A Shame Prince Didn’t Know This Lady*

She might have advised Prince to reconsider the high-heeled high-jumps that led to the pain that led to the pills that led to the addiction that led to his untimely death. Since he “had an unflinching reputation  (New York Times) among those close to him for leading an assiduously clean lifestyle” he probably never dreamt his “Purple Reign” would come to an end at 57.

Hint: Legal does not mean “risk-free.” “Risky” does not mean unnecessary. Surgery can be necessary. Using a scalpel to cut on myself, isn’t. Alas, for some folks, cutting might feel necessary. Slick has many faces. Two faces aren’t enough for this consummate liar.

To minimize the risk of using prescription painkillers, typically "opioids” (related to heroin), do not try to drive your pain to “zero.” The prescriber should ask you, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is your pain?” If you answer “9,” they should ask, “On that scale, how much pain could you tolerate?” If you say “6,” then you should take enough to drop the pain to “6” and no further.

When you use drugs to alleviate physical or emotional pain, your brain doesn’t eliminate the cause of the pain, just your awareness of pain. The brain discovers that the messages informing you “Houston, we have a problem!” have been blocked, so it "shouts" them louder. Like a kid in a grocery store trying get his mother’s attention as she chats with a friend. She automatically tunes him out, he shouts louder. By the time he punches through, he can be heard by people in the parking lot.

This is the mechanism that drives “tolerance” to drugs. This is why we need to stop at “6.” This is also why we can’t use the meds to “play with pain,” even if they allow us to keep the pain at a tolerable “6.” Pain is our friend! Pain says, “Knock that off! You are damaging our body! Stop it! You hear me? No? Well, let’s amp it up a little more!” The more we use, the more we need to use to drown out our brain’s pleas for stronger and stronger relief, until finally the “therapeutic dose” is dangerously close to the “lethal dose.”

Eventually, this bastard “child” *** is screaming so loud that the pain messages are still coming through despite the opioid’s attempts to block them. Quitting the drug “cold turkey” allows those amplified messages to come pouring in all at once. This is known as withdrawal. Now the person is confronted by a choice of two “evils,” and their brain is in no condition to make an accurate assessment to determine which is “the lesser.”

In the case of opioids, the withdrawal feels like death is imminent, although alcohol withdrawal is more likely to kill a person. A person attempting to abstain or even cut back, after having already burned through most of their month’s prescription, goes into that extremely painful withdrawal and desperation sets in. If they “score” the drug via “doctor shopping,” a friend, a dealer or someone’s medicine cabinet, they are especially liable to overdose. Like the time you were totally dehydrated, nearing heat stroke and given ice water. “I better sip this slowly…glug, glug, glug."

Prince was supposed to meet with a doctor specializing in addiction treatment the day after he died ... to deal with a "grave medical condition." (TMZ)

Another dangerous situation occurs once Slick becomes aware that serious plans are afoot to deprive him of his sustenance. Slick does not communicate via language. He has much more powerful means at hand. Emotional messages. Emotions screaming from our Survival Circuits: “We’re going to die if we don’t get our drug!” Wrong again, Slimeball! We’re going to die if we don’t stop getting our drug. The same Survival Circuit that goes after that water like it was the last H₂O molecule on earth tears into the new supply with the same ferocity. Down the hatch! Into the vein! Relief! So, so, sweet. So, so, so deadly. (Cue The Final Last Hurrah).

Have you ever noticed that we don't have to wake up every minute all night long and remind ourselves to breathe? That's because Slick is just a hijacker in our Survival Circuit, which is our autopilot for breathing and sending reminders to eat or drink water. The key to breathing is that our autopilot never goes to sleep. Opioids and alcohol put your brain to sleep in levels, judgment famously being the first to go. The last level is our autopilot. A sleeping autopilot steers us quickly into “The Big Sleep.”

If you have never experienced withdrawal, but would like to get a sense of its power over people, give me less than two minutes of your time and I will put you there: Sit in a chair with arms. Take three deep, slow, breaths. Hold the last one as long as you can, without fainting. Few people will have to worry about that anyway. Our Survival Circuit will scream loudly enough to let you know the experiment succeeded. You have just gone into withdrawal from oxygen.

*From the obituary of a rural woman who just died at 101:

While a student at Doland High School in 1929, Ethel’s…project studied the “harmful effects on our bodies from wearing high heeled shoes…”

For a look into a now-quaint lifestyle, but a useful and well-lived life, see the rest of her obituary here.

**From NIDA heroin search results”

“Heroin can be injected, inhaled by snorting or sniffing, or smoked. All three routes of administration deliver the drug to the brain very rapidly, which contributes to its health risks and to its high risk for addiction, which is a chronic relapsing disease caused by changes in the brain and characterized by uncontrollable drug-seeking no matter the consequences.” (my emphasis)

“Changes in the brain” emphasized because it matters not what your brain thought and, more importantly, felt, before you used a drug. If your brain changes, you change. You change your feelings, thoughts, behaviors and attitudes. Slick changes you for the worse a lot easier than you are going to be able to change back. Only sure fire means of prevention: Don’t sample or you might wind up being the specimen. More on this in another post.

***My brother says, “There are no illegitimate children. Just illegitimate parents.”