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.
Also at least in my country I can call in sick if I have a headache, will be paid for the day and there is no number of paid-time-off-days, which will be subtracted by one when I do so. The employer continues to pay up to 6 weeks of salary if you need to stay at home due to sickness, and for a period longer than 3 days you need a dr to confirm you’re sick. The number of sick days per year depend on you actually being sick - I was baffled when I learned this is a fixed number in the US (at least for some) . I guess the motivation to work sick when you have a limited number of paid sick days also contributes to the usage of pain killers.
Europeans be like: “I’m just gonna take a half tablet, don’t want to get dependent on this stuff”
Meanwhile, Americans:
Ngl I ibuprofen does kinda taste good
Don’t be fooled, they put a sugar coating around the OTC stuff. Instant release Adderall on the other hand… that shit tastes pretty good
The coating on advil is sweetened. The actual medicine tastes horrible.
Tastes like old rubber band to me
I dunno. When i take the pill ibruprofen its the most sour thing ever. You can literally see the face muscles of someone taking it contracting.
Y’all are letting the pills dissolve in your mouth before swelling it???
You can taste the after taste of the split second it spent in your mouth before you could swallow it. Its EXTREMELY sour
You sure you aren’t swallowing compacted toothpaste?
I hope not lol
Yea I’ve made the mistake of bitting one when I was younger.
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
2004008001600 Motrin, with some bourbon, and ignore it as best as we can.That’s really sad.
Yup, I know.
This is my mother for the last year or so because of rotoscoliosis, a bulging disc, and arthritis in her shoulders.
She can’t really get any form of treatment because the only insurance she can afford is a high-deductable plan, which means she would have to pretty much pay for the entire treatment out of pocket.
I’m so sorry. We really need universal healthcare.
I’m sure we’ll get there next election!
(Says half of America every 4 years)
Next election? What next election? Elections are so out of fashion now!
I think we’ll still have elections, just like how Russia still has elections.
SSELECT ONE:
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Donald J. Trump / James D. Vance
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No suitable candidate (year in the gulag)
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Would flying to Europe and getting healthcare there be cheaper? Look into it.
Maybe but still thousands that we don’t have
What about post-Soviet countries?
The good thing about the HDHPs is the availability to have an HSA.
HSA money is collected pre-tax. Balances over a certain amount can be invested. But the good thing about it is that it’s yours to keep. Not like an FSA that disappears at the end of a year.
So she could save up for the deductible for her surgery for her debilitating chronic pain over the course of several years. After she pays thousands in premiums and her employer pays thousands more. Like a good American.
But they’ll only recommend the surgery after trying muscle relaxers ten times over the course of a year.
Fun fact for Europeans: we call paracetamol acetaminophen
…but it is amid, not amin, no? Why do americans call it acetaminophen instead of acetamidophen?
Nope it’s amin according to Google.
I actually thought I spelled it wrong at first. Weird.
Nope it’s amin according to Google.
That’s why I ask. Americans call it “acetaminophen”, but compound doesn’t have amino-group and instead had amido-group.
IUPAC calls it as what it is: N-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)acetamide
EDIT: my guess is that america uses another nomenclature for organic chemistry. As usual. Do they have compound called “freedom eagle guns”? I’m so used to amine meaning specifically R-NH2 and nothing else.
Idk I’m not a chemist. I thought the whole point of scientific standards was that everyone used the same name/units but we don’t even spell meter right in the states.
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.
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.
You know what sucks as well? Taking too many painkillers against headaches actually causes headaches. Horrible ones at that. Glad to read that you’re feeling better, but that’s a real trap many people out there are stuck in.
Yup, it was the first thing we checked when I actually got treatment. I’m sure that didn’t help, but compared to the pain of the migraines it was negligible. Having to refrain from pain meds for a while to make sure was a hell of a ride though. I lasted about three months. The doctor was satisfied with 1-2 but I wanted to be damn sure.
I give people the same warning nowadays. Don’t take that stuff more than once a week.
Holy shit, how did you not die from stomach ulcers?
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.
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
The pain of drinking chamomile tea does have a masking effect.
Germans are weird like that
The rest of us are normal and will take a painkiller
I don’t know what’s Europe anymore… Isn’t germany in it?
Americans be like
I agree with the sentiment but are 200mg common where you live? Here in Germany I always get 400mg packs.
Yes, 100 mg being the standard, 200 mg “strong” ones and 400 mg “we have a good price on these, look how strong they are” said by a visibly excited pharmacy lady. Just behind your eastern border.
Don’t know about Ibuprofen, but Paracetamol overdose is horrible, agonizing death.
Overdosing on Ibuprofen is harder and less deadly iirc but it can really mess up your stomach and/or damage your kidneys.
Two 500mg tablets of acetaminophen please, thank you
-A Certified American
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.
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.
Ibuprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID). It will reduce inflammation and the associated pain. If your pain is not caused by inflammation then you should talk to a pharmacist about what the best analgesic is for you.
There are several families of painmeds some more harmless than others. Anecdotally I know people that only seem to get relief from ibuprofen, and others that swear only paracetamol (Tylenol) helps, while again others sweat to asperin. Like the other person said… talk to a pharmacist about options, and see if others work for you.
Some like paracetamol can me taken over the course of a day for multiple days for example post operation… and they build a level that causes them to work even stronger. But paracetamol can cause lover damage if taken too much.
Like with all drugs, read the darn pamphlet. Opiates are not your friend and should only be taken very sparingly under proper supervision, if at all… sure they dull pain but are highly addictive.
Source, not a medical professional, so take what I wrote with a grain of salt and consult a professional.
Main benefit for acetaminophen(the American name for paracetamol) is that you can use it on top of an NSAID. That’s something you can’t do with aspirin. It’s good to stagger the dosage for something like a toothache or take both at once for a headache (this is what most OTC migraine medications are, an NSAID[usually aspirin], acetaminophen, and caffeine in one pill).
Tbh I usually take 600 mg instead of the 400mg. That usually gets it going for me
Try taking it with a dose of acetaminophen. Those two have a synergistic effect that is better than either alone and is often used post surgery for that reason.
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 think a lot of Americans are wary of Oxy now. I was in a car crash and the first thing I told the paramedics was, “no narcotics”. I deal with enough in my life, I did not need a drug dependency too.
If you’re in severe pain oxy doesn’t really get you high. At least not more than adrenaline. Just kills the pain and otherwise makes you feel fine.
IV dilaudid was the good stuff. I’m glad it was only during my hospital stay though. They sent me home with tons of oxy. Took it as prescribed a couple weeks before deciding I’d rather be able to have a beer and a functional colon.
I do get why people get addicted to the stuff though. Kills emotional pain right along with the physical.
