Will I get addicted?

Question

I'm recovering from oral surgery and I've been on painkillers for 6 days straight, all day everyday. I took 2 ibuprofens 3 times a day, and 2 mersyndols at night, perhaps more if i woke up in the middle of the night. If i stop now will i go thru withdrawal symptoms or am I just being paranoid. is what i'm taking even addictive?

Answer 1

The ibuprofen is not addictive. The Mersyndol might be--it's a combination of tylenol, codeine, and a sedative.

However, I doubt you have been taking it long enough to become addicted. Try to scale back the amount of mersyndol you are using and replace it with something like regular tylenol.

Remember that addiction, strictly defined, is both a physical need for and an emotional or psychological compulsion to take something. The person has no insight into their addiction, and can't stop themselves from taking their drug of choice even if they know the consequences. This doesn't sound like you.

Next time, try taking just 1 mersyndol and 2 ibuprofens, and drink plenty of water, take a nap, and use ice on your mouth. You're doing great!

Answer 2

Codeine is not highly addictive, and seems to work differently if you are in pain.  The chance of addiction is very low if you stop when the pain is gone.

Answer 3

Short answer, no.  Neither of those drugs create withdrawal symptoms or are addictive at any dose or length of treatment.

The long answer is worth a discussion of dependency separate from medical addiction.  You've only been on the pills for six days, so this probably wouldn't apply to you anyways, but there are times when people cease to feel right without certain drugs.  The exact modes of the reaction are unknown.  Addiction is something that can be tested in a lab, but it is generally done on a variety of caged animals, and it's very possible that there are drugs that are not addictive for anything except a human.  The reigning explanation is that there are mild withdrawl symptoms that a patient cannot describe and a doctor cannot measure, but it lacks the weight of scientific evidence because the hypothesis itself is difficult to test.  Beyond the withdrawl hypothesis, there's also good ol' human nature--people get paranoid, needy, or exhibit psychosomatic reactions when they think they need something that they don't.

Anyways, the only reason I mention it is that there are reports of dependency for muscle relaxants in the same family as yours when taken for over a month, occuring in less than 5% of people on an extended course of treatment.