Memory after painkiller withdrawal

[BlueZoey]

I was diagnosed with back pain many years ago. When I first started using painkillers I was in great pain and needed them. After about 8-9 months (maybe longer) I started to be aware that I was addicted and using them to deal with my emotional problems relating to my back injury. I went off all my meds (valium, vicodin, darvocet, oxycontin, percocet) cold turkey and rehabed myself. When I finally finished the 2-3 weeks of withdrawal hell I had problems with my short term memory. I had to relearn how to learn and remember things. Now I am about 6 years off the drugs but I still have occassional problems with my memory and learning certain subjects like math. Was my drug use related to the problems I have learning math now? Can it be that I have a learning disability in math because of using the meds? I go to school full time at a california university and can't pass my math classes, I can take biochem and get an A but I cant pass math... is this related at all? When I went back into the world after taking the painkillers I had to relearn everything. I never really relearned math at the time. I am wondering what I should do for help. I have tried tutoring, workshops and such like. Anyone have any advice?

[dyblue]

all I can say is me personally was never good at math before I ever did any drugs in fact acedemically I sucked.  well quess what I'm a artist  anyways the point is you may not be inclined that way and have to work a lot harder then say some one who is a mathimatical mind math for me was a emotional experiene always made me feel stupid.  I hate math anyways good luck and don't be hard on yourself because we're all good at different things just do what you got to to get it done .you've been clean for awhile and we have milions and millions of brain cells aparently most of use only a portion of our brains, thought is powerful so beleive it doesn't affect your memory.

[thelida]

I tried doing a little research on your question, but all I came up with is that Naltrexone (used sometimes to keep people from relapsing) doesn't appear to cause short term memory loss in rats.
Yeah... not very helpful.  
Here's my suggestion though.  Go to your schools library (sorry I can never spell that) and take a look at their online resources.  They must have access to many psychological journals... Look for PsychArticles that's a popular database.  Then try searching for what you are looking for.  Pay attention to journals dealing with cognition, such as the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition.  That's mostly going to be animal studies...but there are other good journals out there.  Just too bad we can't access them unless we pay for them.  But you, my friend do!  It's part of your tuition!  Make use of it!