Okay I'll get this started. I find it interseting that they chose this path.

I think the comment from Cuddy about him taking the pills for a high was soooo off base but the ending sequence seemed to support it.

I knew that he wasn't just taking it for physical pain but I never got the impression that he was taking it for a high.

It makes me wonder if the FOX execs haven't gotten into the mix a little too much?

I guess I just didn't want it to be true. Addict, it's such an ugly word. :lol:

At first I lost a little respect for him but after thinking about it I respect him a little more.

Here's my take:

I think he found that yes he could stop or greatly reduce his intake but in the end it would affect his job, his 'one thing'. Yes this time he made it through but it was a struggle and to have to do that on a day to day basis...

Plus the time it would take to get to a point where it wasn't so painful...

Next if he were to go all out and embrace alternate therapies he would probably still need some pain meds and I don't think it would dispell his emotional issues. We don't know exactly what's going on there so it's hard to say but. I think the "Chicks dig this, better than a puppy" line is revealing.

Maybe he feels like he's had so much taken away and/or sacrificed so much already that he isn't willing to give up something that makes him feel good. He feels he deserves it.

Either way I think it'll be interesting to see which way they take this.

Just another thought.

The last scene;

I want to believe that the 'I'm high' drugged out look he had at the end was more from the fact that he was completely exahusted after a week of stress and probably very little sleep. That he wasn't "high" but on the verge of some much needed sleep now that the drugs had taken away some of the pain?

word, rtlemurs -- did that man ever need some nice, pain-medicated sleep. I didn't like the song -- ONCE AGAIN they killed the ending with an inappropriate song.

Can you imagine him dragging himself around unmedicated? Every day?

"Chicks dig this, better than a puppy." So... what do you think that reveals?

I think it shows that he feels he can't trust anyone. That people do not treat him honestly because of the cane.

The puppy/cane comparison is like 'I'm not good enough on my own so I need something to attract people. Chicks don't love me for me they love me because they feel sorry for me and want to mother me not because they think I'm worthy of their affections in any other way.'

I feel this is a big part of the 'I've lost so much and I'm not going to give up this one thing that makes me feel good' attitude that he has right now.
After all if I give up the pills what do I gain?

This statement hits the nail right on the head. In all the dealings that I've had with addiction, if the user doesn't see it as a problem then there's little to no incentive to go clean. And House said in so many words, 'it's not a problem.'
I think that in House's case, there's more than a legitimate reason for him to be taking the narcs, but at the same time, replacing real pleasure with manufactured pleasure isn't a Good Thing. There's a diffrence between medication and abuse, and (while it's not a happy thing) I don't doubt that House is willing to cross that line.
To sum up, other things need to be dealt with before he (or Wilson, or Cuddy) can try and tackle the issue of addiction.

Speaking of chemical 'pleasure' versus real/natural pleasure, another issue the ep "Detox" examines is House's libido. Once he's off his meds for awhile, his natural interest in beautiful massage therapists LOL kicks back in... ...and that's when he's in serious pain with his leg from being off the meds, too. So: double-edged sword. The meds keep him 'functional' so he can do his job. But, apparently, as had been conjectured about by certain folks, it seems the Vicodin does affect his libido. When he's on the meds, he jokes about strippers, hookers, women with 'real breasts' and stuff like that. But, this is one of the first times we've really seen House take an active 'interest' in some eye candy... (Gobsmacked, spellbound, 'am I hallucinating?' kind of interest... LOL) And, then there's the whole hand massage scene. For the first time in who knows how long, he was feeling pleasure/relief that didn't come from a pill bottle. Now, if we want to go completely Dr. Ruth, we can get into the whole interest versus 'performance' question of how the meds are affecting House... That's something we don't know, yet. But, it does beg the question: if the Vicodin affects his interest/libido, what's it doing to him physically?

Hugs,
Sanlin

Okay, I'll try to be brief. From what I've read one of the side effects of Vicodin is a decreased libido. If House has been taking them for a long period of time I would say that we could expect him to have a decreased libido. I don't think that it would just spring back in that short period of time. This leads me to believe that the mind is willing but well you know the rest.

I also think it's a guy thing to talk sex. Not that women don't but men tend to do it out of habit so House's comments on hookers and breast are just guy talk that don't necessarily have anything to do with actual libido.

I agree with you on the little hand massage. Man was that the best scene or what?! It was so nice to see him 'Physically happy' even if it was only for a short period of time. And as someone else has mentioned Hugh Laurie played it perfectly. But is has also been said that if the lady was really doing that there probably wasn't much acting involved!!

How can be an addict and say that is not a problem? I think House might be in denial which in the first step in the twelve step program.

There are different kinds of addiction. Mental addiction, physical addiction, dependency... I can't believe House, being a doctor, wouldn't know that he was dependant on the drug (if he had been on Vicodin for weeks he would be, let alone years). But the others...

Look back to previous episodes. House pops Vicodin when he's standing a hallway, when he's talking to other doctors, when he's examing people in the clinic... it may have got to be a routine to him. Feel pain, whether it's phyical or a mental strain, take Vicodin to fix it. And it may have taken a week of detox to realize that.

The thing is, House is right. He functions with his Vicodin. He functions less without them. I think he realizes that he's changed (okay, we know that), and I think he realizes to some extent that the pills may have caused a change. But what can he do? Any alternative treatment may have the same possibility of addiction. It's not pretty, but it's practical.