Pain patients use them to return to reality. Addicts use drugs to escape from reality. Pain patients use them to return to reality. Addicts want to avoid lives normal stresses, while pain patients want to have the freedom to battle with them. Aside from the physical pain, pain patients basically enjoy their psychological lives.
Addicts use drugs to avoid their psychological lives.
Very few pain patients ever become addicted in the same sense as the common notion of the street or dysfunctional addict. Unfortunately, many pain patients have to resort to demanding behaviors to maintain their supply of medications. People not in pain too often forget just how uncomfortable pain can be, and those who suffer from pain cannot quietly wait for relief until the system is ready to give it to them. He says that often the term 'addiction' is applied to a patient who demands additional medication when in fact the fault lies with the medical staff who is under treating the pain or using unrealistic dosing schedules. Many of the medical staff treating pain patients have very little real experience with the so-called hard core addict.