I have a question I couldn’t find in the search. I’m not sure if I am wrong with this question, but I thought using methadone in our time awake, it would change us into addiction. If that’s true, why does using it in general aesthesia in a surgery, not do the same thing? When they wake up, why does that not make people into addicts?
Thank you.
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Additions are formed (More or less), when you choose a substance to improve something about your life. They usually suffer from a feedback loop.
Something in your life is bad, don’t resolve it, use the drug instead to make your life good. Once the drug wears off, life is bad again, use the drug, and now its good.
Unfortunately the period of time where you feel good gets shorter and shorter, and the way that you feel in the bad time gets worse and worse. Until you are just using the drug just to feel normal, and you really don’t get much benefit.
Using a drug like that in a controlled situation where you are not making any decisions, makes it much harder for it to get into your reward processing and decision making afterwards.
BUT if they send you home with opioids, then that can cause the feedback loop.
Addiction is a complex thing, and is usually a combination of a bunch of things.
Here are some simplified reasons why you might receive opioids in a medical setting and not become addicted:
1. You’re unconscious. It’s hard to get addicted to something you don’t even remember taking. Even if you experienced withdrawals, your brain wouldn’t connect them to the drug you were administered, so there’s no risk of forming a habit.
2. Opioids don’t usually produce physical withdrawal symptoms immediately and it usually takes prolonged use for them to start to appear. Mental addiction can occur, but again, you would need to be conscious.
3. Addiction has a lot to do with control of administration. Simplified: If *you* take a drug, then your brain knows *you* can take that drug whenever *you* want and so it rewires itself to make you do it. If you have no control over the administration of the drug, then it’s a lot less likely you’ll form a habit.
Real reason though: The brain is really complicated and we’re still just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding and treating addiction.
When you do something like this recreationally, you expect to get high and feel good. When you do this you think, “Shit that was amazing! I will do this again.” And many do take it again and start a relationship with the substance that can turn into addiction. Plus you had to buy it and likely have multiple doses. When used in a medical setting, I imagine they use enough to completely knock your ass out, or if you aren’t unconscious you are likely still getting an uncomfortable medical procedure, so it is not nearly as enjoyable. And after the procedure, they usually don’t give you a bottle of the shit to take home(except for painkillers).
I wanted to add, using pain killers for my example: when you take pills for fun, you get high because you do not need them. When you take pills because you’re physically injured or in a lot of pain, the pills are busy being pain killers Vs being fun. You might feel a little silly but it’s not the same. This an important thing to note when someone has to take pills for a while after a major injury or surgery.
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