Falsities & Opiates

It's actually been rather recently I've gotten into the show House M.D.. Once I gave the show a chance, I was hooked. It filled an empty spot in my soul that was left when all decent dramatic television had vanished from the airways, or had been left to rot into an unrecognizable globule of what it once was (see: E.R.). But as of late, I've been growing increasingly frustrated with it. Especially the most recent episode, The Softer Side. Setting aside my growing annoyance with the never broken formula of the show, amongst some other things, there is one thing in particular that made me facepalm a little too hard.

That would be the show's dealing with House's chronic pain and his medication. I know this is a medical television show, and therefor isn't going to be very realistic (it took me a bit of time to get over the ridiculousness of the doctors doing things like blood draw, radiography and lab tests), however there comes a point where things that had been handled rather well suddenly nose dive into craziness. I was very impressed to see that even with thing dramatized, the show had portrayed House's struggle with pain and addiction rather well. Sure some things were exaggerated or somewhat unlikely (it's TV drama, it's supposed to be), but this last episode was my breaking point.

If you don't want to be spoiled for this episode, then I suggest not reading any further.

In this episode, the staff seems to notice a change in House. He seems more laid back and, well, nice. Which immediately gets their attention that something is wrong. As the show goes on, we come to Wilson who jumps straight into the conclusion that House is on heroin of all things after he has a respiratory distress episode. Let's stop here. Heroin is an opiate. Just as the main ingredient in Vicodin is an opiate derivative. As is with Oxycontin, morphine, fentanyl, Norco, and a host of others. But you get the idea. Any of those can cause the exact same symptoms and side effects.

For some inane reason Wilson starts freaking out and is entirely sure that House is on an illegal and what a doctor would know to be, dangerous drug. Typically a pain patient will work through the prescription pain meds, from the weaker up and up into the stronger ones before resorting to heroin. Vicodin is a common moderate pain reliever, but it's not that great. After awhile, you would build a tolerance to it, and probably move on to Oxycontin, and on and on. House being a doctor, has a host of knowledge and access to pain meds, yet seems to be an idiot in this respect.

As the episode goes on House is seen nodding off and even has Kutner watching him to make sure he doesn't go into respiratory failure again. We soon find out that House is in fact not on heroin, but on methadone. When Wilson finds this out, he freaks out again. Methadone apparently kills you. When Cuddy finds out, she flips her shit as well. Cuddy tells House he can't use methadone and work there, so he leaves. Of course Cuddy ends up begging him to come back and telling him she has to monitor his 'methadone treatment'. But by the end of the show, House quits the methadone.

Let us review some facts, shall we? Methadone is used in pain management all the time. It is also used in heroin addiction 'treatment', (but really what that means is you are to stop using heroin and then maintain your physical opiate addiction with methadone). This gives it some stigma as a druggie treatment medication and most people are unaware of what methadone really is. Regardless of that fact, it is no different to take than any other pain medication. Wilson and Cuddy going insane over the methadone was completely ridiculous. On top of this, we have the completely nonsensical jump from Vicodin to methadone of all things and House's inability and his doctor's to be able to know how much methadone to take without going into respiratory failure. I'm not sure where these guys went to med school, but I question it.

I think what upset me about this episode is that it finally jumped to the "obvious" conclusion that a chronic pain sufferer who has a tolerance to (not even anywhere near all) pain medication is really a drug addict who will go right to heroin no problem. That someone who lived an entirely straight life and was a productive and contributory member of society is suddenly reduced to a heroin addict and would have absolutely no qualms about dropping the legal and proper route and going straight to illegal drugs before exhausting all avenues. Chronic pain is not something people ask for. It is not something they want or ever expect to have. Being dependent on narcotic medication is something that is difficult and hard to deal with both mentally and physically. These people are not in any way the same as someone who goes out and parties and ends up with a drug habit. Or someone who turns to drugs to escape in a difficult life. Unfortunately, thanks to the exploding trend of drug addicts and short term patients who really started to like their pain meds for more than pain, using prescription medication to get high, the people who need these medications end up getting not only stigmatized, but punished by their own government and seen no differently. This is ironically the reason some turn to heroin is because thanks to the DEA, patients have a difficult time getting appropriate treatment and their doctors are too scared to lose their licenses to prescribe what is medically necessary to their own patients.
House has usually handled this subject rather well. Even with some of House's drug seeking behaviors, there is always the reminder and empathy that he is in pain. This episode struck a chord and saddened me. My hope was for this show to continue to be empathic and real when it comes to this issue. Painless was an episode that I found very moving, relatable and carefully handled. And then to jump to the failure that was The Softer Side is incredibly disappointing.