IOPList.Org

1. Chronic myofascial back pain/trigger points: this is by far the most debilitating of my issues and managing my pain, seeking therapies, and just dealing with the constant excruciating pain take up most of my time. My pain levels are the main determining factor in what I choose to do on any given day (in essence, it has taken over my life). So far cannabis has been the best thing I've found to reliably help, but since I live in a non-medical state this is risky/expensive/difficult to use as effective medicine since I never know what I'm getting. Unfortunately, due to the cannabis every pain management clinic around here refuses to prescribe any opioid, essentially treating my cannabis us as equivalently indicative of abuse risk as if I used heroin. It sucks to be treated like a felon and refused treatment by the doctors that you're paying to help you. The strongest thing I was prescribed was Lyrica which is all but ineffective since my pan is muscular, not neurological. I also am prescribed Baclofen, which helps somewhat at least sometimes when the muscles/fascia feel tight. Anyway, for a while I was taking a pretty serious cocktail of 300mg Lyrica, 60mg Baclofen, and 1-4g Acetaminophen daily, in addition to chronic cannabis use and occasional alcohol and (unprescribed) benzo use. I realized how many pills I was taking with such little noticeable benefit, so in the past few months I've significantly reduced my consumption of all 3 of Lyr/Bac/APAP to rarely/as needed (I've made one month's prescription of each last 3 months) in order to avoid the risk of long-term side effects or dependence. Anyway, I think Tramadol could be a huge help to me after reading about its specific brand of opiate (high pain relief vs. euphoria/addictive potential), so that is definitely what I am most interested in securing.
   
2. Generalized anxiety disorder: this is the one that's most under control; I first entered therapy for it in Fall 2013, first began treatment with the SSRI Zoloft, and saw amazing improvement in my symptoms (turned my outlook from basically being suicidal to actually enjoying life and being social). The dose and medicine have changed a few times since then, and I am currently on 300mg Bupropion daily. It's working well enough, although I have noticed some potential depressive side effects. But this isn't important, since I'm mostly content with how well my anxiety is managed with the Bupropion (and it's not making my hair fall out like the Zoloft!). But I only mention it because I feel that all three of these issues are interrelated in that the other two are strongly exacerbated by stress and this one is by definition an irrationally strong stress response.
   
3. ADD: this is the one that is least under control and I honestly never had to deal with it until the back pain became so bad that it decimated my attention span, just as my program is ramping up in difficulty. I tried going to a local university clinic and was completely honest about my past recreational drug use (rarely happens anymore besides the cannabis) and continued daily cannabis use. I was essentially told that I had ADD, and had had it since I was a child (but, just as I suspected, I never sought treatment because I was able to make up for it with book smarts/a photographic memory and my parents emphasized education to the point of obsession), BUT the chronic pain and the cannabis use were too big of 'confounding factors' o actually diagnose me. In college I had easy access to Vyvanse (my favorite), Adderall, and Ritalin/Concerta as well as modafinil occasionally. I never used these recreationally and found them incredibly helpful if not necessary to do the work I wanted to do at the level I knew I was capable of doing it. Once I got to grad school though, I lost my contacts and as I mentioned my attempt to be legit see a psych about it left me with nothing but a doctor's bill. So for several years I've mostly used RCs (and addy/vyvanse when I can get it, which is maybe once or twice a year) as well as nootropics such as phenylpiracetam to help with my ADD symptoms so that I may continue publishing papers and keeping my head above water in my difficult research position.
   

(08-13-2016, 06:14 PM)Charon Wrote: [ -> ]welcome. may u find all u need.

if u are in a non medical state, then MMJ is a sch 1.  We don't allow talk of sch 1's on this forum.

Best of luck to you.  Glad to have u here.

(08-13-2016, 06:38 PM)Charon Wrote: [ -> ]No, but thank you.  I am a firm proponent of medical MJ.  It is just it is still a sch 1 in NY.  and most of USA.

Quite unfortunate because to me, it is a miracle medicine.  For autoimmunes among other illnesses.

We can leave it.  Thank you for understanding.

(08-13-2016, 05:14 PM)danc1005 Wrote: [ -> ]Hi everyone,

I am a male in my mid-20s dealing with several difficult physical and mental health issues while trying to keep up with an extremely demanding job (Ph.D program at a very competitive program) and repeated failures/disappointments on the parts of the doctors/specialists/therapists I've seen, seeing little or no improvement while continuing to pay them money for nothing.

My main issues are three, and they can influence and exacerbate each other:

1. Chronic myofascial back pain/trigger points: this is by far the most debilitating of my issues and managing my pain, seeking therapies, and just dealing with the constant excruciating pain take up most of my time. My pain levels are the main determining factor in what I choose to do on any given day (in essence, it has taken over my life). So far cannabis has been the best thing I've found to reliably help, but since I live in a non-medical state this is risky/expensive/difficult to use as effective medicine since I never know what I'm getting. Unfortunately, due to the cannabis every pain management clinic around here refuses to prescribe any opioid, essentially treating my cannabis us as equivalently indicative of abuse risk as if I used heroin. It sucks to be treated like a felon and refused treatment by the doctors that you're paying to help you. The strongest thing I was prescribed was Lyrica which is all but ineffective since my pan is muscular, not neurological. I also am prescribed Baclofen, which helps somewhat at least sometimes when the muscles/fascia feel tight. Anyway, for a while I was taking a pretty serious cocktail of 300mg Lyrica, 60mg Baclofen, and 1-4g Acetaminophen daily, in addition to chronic cannabis use and occasional alcohol and (unprescribed) benzo use. I realized how many pills I was taking with such little noticeable benefit, so in the past few months I've significantly reduced my consumption of all 3 of Lyr/Bac/APAP to rarely/as needed (I've made one month's prescription of each last 3 months) in order to avoid the risk of long-term side effects or dependence. Anyway, I think Tramadol could be a huge help to me after reading about its specific brand of opiate (high pain relief vs. euphoria/addictive potential), so that is definitely what I am most interested in securing.
   
2. Generalized anxiety disorder: this is the one that's most under control; I first entered therapy for it in Fall 2013, first began treatment with the SSRI Zoloft, and saw amazing improvement in my symptoms (turned my outlook from basically being suicidal to actually enjoying life and being social). The dose and medicine have changed a few times since then, and I am currently on 300mg Bupropion daily. It's working well enough, although I have noticed some potential depressive side effects. But this isn't important, since I'm mostly content with how well my anxiety is managed with the Bupropion (and it's not making my hair fall out like the Zoloft!). But I only mention it because I feel that all three of these issues are interrelated in that the other two are strongly exacerbated by stress and this one is by definition an irrationally strong stress response.
   
3. ADD: this is the one that is least under control and I honestly never had to deal with it until the back pain became so bad that it decimated my attention span, just as my program is ramping up in difficulty. I tried going to a local university clinic and was completely honest about my past recreational drug use (rarely happens anymore besides the cannabis) and continued daily cannabis use. I was essentially told that I had ADD, and had had it since I was a child (but, just as I suspected, I never sought treatment because I was able to make up for it with book smarts/a photographic memory and my parents emphasized education to the point of obsession), BUT the chronic pain and the cannabis use were too big of 'confounding factors' o actually diagnose me. In college I had easy access to Vyvanse (my favorite), Adderall, and Ritalin/Concerta as well as modafinil occasionally. I never used these recreationally and found them incredibly helpful if not necessary to do the work I wanted to do at the level I knew I was capable of doing it. Once I got to grad school though, I lost my contacts and as I mentioned my attempt to be legit see a psych about it left me with nothing but a doctor's bill. So for several years I've mostly used RCs (and addy/vyvanse when I can get it, which is maybe once or twice a year) as well as nootropics such as phenylpiracetam to help with my ADD symptoms so that I may continue publishing papers and keeping my head above water in my difficult research position.
   

Anyway I've heard adderall is impossible to find so I have no hopes there (is vyvanse or dexedrine any easier? I actually prefer straight d-amp), but Tramadol for pain management and perhaps Diazepam for management of rare (but intense) acute panic symptoms would be really useful if I could find a source for them.

Anyway, it's extremely frustrating to have all these doctors unable or unwilling to do anything and for me to have to turn to this avenue! But I guess those are the times/country we live in.

Nice to meet everybody and I hope I can contribute something useful as I gain the valuable knowledge contained on this site!