back hurt all day every day while taking 200+ mg of anything oxy-related. Back pain was a constant reminder that I could not survive without opioid pain pills.

The pain pills dictated everything I did by telling me my back pain was serious and that without pills, I could not function or focus. Pain pills were in total control of me and influenced every decision I made.

Was My Back Pain Real, or an Opioid Ruse?

I remember a nurse practitioner at the pain management clinic I visited told me that I had a bulging disc, a slipped disc, and a pinched nerve in my lower back. I thought that sounded pretty serious and justified my wanting more pain pills. He made it a point to tell me that these types of conditions in the lower back were very common. So common, in fact, that some people could have the very same conditions and not even know it.

Now that I’m clean and sober, do I think I have real back pain from these issues? I’m not actually sure. My back gets sore if I’m bent over too long without stretching, and that’s about it. I lift weights four days per week and have never felt pain doing so.

I can’t even say where this lower back ache comes from other than being uncomfortable at times. I’ve helped people move, I lift heavy things regularly, and I genuinely feel like I have nothing wrong with my back. When it does ache, I take two (sometimes three) 200 mg of ibuprofen and usually feel fine within 20 minutes.

“Pain pills were in total control of me and influenced every decision I made.”

The Last Days of Opioid Addiction Were Pure Hell

In the end, I was typically short twenty to thirty narcotic pain pills every month. This is when things got bad. I began buying them on the street, begging friends and family for leftovers, and lying through my teeth to doctors, pharmacists, friends, family, and anyone else who would listen to my pleas for more oxycodone pills. This is also when my pill counting became obsessive.

Obsessive Pain Pill Counting

Approaching the last seven to eight days of every month, I would count my oxycodone and OxyContin pills ten or more times every day. I would write down a game plan of how I would take one or two tablets less every day to balance it out. The problem is, as noted above, the moment you take less, your brain wants more. The moment you think about taking less, your brain wants more. As became the norm, I would end up taking the same (or even more) pain pills the remaining days and run out. It was as if I thought a solution would magically appear at the end of the month and solve my pill shortage. My magic solution was lying to everyone about everything necessary to get more pain pills.

It was during those times that I began to question whether this was really how I wanted to live the rest of my life; Addicted or not addicted

Suboxone Saved My Life. Therapy Changed My Life

I lost my oldest brother to an opioid overdose in 2005. There’s no doubt in my mind that had he been prescribed Suboxone and gone into therapy like I did, he would still be alive. His experience of inpatient treatment was getting locked in a room and going cold turkey off alcohol and pain pills. It was awful to witness.

If he had had virtual Suboxone treatment, he could’ve continued working, continued being a father to two teenage sons, and continued being the great husband that he was. Instead, he kept using, took too much oxycodone, and stopped his heart.

Looking back, I knew I had a problem many years before I did something about my opioid addiction. I just didn’t have as many problems back then. It was when the problems got serious that I was able to make the decision to get clean from drug abuse.

If you can relate to any of the above, there’s a good chance you’re addicted to opioids. But hey, I’m willing to bet you already know that.

Get Help with Your Opioid Addiction.

A lot has changed since I got clean. Now, there are telemedicine Suboxone providers here in Tennessee who can treat anyone living in Tennessee using only a cell phone. They even ship Suboxone to your door.

Think of the many benefits that virtual Suboxone telemedicine treatment in Tennessee provides:

• No driving for telemedicine Suboxone treatment
• No clinic visits for telemedicine Suboxone treatment
• No waiting rooms for telemedicine Suboxone treatment
• No uncomfortable interactions for telemedicine Suboxone treatment
• No babysitter or daycare is needed for telemedicine Suboxone treatment
• TennCare insurance accepted for telemedicine Suboxone treatment
• Commercial insurance accepted for telemedicine Suboxone treatment
• Suboxone is delivered to anywhere in Tennessee

Don’t wait too long like I did. I could have enjoyed the last four or five years I wasted being addicted to opioids. I could have gotten into telemedicine Suboxone treatment the moment I knew I had an addiction problem instead of waiting, letting my life fall apart, and hurting the many people around me who loved me that I refused to listen to.

Click here to start virtual Suboxone treatment using only your cell phone.