Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 10/12/2007

Question
Back in '98, I had an accident at work and required an arthorscope on my knee.   That turned into another and another and another surgery, by 2003, I had a patellar realignment, several arthroscopes and a couple of horrid infections that landed me in the hospital for treatment.   During all that time, I was kept on either Vicodin or Percocet and there were a couple of times I was on morphine.    In total, I had 17 surgical procedures on my knee and due to the complications I still have a screw in my knee that by now, should have been removed.

That wasn't the end.  In 2004, I started having pretty ugly intestinal problems, cramping, bloody diahhrea...I was admitted in the hospital, for three weeks, for the first incident and was treated by a gastro.    This doctor was trying to figure out if I had Crohn's Disease or colitis.    Three months later, the bowel issues started again and after another colonoscopy and a few biopsies this doctor determined I did have Crohn's Disease.    I went to a holistic doctor to have my back problems addressed.   After getting my complete history, this doctor wasn't convinced I had Crohn's, he explained to me that after all of my surgical procedures and infections, my intestines had been stripped of all the natural things I needed to keep my body functioning in a healthy manner.

I had the intestinal symptoms for a couple of years and they still thought I had Crohn's Disease, I ended up losing my appendix and gallbladder.   I was treated with IV steroids, Remecade infusions and mass doses of pain medication, ranging from Daludid, morphine, Percocet and Vicodin extra strength.

The last serious episode with my insides was over a year ago, I was having gallbladder pain and had no gallbladder, so the doctor who ordered my gallbladder removed went in to do an ERCP.   While sedated and on the table, the excruciating pain brought me out of sedation and I sat up while the equipment was in my common bile duct and then it all turned bad from there, not only did I scare the crud out of my doctor I ended up in ICU with severe pancreatitis, so severe the swelling of my pancreas shut down my right kidney, which required a stent put in.   More complications, I aspirated on the table and woke up a day later on a ventilator.  Scary stuff right there.

All of these years, I was on some form of pain medication, mostly Percocet.   I started to realize that my marriage was failing, due to my husband drinking and later discovered he was abusing cocaine.   Fear prevented me from leaving him as he became abusive.   Shamefully, I started using my pain medication to escape the reality of my life.   I was no longer symptomatic of any intestinal diseases and my knee was not an issue.   It was much easier to deal with my living situation while high.   The Percocet seemed to make everything better.

I'm happy to say that I finally had the courage to file domestic violence charges against my husband, my divorce will be final in a couple of weeks and he is on his way to prison, he violated his probation and he's toast now.   I stopped taking the Percocet and all the other "evils" I had access to and I just went cold turkey.   It has only been a couple of weeks, they were a rough couple of weeks, I felt listless, depressed, nauseated and very anxious.    I find myself wanting to call any of my doctors to get more drugs and I don't need them and I know I don't need them.   I find myself missing that feeling of being invinsible and high.    Is this going to continue for a long time?    Should I just continue to suck it up and eventually the feelings will pass?     I know I don't need the drugs, I really don't and as bad as I've been feeling lately, I'd like the drugs just to work through these bad feelings.    It sucks.   In my mind, I'd like to know that there is an end in sight and this "wanting" feeling will diminish.

In total, I had four major, long hospital stays due to the intestinal problems and because of the steroids and the other medications I had, in one year I gained a total of 90 pounds, most of which I've since lost, my colon is healthy and I still have all of it, at one point, after the second hospitalization, I nearly lost most of my colon due to the severe inflammation and bleeding, I begged my doctor to give me a little more time so I wouldn't have to lose any more body parts.

I was thinking that I survived all these health crises, a bad marriage and abuse, I thought I successfully got off the pills and I find as time is going on, I think I'm actually craving the drugs.   Am I in fact mental?    Thanks for your time!      Sincerely, Rebecca

Answer
Hi Rebecca,

My goodness you have had quite a medical history. I am so glad that you have managed to get off drugs. I am not a doctor and I feel that medical questions should be addressed to them. My understanding is that you are mainly concerned about addiction to pain-relieving drugs. Being addicted to drugs or having unreasonable cravings for drugs is not a "psychological" matter but rather a biological matter affecting your health. It has to do with your body's inability to produce feel good neurotransmitters. This may due to a nutritional disorder that can be rectified by nutritional means.

When coming off drugs of addiction - of whatever kind - the body will be bombarded with stress hormones. If you keep on feeling stressed despite withdrawal. It may be due that these stress hormones are caused by an underlying metabolic disorders that can be treated by nutritional means and not drugs.

For some possible mechanisms please have a look at the following articles:

Management of Chronic Pain at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/pain_management.html

If you think that addiction and continued cravings is the problem, please read:

Drug Addition is a Nutritional Disorder at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/drug_addictions_nutritional_disorder.htm...

Sugar Cravings at:
http://curezone.com/upload/PDF/Articles/jurplesman/Sugar_Craving1.pdf

Thus I don't think you are mental, but rather an unhealthy body producing the wrong neurotransmitters.

IU sincerely hope that the information given will help resolve your problems, if not please ask to be referred to a Nutritional Doctor or a Clinical Nutritionist.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman BA (Psych) Post Grad Dip Clin Nutr
Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search