Hello to all of you! I've been reading whatever I could find online about using Orthomolecular Medicine to treat addictions. The current mainstream treatments are clearly not effective in many cases, as made evident by the very high rates of relapse.I am a chronic pain patient who was put on 24/7 opiate pain management therapy in 2004. While this was a blessing in the beginning & allowed me to live a nearly normal & full functioning life, it has now turned on me and is making my  life into a living hell. I cannot believe how ignorant/naive I was in the beginning...like so many people, I was sure that addiction only happened to undisciplined & weak people. But I've learned  different now, it happens to pretty much everyone who takes opiates regularly for more than a few weeks. And then when opiate "tolerance" starts rearing it's ugly head & we need more of the opiate to get the same relief, the doctors start to treat us as "addicts" instead of chronic pain patients. I can assure you that once you have been labelled an addict by the medical system, the quality of your healthcare takes a major nosedive! I think that what surprised me more than anything else I've learned about addiction is how much of a "physical" illness it actually is. We hear so much about how addicts need to address unresolved emotional/spiritual issues, but we rarely hear about the severe & negative physical problems most addicts have developed as a result of ongoing opiate use. One thing that really stands out is the way our digestive systems are damaged.....I'm convinced that this is the main reason opiate addicts become so debilitated. ( I now suffer from opiate induced gastroparesis & have just begun a digestive system healing attempt using a product called "RevitalX" as well as eliminating most solid foods, gluten, corn & dairy products. I'm quite sure that all the vitamins/supplements I've been taking up until now have not been getting assimilated properly at all!)I know I'm not the only older chronic pain patient in this situation. There are many, many more like me & I'm afraid that we are only the tip of the iceberg...the beginning of a massive health problem..."iatrogenic addiction". We desperately need better, more humane & more effective treatment than is currently available. The "substitution" treatments like methadone & buprenorphine come with often greater problems than the original opiate did, and most of us are not physically strong enough to be able to "cold turkey" or taper off. ( Although it is still often said that opiate withdrawal, while extremely painful, is NOT life-threatening, this is simply NOT true.....the many deaths of prisoners who were forced to go cold turkey in prison is a case in point. I believe that many people die from opiate withdrawals, but the actual cause of death will just be listed as a stroke or heart attack. I can assure you that the physical aspects of opiate withdrawal are a violent assault on the body, often with extremely high blood pressure & gastrointestinal bleeding. Any person with a pre-existing condition such as high blood pressure, G.I. issues,etc. is at great risk from withdrawal.) Oh dear, I apologise for how long this has gotten, esp. for a first post! But it is a subject that needs attention and I would love to discuss this further with any of you who may either be in a similar situation or know someone who is. And I would greatly appreciate any advice or information about how people like me can best help ourselves!