I am also sick and tired of everyone believing that anyone taking a narcotic pain med is a drug addict.  I never required nor took a narcotic pain pill until the age of 40.  If I were a drug seeker, I likely would not have waited until the age of 40 to become one.

"Narcotics" is a dirty word.  The very word brings negative connotations.  However, they were created in the FIRST place for pain.  Therefore, I take a narcotic for PAIN.  And yes, it works.  I don't care what literature out there states narcotics don't work for fibro pain, it is a fallacy in my case and in the case of thousands I have spoken with over the last few years who suffer this curse. 

Ok... in order to admit that narcotics work or are needed for the pain of fibromyalgia, it takes the illness to a much more admitted serious level.  Perhaps to a level that society and even some physicians are not yet ready to admit.  This is one of the most potentially debilitating conditions ever experienced.  It is pain in some cases on a very severe level equal to that of cancer patients. 

Yes, I have tried Lyrica.  Lyrica did help to some extent for a while then lost all effectiveness at the highest recommended dose.  It is far from the panacea to fibromyalgia pain.  I won't say it does not help anyone.  However, the commercials themselves only serve to minimize the severity of what levels this disease can reach.  It makes it look simple.  They take a pill and POOF...the pain is gone and the person is smiling and looks so wonderful. 

Other methods do work for some people and I won't say they don't.  However, for myself, Vicodin is the only thing that can really touch this pain anymore.  And I never am high on my medication.  I am never impaired.  No one would even know I take it if I did not tell them.  I don't crave the drug.  I do not seek the drug so I can get wasted.  I simply take it for pain for which it is still effective after several years. 

The media is full of negatives about narcotics especially in recent light of the death of Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, and the obvious problem of Paula Abdul.  However, society in general only hears the abuse side of the drugs.  They do not know the ones of us who benefit greatly from them for pain relief and actually never get high or wasted from the medications.  I am an adovocate for narcotic pain relief.  Notice, I am not saying I am an advocate for those who get them on the street so they can party with them.  I am not an advocate of drug abuse.  In fact, I believe it is despicable because these types of behaviors only serve to leave many in pain to suffer because doctors are so afraid to prescribe. 

In fact, I have read studies which have shown that less than 2% of people taking narcotics for chronic pain ever face addiction.  So as for me, as long as my doctor is humane enough to help me not suffer as much pain, I will take narcotic pain meds.  That is until there is a cure for this cursed illness.  And as for those that don't approve, I really do not care because they are speaking from the standpoint of ignorance.