I’m not looking for medical advice, but more understanding. I have chronic back pain. I can alleviate it completely with only 2 things - alcohol and a heating pad. Ibuprofen lessens it but it’s still present. Muscle relaxers do nothing (which makes sense because it’s not muscle related, it’s spinal disk degeneration).
A tall glass of whiskey makes my back relax and I can move normally. Once it wears off tho, it’s right back to tense and painful.
If gabapentin is addictive it must be psychological because I’ve been on and off of it for years now and there isn’t any withdrawal I can discern.
Everybody is different.
I can’t metabolize most painkillers, they do literally nothing to me because I’m missing a liver enzyme. I could eat a handful of percacet every day for months and quit cold turkey easy, because I was never really getting anything out of to begin with.
There are countless reasons why people react differently to medication, that’s why doctors just try random shit till something seems to work.
It might be educated guesswork, but it’s still guesswork. And there’s very little effort put into why/how one thing worked over others, if it works that’s the end of it.
Is withdrawal a requirement for a substance to be defined as addictive?
Addiction and dependence are two different things. You can be dependent without addiction or addicted without dependence. For one cannabis can make people addicted, but the myth from that is because it doesn’t really cause any sort of physical dependence.
On the other hand lyrica etc benzos for example and especially opiates will cause physical dependence, and even if you don’t like want to take the pills, as in you don’t crave them, you’re not addicted to them, you may be dependent and then get withdrawal from quitting.
Addiction can also cause withdrawal, but psychological withdrawal is a bit different than physical.
well, addiction is dependence with harm. Every time I’ve been prescribed a narcotic I’ve felt withdrawal pains and gabapentin does not do that to me.
Addiction and dependence are two different things. You can be dependent without addiction or addicted without dependence. For one cannabis can make people addicted, but the myth from that is because it doesn’t really cause any sort of physical dependence.
On the other hand lyrica etc benzos for example and especially opiates will cause physical dependence, and even if you don’t like want to take the pills, as in you don’t crave them, you’re not addicted to them, you may be dependent and then get withdrawal from quitting.
Addiction can also cause withdrawal, but psychological withdrawal is a bit different than physical.
Whatever. Disagree with the dictionary:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction
I laugh at your puny knowledge of the subject
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_dependence
#A drug addiction, a distinct concept from substance dependence
laugh at what now?
At your puny knowledge of the subject; conflating addiction and dependence, which I just proved to you — with sources — are two distinct medical concepts. Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder, and dependence is a biopsychological situation.
Did you miss this part here: