Het Pijnstillersparadijs: Europese Zelfbeheersing vs. Amerikaanse Pillenfeest

I'm kinda in this meme. I went through one of those big bottles roughly every 1-2 months for 20 years. Sometimes 12 pills in one day, with 4-8 acetaminophen on top (they do giant double packs of those too). Chronic migraines, but every doctor I asked for help just told me to lose weight so it went untreated and got worse and worse. Our health care suuuucks.

I did lose the weight. It didn't magically fix my migraines, or affect them at all. Insurance dicked me around for another year and a half while my neurologist tried to help every way she could, but we finally got it down to only one migraine a week. I'm truly glad for that, but I still think about the years of unnecessary suffering, and how much better it might be now if I'd been treated sooner.

"Lol Americans are so funny, they can't go to a doctor without going homeless, look at these coping mechanisms they use, hilarious"

Hi. American here with atypical trigeminal neuralgia.

I don't even bother with analgesics for anything at this point. You hit 10 on the pain scale enough times and anything below 6 you mostly shrug off.

Unless I stub my toe. That shit hurts like a motherfucker.

Europeans: I'm taking a pill, if it keeps hurting I'm going to the doctor.

Americans: I'm keeping taking this until I pay the house. It is still hurting, I can refinance the house to see a doctor.

Americans just tell you it's a slight headache. In reality their back is so screwed up it's going to require surgery but they can't afford that and complaining about actual pain is strictly forbidden in American men.

So we take 200 400 800 1600 Motrin, with some bourbon, and ignore it as best as we can.

Americans be like

Europeans be like: "I'm just gonna take a half tablet, don't want to get dependent on this stuff"

Meanwhile, Americans:

Fun fact for Europeans: we call paracetamol acetaminophen

If those bottles are sold as a pair and each has 500 pills, 1000 pills is more than a hospital grade package in my country.

I agree with the sentiment but are 200mg common where you live? Here in Germany I always get 400mg packs.

Two 500mg tablets of acetaminophen please, thank you

-A Certified American

It's always amusing how you can read Dutch with some difficulty by combining German and English.

My girlfriend always makes fun that in Germany chamomile tea is the go to painkiller and only if that doesn't help the pills come out. It was one of her strongest culture-shocks she didn't anticipate before coming to Europe

Don't know about Ibuprofen, but Paracetamol overdose is horrible, agonizing death.

Is this a serious thing? It seems so normal here in the states.

Is it common for ibuprofen to not really help? With physical pain it does nothing for me. It kind of helps with head aches sometimes. I use it maybe a couple times a year, so it's not tolerance.

People actually do that? I only take a few painkillers when I'm on my period.

I had a tooth surgically removed a few years back, took 90 min, and I got strong paracetamol and even a small pack of morphine.

I never used the morphine, I keep it sealed at home if I need it.

i had to take 3.2g of ibuprofen for years before i got my gout under control. then like magic, naproxen actually starting working for me. now its just 600mg of that for the same effect

I guess I'm Americaning wrong. As far as painkillers go, 've only taken one ibuprofen in the last year. I even had a severe gut pain event where they prescribed me some oxy but I never took anything.

I honestly don't understand the Dutch techno reference.

Honestly I think the Americans have it right, here.

You end up taking fewer painkillers of you start taking them early and get ahead of the pain. If you wait until the pain is already severe, you end up taking more.

Idk why this happens, it's info I got from a nurse, and intuitively it feels right.

200 mg? I know people over here that will pop a pair of 800 mg tablets.

Also Australians (where the most economical package of paracetamol/acetaminophen is 200 pills for A$4).

Ibuprofen is for my migraines only. Nothing else touches those damn things.

The only place I’ve ever seen that huge Kirkland bottle is in a workplace. I don’t even have pain killers in my house right now…also American.

This is so so so so true. Americans especially ww take more ibuprofen and excedrin in a month than surely you should in a lifetime.

2 for 1

In the UK you can't even buy that many at once 😆 without a prescription at least - paracetamol and ibuprofen are usually 16 per pack and they don't let you buy more than one of each