Caller Gives Very Candid Account Of His Painkiller Addiction

21 August 2017, 14:33

As a charity warns of people getting "accidentally" addicted to painkillers one caller gives a first hand account of how it happened to him.

Daniel experienced serious pain, partially due to a car crash, for which he was prescribed strong painkillers. However, once the pain subsided sufficiently he continued to take them, and he told Clive Bull that the health system enabled that.

“You just phone up and get a repeat prescription, over and over again.

“It’s just a cycle that starts and it difficult to stop.”

An additional problem was that he had not had help to deal with psychological damage from his experience. Daniel says he was depressed and drinking as well, which seriously affected his personal and professional life.

“It affected my marriage, but fortunately my wife stuck with me. In my work place I was agitated, I was a little bit nasty to colleagues. It jeopardised my career as well.”

Unfortunately Daniel struggled to get the treatment he needed in this country but did manage to find it in Singapore, where he saw a pain specialist. Through that he also got psychological help for what he was going through, which also helped him live with chronic pain.

Daniel says he’s now down to one Tramadol per day, even though he can now deal with the pain, but is weening himself off them.