Drug Seeker?
May become demanding and assertive.
The person became very demanding of me
as to what medication I was prescribed and what the name of the doctor was who gave
me the pain medication. It was 4 in the morning and I had not slept for a long
time at that point. I had not been to the pharmacy yet and thus did not know
what the medication was or remember the name of the doctor. I could not read
the prescription form at all and could not answer her. After six times of
repeating her questions to me in increasingly more demanding terms, she then
got mad and claimed, “you must not care if people are in pain and don’t
want to help them” (this ties into another of the factors in this list).
Will try to strong-arm the doctor, or play on the doctor's
sympathies.
As mentioned above tried to first strong
arm me into telling her the name of the doctor and name of the pain medication.
She also did this with another person I know and was upset when he told her other
than what she wanted to hear. Her significant other is also very much falling
for this claim she needs industrial pain medication. His emotions have been
manipulated to the point several people he knows (including myself) have
figured out what is happening with his change in attituded. He, like her, is aggressive
in seeking pain medication for her.
May exhibit a high level of knowledge of controlled substances.
This person has a great deal of knowledge
of what various kinds of pain medications will do for her. In talking with her
she knew what she wanted and why she wanted it. Without looking them up she was
able to say the side effects and benefits of the medications to her situation
as she presented it.
Will request a specific drug and does not want to change to a
different drug.
She had a specific drug she wanted to obtain
and tried to get me to get that same medication from my doctor. Even after
telling her many times that my doctor will not proscribe narcotics she kept
telling me to ask for the drug by name and told me to “insist
on it”. I can’t imagine why she wanted me
to get that certain drug – well I can speculate but I can’t
be sure.
Will go from doctor to doctor, or hospital to hospital.
Has claimed to have been to most doctors
not only in this city but in another city as well and a couple in a third city.
She complained that all of them where unwilling to give her what she wanted and
that they where “wrong about her situation”.
She also claimed that most of them just think she is looking for drugs and don’t
care that she is in pain. The fact that there is testing for her condition and
that her claims that the tests won’t work on her because of
the length of time she has had the condition are false. The testing will work
years and even decades after infection and in fact the opposite is true, too
soon after infection and the tests will fail to say you are infected. Her other
claims that “it has left my blood and gone into the muscles”
is nonsensical. The blood will carry markers of infection in the body from many
sources and in fact the test is for these immune response markers.
* Can either explain his or her medical history completely or is very
vague about medical history. *
Has memorized the condition and the
effects she claims it has on her. Now this one is one that can be counted as
silly in someone that has been sick as long as she claims to be. After years of
the same illness you do know by memory what is happening to you and when it
happened as you hare recited it so dang many times in the past –
I know this first hand with my 18 years of having Fibromyalgia. In fact, I don’t
know why this is in the list, it represents literally most people that are
seeking help from a doctor.
Is not interested in his or her diagnosis and has no interest in
further testing or referrals.
Similar situation as she claims that
testing will no longer work on her because of how long she has had the condition.
The fact as stated before that the condition does not have a maximum time frame
for testing is a point that angers her when mentioned. She sticks to what she
claims to be wrong and demands the treatment that she wants and will not listen
to others in any way about alternatives.
To sum it all up I am aware quite well
from years of dealing with a family member that would do anything to get prescription
pain medication just what to look for and it became very evident to me after
her confrontation of me the one night that she was without a doubt just looking
for drugs. Her story on simple investigation does not hold up and can be proven
to be false. Others I know have been asked to help her in the quest for getting
narcotic pain medication. Very soon after knowing me (minutes after) she asked
about doctors who prescribed pain medication – this was
also the same with two other people I know.
I do realize that sometimes people who
are desperate to get treatment can appear to be seekers and fall threw the
cracks, but in this case it does very clearly indicate this is not the case.
Resource for Chronic Pain Suffers in Saskatchewan:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/therapists/chronic-pain/saskatchewan
I know people who have such chronic pain that they accept addiction in order to get relief from a degenerative condition, but it is devastating when they for some reason run out and suddenly must endure the full brunt of the pain. They may turn to deep alcoholism as a means of getting relief. It is a destructive cycle that is unbearable to watch, and I know people who have had to watch and were helpless to change things. The government may want to intervene to prevent or stop this, but the consequences are seldom pretty, and the outcome very ugly.
ReplyDeleteThe system does fail but not in this case. It's obvious. But yes there are a lot of people with years of pain that are not medicated or under medicated. It's tragic. I k ow of people who have killed themselves over it. It's the opposite of what I was talking about.
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