Wilco's Jeff Tweedy puts himself in rehab...

for addiction to painkillers he was taking for migrain headaches. I don't think I ever had a migrain so I don't know how you feel, but I understand they can be excruciating. I hope he writes some good tunes while he's there.

Happy Easter,
Swish

My wife gets migraines and unfortunately, too often. She takes two drugs, which were precribed to her by her doctor and are known to help relieve the pain, Midrin and Naprosyn. Medical science has not yet found a cure for preventing migraines.

Migraine pain is indeed very debilatating. You ever had "brain freeze" while eating something very cold? That's what it's like, only constant, and lasting for hours.

I'm not sure what Mr. Tweedy was taking for medication but at least he had the wherewithall to know he might be addicted to them. Addiction to anything is never good.

Good luck to Mr. Tweedy.

Darren

I get migraines. They suck. I'm lucky, though, to not be the type who gets addicted to things. Before I went to a doctor who knew of an effective non-narcotic medication to help me, I spent a couple of years having to treat them with strong painkillers. I bounced between doctors who refused to prescribe anything that would treat them properly and those who were quite willing to just hand over a prescription for a huge bottle of Vicodin. For two years now I've had this medication called Axert that works like a charm most of the time. Every once in awhile I get hit with a headache that the medication can't tackle properly, but fortunately that's rare. Taking a pill with codeine or whatever can be pleasant and all, but you don't want to have to rely on it to kill pain on an ongoing basis. And addiction is a legitimate concern. I can't say I understand where he's at, but I can relate to part of it, I guess. I lucked out finding the doctor I go to for migraines--it can be difficult finding the right one. I would think it would be easier, especially when on the road, to just stick with the strong painkillers. It can be hard to sympathize with rock stars' drug problems, but if he has migraines...it differs from situations where people are abusing substances strictly for kicks. I hope he ends up alright.

Kathy and I were talking about this tonight. We remember he was talking about migraines during the DVD of I Just Want To Break Yer Heart. Always thought he was stoned during most of the scenes he was in. Absolutley positively hope he gets 100% better ASAP. Too much of a talent to be out of the action for any material length of time, and yea, maybe he'll wrinte some good tunes in rehab. But most of all, get better dude.

Yeah, it is too bad. I mentioned it in the Tuesday thread, but in kind of a self-serving way in that I hoped they would still be able to play in Tucson at the end of this month since I have a ticket to the show. I think they cancelled the European leg of the tour and pushed back the album release until closer to the end of June to give him some time away. But I do hope he comes out of it OK, and not because I have money invested in it :)

So what happens when you kick your dependence on painkillers? Don't you still need something? Do you just take it less frequently and put up with more pain? Or is it actually something that people wind up taking even when they feel no pain, just to feel no pain, and so can take less with no ill effects?

I was taking narcotic painkillers for several weeks after my surgery a few years ago. Even after that short of a time, I was experiencing minor withdrawal symptoms when I stopped. Actually, I thought the worst thing about them was the constipation. OK, too much info.

Gotta go back to work now...