Many people need pain medication to survive, and yet the opioid crisis demonizes the medication that allowed them to function.
Pain medication is demonized by opioid hysteria
“Pain medication is the horrible stuff that only addicts use. If you depend on pain medication to function you are an addict. If you can’t control your pain through yoga, meditation, hypnosis, eating only kale, going on a juice fast, or standing on your head, then you are doing something wrong and you are an addict. Also, pain isn’t really a thing anymore, if you are in pain it’s because you don’t practice pain acceptance and you are catastrophizing your pain.”
Society’s obsession with addiction hurts people in pain (and people experiencing addiction)
I spent the first 1 1/2 years with chronic illness taking no pain medication. The general attitude at the time was not that addiction was a disease and that people experiencing it deserved treatment (luckily that’s started to change during the years I’ve been in pain). With all the messages of addiction being thrown at me, I became convinced that only a coward or an addict would take medication for long-term pain. I had taken narcotics before (after my c-sections) and I knew that they didn’t particularly do anything special for me and that I clearly hadn’t gotten addicted to them during the 3 weeks I took them postpartum. But somehow I thought taking pain medication long-term was different, that it was a sign of failure, a failure to be strong enough.
Painsomnia creates a pain cycle
Eventually, I had to give in when I could no longer sleep because of the pain. I was barely able to hobble around the house and I was so tired that the pain kept getting worse and worse. It was a vicious cycle of Painsomnia:
pain=no sleep=more pain= even less sleep=even more pain
So I gave in and started taking some pain medication when I needed it. Still, whenever I took some I’d hear a voice whispering you don’t need this, strong people don’t need help or pain medication. If you were really strong, you wouldn’t take anything. What’s wrong with you, you’re going to get addicted, is that what you want? And yet in desperation, I took it anyway and felt guilty about it.
Then one day I realized that I had felt fairly energetic that day and had gotten a lot done. I had been able to take my kids to the pool, babysit the baby of a friend, mop my kitchen floor, make a homemade dinner, and do laundry all in one day. I wondered how I had the energy to do all that. Then it dawned on me, I had taken my pain medication that day at its prescribed levels, instead of taking it only when I felt like I was going to die from the pain. I thought, wow, can I really function as a semi-normal person when I take pain medication? Turns out I can. No, it doesn’t take away all my pain or even half of it, but taking my pain down from a 9/10 to a 6/10 makes a significant impact on how well I can function.
Sometimes those downer thoughts still enter my brain when I take pain meds. You are better than this, you are risking getting addicted, why aren’t you stronger? But one day it occurred to me, you don’t get a prize for refusing pain medication when you need it. I need pain treatment in order to not to not bedridden, to be able to take care of my kids, to live a more normal life than what would otherwise be possible. Nobody is going to give me a prize when I deprive myself of medication in order to be strong.
*Update: Due to the opioid hysteria I can no longer get pain medication, but for those who can get it my point still stands.
Go Shelley!! YOU ROCK!
This is so true! I'm sick and tired of seeing pain meds in the media as our countrys next great affliction! Women need to stand up and take back control of our healthcare. We are not helpless creatures who succumb to the temptations of illicit drugs. We are mothers and wives that just want a few hours a day to feel "normal". I didn't mention that we are workers because for most of us in chronic pain a job is a luxury our bodies can't afford.
FYI -It’s “dawned” on me in this sentence.
“Then it donned on me, I had taken my pain ”
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This resonates with me. When I was in the hospital fighting for my life from multiple clots (which, to date, has been the worst pain ever for me), I was rejecting pain meds. After two months the pain broke me, and I realised how silly I had been. These days, if I need it, I just take it, regardless of what anyone else says. They don’t have to live with pain as a lifestyle, but I do!
What’s really fun is trying to get said pain meds. I still don’t take Narcs on a regular basis. Just when my Endo flares are unbearable. On a regular basis, I take a twice daily antiinflammatory. Luckily, my primary doctor believes me when I come in saying I need something stronger, but when the flares hit outside of office hours and I have to rely on the emergency room, I’m treated like an addict. Even with a diagnosis that causes chronic pain, I am questioned on why I need strong pain meds. My internal organs are literally tangled from adhesions and Endo implants and I’m treated like a drug seeker when I ask for medicine to dull the pain from that. I’m not seeking drugs, I’m seeking relief!