for the first time for the condition(s) you are treating today?

Looks like the majority is in the range of 24-35

I was 22 years old when I was first diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. The doctors were surprised and said they felt sorry that I was so young and had that condition. They said I was too young to have to feel so old. After cortisone shots in my back, medications for muscle spasms, 4 months of physical therapy, manipulation therapy, a consultation with a back surgeon, and a meeting with an anesthesiologist, they put me on pain meds. Percocets were the only thing that was able to help my pain.

39 chronic myofascial pain syndrome, sleep disorder, chronic fatigue... etc.

I was only 15 years old when I started having bad anxiety and insomnia. At the time I was using nearly every over-the-counter sleeping pills. I've also suffered from migraine headaches since I was 9.

sometimes when you needed medications and when you actually were diagnosed and prescribed the medications, could be many, many years apart

Agreed

My first episode with my neck (due to DDD) happened when I was 26. I struggled along for many years until finally, when I was in my early 40's I had to quit working due to the pain in my neck, back and hips.

I was about 48 when I needed to take pain meds regularly. I'm now 53.

I was diagnosed about two years ago. I was forty. I find that the docs are more liable to give meds to us older folks.

I never thought about any meds when I was younger. I guess I just drank alcohol then. However, I have not had a drink in over six years. I guess that comes with age, too!!

I imagine some docs might be more willing to prescribe to older people but I haven't found them...

I had a sleeping problem throughout my childhood and was 16 when during a hospital stay that I was given a sleeping med because I couldn't sleep. I have been on sleeping meds ever since.

I was on ADHD medication during elementary school and it made me a zombie.

Same way with me bunny (25,lil older) and that was their biggest hang up/worry/hold back prescribing narcotics that they would express to me was that I was too young to be taking these strong meds cuz I'll be on em for rest of my life(degeneration just keeps on goin & goin)to start now would have me on em for too long in their opinion.But the other meds I had to try for em have done way more harm to the rest of my body that used to not hurt or have something wrong there.From bad reactions to no reation or relief, lightheadedness to insides feeling as they were wanting to come out.Finally,from the doc injecting those needles in my back and finally getting to the spine just to realize he was at the wrong disc/area and had to withdraw and start over, to the ulcered bleeding stomach I now share with my dad & grandads from the latest & most promising(and pharmacutically pushed) non-narcotic wonder drugs they could write 4 me that did not ever wok till they gave in & wrote me what they said was gonna hurt me more in the long run to take.If they would have asked me(but why should they,I'm just a patient. A married father of 4 that was owner of his own paving company so any relief would help to be able to stand upright on a jobsite and tell my employee's what needed done. Or just to walk up to the homeowner and collect the pay for the job we just completed without exusing myself and sitting down,sometimes lying down, and worrying if I am gonna have to ask them to help me up.Or just to be able to push my babies on a swing or on their first bike like I was a normal cause of my meds without the docs thinking I am just drug seeking or trying to feed my addiction if I told em something didn't work or worked better than something else,ect..We all have been there.Sorry 4 the rant.Its Just this thread got me to remembering just how long it has been going on now that I have been arguing 4 myself to have pain relief,have some pleasant days put into the bad days we all have.And not have to feel labled and ashamed that something helps me.To feel what its like when my daughter asks can I do something with her outside and I'm able 2 say yes instead of holding back more tears as I watch her facial expression as I say "not right now,mabey later" and she kisses me on the check and says she understands,loves me, and its ok.U rest your back now.I Damm anyone who has ever dared to judge anyone here and not faced those feelings or the condeming looks, or to just be able 2 do the simplest thing without that owwch or aarrrgghh!!!, or "let me get it daddy".I know I and all of us here have known some form of pain everyday,Just for me its been 4 the last fifteen years. Sorry again. R

Started on Hydro when I was 21, from a motorcycle accident. Been on it ever since. 36 years now with no end in sight.

thats my deal too. I needed them...a good 10 or more years before I recieved them. but I posted age range received.

Many physicians don't like to start older patients on opioid analgesics. first, the elderly may be more susceptible to opioid effects which in that population could be measured in terms of increased rates of pneumonia--or worse. Second, the elderly tend to be on more medications than younger people, so the potential for drug interactions is greater. last, the elderly sometimes have abnormal metabolizing function which can lead to adverse drug events (see the first point above).

i don't think it is right to make a blanket statement that no elderly person should ever receive opioid analgesics, but i think a very strong case can be made to try other medications first or to start the dosing of opioids very, very slowly.

hope this helps,

chemsynth

Wrongly diagnosed @ age 22 with depression. Took SSRI's for a while. Was having episodes of horrendous chest pains and was sure I was having little heart attacks...very uneducated on medical issues at the time and scared to death. I kept seeking out help and had to change doctors many times. The SSRI's made me depressed and did not help with what I thought to be little heart attacks. Finally, after 8 years of suffering I was diagnosed with panic disorder agoraphobia/social anxiety. I was started on xanax (which seemed like a miracle drug)! Finally, I thought to myself I know what is wrong with me and I don't have to suffer anymore!!!! I went through nursing school and found out more on my condition....then found out xanax was not approved for long term use and researched...I was taking medication that could cause me to have seizures if I stopped it cold turkey...scary! The fact that I have two kids and now living with my fiancee have two more...which I take care of because he is in the Army...even more scary. New doctor because of new area. I am being tapered starting the end of this month because she doesn't believe in the medication. I am a little scared, but mostly for the kids. I don't want them to see me withdrawal from a medication. The doc says paxil, been there done that along with every other SSRI. I am going to do the taper, but refuse to be back on those other medications ever again. I had withdrawals from them way back and never knew what was going on with my body, just assumed I was sick. I've been on the xanax for 3 1/2 years. Ignorance is not a virtue! Educate yourself on as much as you can about your condition....only you know what is going on with your own body.

I goofed when I did my poll vote, I knew I needed meds at 16 but wasn't prescribed them until after I had a rage problem at the age of 30 and got arrested for belting my husband in front of the cops!! so I really can't tell!1

I started suffering from chronic pain at 19. Diagnosed with bulging discs and Fibromyalgia. Since I was so young, the doctors wouldn't even give me muscle relaxers.

I was only eight when my migraines became so intense my mom tells me I began hitting my head on hard objects, I guess to stop the pain. I am 33 now and although have began finding my way, still have a migraine every week!

I was 21 when I was in a motorcycle accident. I was in the hospital for 1 1/2 months for my many injuries. My doc didn't think I would make it, but I'm still here. That was the start of my having to use opiates. Been on them now for about 37 yrs. I've been lucky enough to not have much trouble in my doctor prescribing for me, tho he does not give enough. For some reason, he doesn't take tolerence into consideration and I've had to take more than he will prescribe for yrs. Thus, my need for going the online route.

During Katrina, I was without meds for months, since my doc could not be found and we had to evacuate to Fla., where no doctor I went to see would give me anything, even tho I had all of my med records. They wouldn't even look at them. I went thru pure hell for months with the pain and the stress of loosing everything I owned in the storm. All I know is, I NEVER want to go thru that again EVER. It was horrible.

Does the hydro still help you? you have been on them like 15yrs. i took them for 13 yrs and they simply stopped working only thing they did was give me tiny relief the last 2 yrs i timed them and they worked for about one and half hrs. i am older than you (alot) and this could play into the situation too. does your doc give you any thing for break through pain. sorry about being so nosey, no offense.

Sorry for your pain. You make me feel young.

56 is young Old and Worn? You must be bad at math? Jut trying to give you a hard time since Bris is not around.

I had my first migraine at 21. I was given many useless pills that were not effective.

Finally my physician gave me codeine.

56 is the new 40.

I was 13 when they took my guts out, untangled them and replaced them. Pain relief? 1 paracetamol suppository which immediately reappeared on the chair upon which I was sitting, and 1 dose of morphine in the 5 days or so I was there both pre- and post-op. I moaned and groaned for those 5 days in a side-ward, getting no sleep and hallucinating with the combination of severe pain and no sleep. I was convinced that I heard them discussing transplanting abdominal muscle, and told my parents when they came to visit what they were going to do. They put it down to a bad dream.

It angered me later on in life when I found out that there was such a thing as an analgesic. I had no clue at that age, but immediately realised that the one injection they gave me afforded relief. I didn't even know what it was at the time, and can only assume it was morphine based on what my mother said when she looked at my chart.

Later in the same year a turbinectomy, not painful until they took the packs out, which really hurt, and again, no pain relief.

There still remains the issue of whether children need pain relief, believe it or not, and some doctors still think not. Some even believe that children don't feel pain. It's insane; kids feel pain just like adults do - no more and no less.

My experience will haunt me forever, and for the sake of a few doses of an opioid analgesic, it didn't have to be like that.

They also tried to force me to walk upright following the op, which was just impossible with the abdominals being sliced horizontally. Subsequent vertical incision has proved a lot more bearable and recovery much quicker.

That is awful. There was a time when they would extract a tooth with no Novocaine. Of course that sounds like a walk in the park compared to what you have been through and at such an early age.

I always had a fever when I left my dentist's office. My mother liked him because he took payments. It was awful and I don' t think we ever forget the pain we suffer as children.

Wow....you went through alot at such an early age.......

I also agree that children DO have pain and need pain relief, if deemed necessary....... As most of you guys know, migraines, are a big thing in my family and unfortunately my little boy is already having to take medication for his and he started a couple years back.......

Needless to say, I think each individual (child or not) knows when they are in pain and sometimes doctors are just too dumb or nieve to believe it......Kinda off topic, but when I say some drs. are idiots, that is the honest truth......My mom fractured her arm/wrist last week and she went to the ER...Well they sent her home with 2.5mg. hydrocodone and told her to call the surgeon the next day to schedule the surgery.......Well she did that and needless to say the 2.5mg. hydrocodone was not working at all and she is not one that takes narcotics often, hardly ever......Anyways.......she went into the surgeon and told him that she is still in pain and what the dr. at the ER had given her.....Guess what this surgeon said???? He said "Yes, that is about the best you can get!!!" OMG, my dad went off.....he basically told the surgeon what he thought and my mom ended up leaving there with 15mg. oxycodone and 10mg Hydrocodone....I guess they looked it up after my dad went off because my mom had not been able to sleep and was in so much pain........

Anyways, sorry for going off topid but I wanted to state how dumb some doctors are......

I had a traumatic birth apparently, which kind of set up the rest of my life in general.

Anyway, it does seem that having a knowledgeable supportive family member there with the patient often results in more sympathetic treatment.

The Hydro still helps tho I now have to take 2 10/500's about every 4 hrs. on bad days. They don't work as well as when I first started on them, of course, but it's better than nothing. My doc only prescribes 1 tablet 3 times a day. That doesn't work. When I told him it wasn't helping as much anymore and could he maybe up my dose at least one more pill a day. He told me no and suggested I try a pain clinic. I did that, but the doc there said they wouldn't help me unless I did the back shot series. Sure, I have problems with my back, but the most pain I have is from my 2 blown out knees. He didn't seem to care about my knees at all. Just kept pushing the back shots. I never went back. I am just carrying on with my regular doc and getting the extra meds I need online.

The things we have to do to just TRY and have a somewhat normal life. UGH!

BTW, no offense taken. We're here to try and help other members and I'm glad to answer any questions I can. Within reason. LOL

Have a good evening.

HaHa! I make everyone feel young.

It is older than me and yes, it is relatively young. Don't worry, BB is around here somewhere ready to smack me around. Not that I am complaining.