Is withdrawal a requirement for a substance to be defined as addictive?
Comment on why does alcohol stop my back pain but medicine doesn't?
rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 4 days agoIf gabapentin is addictive it must be psychological because I’ve been on and off of it for years now and there isn’t any withdrawal I can discern.
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Dasus@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Addiction and dependence are two different things. You can be dependent without addiction or addicted without dependence. For one cannabis can make people addicted, but the myth from that is because it doesn’t really cause any sort of physical dependence.
On the other hand lyrica etc benzos for example and especially opiates will cause physical dependence, and even if you don’t like want to take the pills, as in you don’t crave them, you’re not addicted to them, you may be dependent and then get withdrawal from quitting.
Addiction can also cause withdrawal, but psychological withdrawal is a bit different than physical.
rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
well, addiction is dependence with harm. Every time I’ve been prescribed a narcotic I’ve felt withdrawal pains and gabapentin does not do that to me.
Dasus@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Addiction and dependence are two different things. You can be dependent without addiction or addicted without dependence. For one cannabis can make people addicted, but the myth from that is because it doesn’t really cause any sort of physical dependence.
On the other hand lyrica etc benzos for example and especially opiates will cause physical dependence, and even if you don’t like want to take the pills, as in you don’t crave them, you’re not addicted to them, you may be dependent and then get withdrawal from quitting.
Addiction can also cause withdrawal, but psychological withdrawal is a bit different than physical.
rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Whatever. Disagree with the dictionary:
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Everybody is different.
I can’t metabolize most painkillers, they do literally nothing to me because I’m missing a liver enzyme. I could eat a handful of percacet every day for months and quit cold turkey easy, because I was never really getting anything out of to begin with.
There are countless reasons why people react differently to medication, that’s why doctors just try random shit till something seems to work.
It might be educated guesswork, but it’s still guesswork. And there’s very little effort put into why/how one thing worked over others, if it works that’s the end of it.