ESPN OTL: NFL Painkiller Misuse

[Stranger]

This story is a couple years old, but I never saw it....

Outside the Lines reveals the results of a scientific study, that for the first time reveals the level of prescription painkiller use and misuse by retired NFL players. The Washington U. study was commissioned by ESPN, with additional funding by the National Institute on Drug Abuse., and published in the international medical journal, Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

<a class="postlink" href="http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/columns/story?columnist=cimini_rich&id=6267822" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/ ... id=6267822</a>

[espn]6061829[/espn]

More on study...
<a class="postlink" href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=110128/PainkillersNews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/ ... illersNews</a>

 

[albefree69]

My brother died at 42 from using drugs and alcohol. Mainly alcohol and cough medicine but really any drug he could get except heroin. My whole family knew it was coming for many years before his death. Addiction isn't pretty.

Like many things it's very complicated and yet at its core it's not.

 

[-X-]

I can fully understand how those guys can get hooked. I used to have chronic back problems after my accident and was on a full rotation of percocet and vicodin. It's really easy to rely on those thing for pain relief, and well beyond the time the pain has subsided. It's STUPID hard to get off of them too.

Now I just tolerate the pain. Came too close to not waking up once and won't do that again.

Now, that said (and this is getting personal), you do have to have that "gene" of addiction in you too I think.

 

[albefree69]

X dishing out the truth:

Now, that said (and this is getting personal), you do have to have that "gene" of addiction in you too I think.

As I know to my sorry only too well. My dad was an alcoholic and so is one of my sons. It skipped me, my other two sons and my sisters completely but we were just lucky. I still worry almost every day about my daughter. She's only 11 so I won't know for a few years but the whole family has their fingers crossed.

My oldest son has adopted two kids instead of fathering his own because of his fear of passing it on to any biological kids he might have.

Of all the diseases and genetic disorders that exist in this world, this is the one that I most hope for a cure to be found. I'm not sure if anyone is even working seriously on the problem. I don't mind talking about it because the more stories of this kind of thing that get out in the open the more attention it gets and the greater the chance that someone might take up the fight to find a cure. Won't happen in my lifetime.