Pain Relievers? Do they work for you?

Well, while I was looking at a pill of vicodin that I was about to take for back pain (I hurt myself by slipping on a wet floor...), I thought about how efficiently OTC pain relievers work for different people. So I wanted to post a question on here and get people's opinions.Do Over the Counter Pain Relievers such as Aleve or Advil or Tylenol work for you? Do they relieve your pain? Do you feel the relief coming on? The reason I ask this is because I have a prescription of Vicodin that I had for a previous injury, but I never finished the bottle and I still have another refill left. And when I take a pill of vicodin or two depending on the level of pain, I feel the relief coming on and it hits me strong. I know Over the counter relievers are nowhere as strong as vicodin, but I want people's personal input. I went to the pharmacy and I got the strongest non prescription pain reliever, so I got Aleve 220mg Naproxen, it didnt work for me, I felt no pain relief. Now you tell me

Side effects are a real problem. You could be damaging your kidneys, etc.

What you could do is to try a Yahoo search for "side effects" + ------------ and check out each pain reliever that you are taking.

Thanks to all for answering. I know all about painkillers and OTC medicines. but all this was a survey to find out how people react to some OTC Pain Relievers. I say this because many people were giving me more information about OTC Pain Relievers. This was basically a medicinal survey. Report It

But once again, I thank you for all your answers that will help me in some research i have been doing. :-) Report It

They only work for the mildest form of pain out there. Like if you have a TINY headache, then yeah, it helps.
You have a MASSIVE headache, then NO they don't.

I think they suck personally, that is the only time they have ever helped me for anything, a tiny headache.

I am allergic to tylenol, advil, and ibuprofin, so I have to take prescription pain relievers daily. I have nerve damage in my leg and arm and have found that the low dose I take controls my pain very well.

The cause of pain is also a factor. Nerve pain, pain secondary to infection, and pain from chronic illnesses often require stronger medication.

Back pain is tricky - especially if there is a muscle that is injured. If you have strained a muscle, you may need a muscle relaxer to permit the pain medication to work.

Two more cents for your account.

Advil works well for me.Tylenol always makes my pain worse.

There's a big difference between Aleve and Vicodine. One is basically like taking an asprin, one is taking a heavy duty pain killer. It's like apples and oranges. If you are in bad pain, and don't want to go as far as the Vicodine, try taking 3 of the Aleve's at one time, that will equal the perscription level of Naproxen and will do a lot more for you than just taking the regular dose of Aleve and might help. If that doesn't work, switch to the Vicodin which will get rid of the pain almost instantly. A true strong pain killer should work pretty quickly. Vicodin is far from being a strong pain killer, it is in fact the bottom of the line in the list of pain killers, it is not addicting and if you really are in a lot of pain just go to the vicodin.