Training Doctors about Addiction, the Missing Link?

The two stories in this video tell the tale of how two young men who had normal lives, suddenly had accidents that required medical attention. They both went to the hospital with injuries severe enough, so that they were prescribed pain medication. Eventually, both these men got heavily addicted to their medications and went from the pain pills to hard drugs, becoming homeless street junkies.

The missing link in this story however, is what happened when the doctors realized they should no longer prescribe painkillers. Did the doctors know their patients were getting addicted to the medications prescribed? The answer is a quite probable “yes” because for the types of injuries these men had, they were likely prescribed narcotics, which are known to be addicting and hard to let go of once someone is addicted to them.

Narcotics are also gateway drugs like many other habit-forming drugs on the regulated and black market. The fact is that doctors are not trained to respond to addiction and they are not trained on how to handle a patient, once he or she becomes addicted. Doctors are also not trained on how to handle people in sobriety who have serious medical necessity for medication, that may or may not be habit forming.

For those of us who are sober, when we are faced with a procedure or surgery, we should work with our doctor and a trusted friend to help us manage our prescribed medication. In sobriety this can be a scary place to be, but with plenty of communication and leaving others in charge of managing our medication, we stand a very good chance of overcoming these obstacles and staying in control of our recovery.