1 out of 10 suicides is due to chronic pain, and yet the link between chronic pain and suicide is often ignored. Furthermore, no one connects the opioid crisis to chronic pain suicide even though they’re all related to each other.
1 out of 10 suicides is due to chronic pain, and yet the link between chronic pain, the opioid crisis, and suicide is often ignored. Click To TweetSociety demands that pain be concealed
I’ve long struggled with finding the words to describe pain. Not just physical pain, but the emotional pain that stems from living in a society that demands that pain be masked and concealed. The pain from living somewhere where it’s better to deny someone else’s pain than it is to acknowledge that bodies are infallible. For many in our society, it’s easier to blame and point fingers than it is to look inside themselves.
I often watch healthy people go through this emotional quagmire when they confront pain or suffering. I see their feelings churning around and around in chaotic a whirlpool of emotions for just a few seconds, and then I see their eyes change when they hit cognitive dissonance. As soon as that happens I know they’ve reached a conclusion, that suffering is a punishment for those who are bad, lazy, or stupid and it would never happen to them because they are better.
People in pain know that if they don’t conceal it, they’ll experience this judgment from others. So they fight a battle between concealing and desperately trying to get someone, anyone to listen.
The damage committed by “pain experts” connects chronic pain and suicide
Watching the above emotional cycle happen to people in my life can be hard, but it’s worse when you see it from a doctor or a researcher of pain. These professionals seem to have a limited range of emotions and understanding of their behavior (if Twitter is any indication). They either can’t or won’t reach out and feel empathy for the people they claim to represent. It doesn’t fit their worldview, so they convince themselves that pain must not be real.
The label of “Opioid use disorder” and how it complicates chronic pain and suicide
The view some pain experts seem to take is that we are living in this enlightened age. We know so much about science and medicine, more than we ever have. If pain were as bad as patients say then science would be able to prove it. Plus, DRUGS are bad and DEPENDENCE is bad (though they never have a problem handing out anti-depressants like candy). ADDICTION is everyone with chronic pain, and yet they aren’t interested in treating addiction, just demonizing it.
Then medical professionals start calling themselves experts in chronic pain even when they’ve never treated a single pain patient ( Andrew Kolodny). That’s why they claim that pain isn’t a thing. It’s also why every patient who wants treatment is labeled with “opioid use disorder” or “substance abuse disorder.” I personally have been directly accused by a medical professional of having both these disorders, even though I haven’t been on opioids for years.
It seems that in the view of many medical professionals people with chronic pain can’t prove they DON’T have opioid use disorder, so therefore they must have it. Meanwhile, professionals mock people in pain on social media. Then they are upset when the patients with “opioid use disorder” are not happy about how they are being treated. Not surprisingly, this awful treatment leads to worsening mental and physical health for people in pain.
Pain patients are becoming desperate
With all these politics and labels people in pain are desperate. They’re in pain every second of every day, and no one believes them. The pain takes over their brain and they’re incapable of thinking and functioning like they used to. Some people become so overwhelmed they feel that there is only one way out.
Do people with chronic pain want to die? Are they explicitly suicidal? Often not, but it feels like the only way for the pain to ever go away when treatment is being withheld. Click To TweetDo they want to die? Are they explicitly suicidal? Often not, but it feels like the only way for the pain to ever go away. It’s that or illegal drugs. If you decide on illegals drugs you’ll just end up in jail where you’ll be in even more pain.
It’s like being stuck in a funhouse hall of mirrors. You are forced to keep spinning and spinning while trying to find the real way out, but it’s not visible to you. You keep crashing into mirrors, and it hurts even more, but there’s nothing you can do to stop. Meanwhile, someone is yelling at you that you’re not actually in a hall of mirrors and you should just get over it. You can’t stop the spinning so there’s only one option left. And you take it.
Still, some people are still in the hall of mirrors spinning crashing, but they’re tired of spinning alone. They’re tired of people telling them there is a way out and they need to try harder. They’re tired of the crowd yelling behind the mirrors “it’s all your fault you can’t get out, it’s all YOUR fault.” This is life with chronic pain.
I sadly think Twitter probably is a good indication; I’ve come across way too many medical ‘professionals’ and ‘experts’ in real life, in appointments & online who don’t ‘get’ what pain is like, who have a very limited range of emotion and understanding of their own behaviour. What I find particularly worrying is your key point here, with how they talk about the ‘opioid crisis’. It’s also how it’s getting portrayed in the media, TV and films. In the news. ‘Experts’ are making chronic pain patients sound like addicted pill-poppers, and yet these people can’t talk about the pain they live with because it’s not an open, accepting society in which to talk about such things. You can’t even openly talk about it with your specialist (unless you have a rare good egg) because you feel like you’re moaning or being judged, or worry that they think you’re being melodramatic. I do think some of this also ties into, dare I say, sexism, where women have long since been seen as hysterical in history, where problems like pain or ill health probably just stem from mental health issues and anxiety. What a load of BS!
The bit that’s insanely angering is how the big, vital decisions on healthcare and treatments are made by the idiots with power but no understanding of the patient experience. They’ve no idea what life with chronic pain is like and they won’t be affected by the damage their decisions make. In the UK, we’re also going through the problems with GP practices analysing all those on opioids and trying to take us off them. When they’re a last lifeline that doesn’t come close to taking away pain, they just make life a tiny bit more physically doable, it’s more than enough to send a person already struggling precariously close to the edge.
Pain patients really are becoming desperate, you’re right. I’ve felt it. I felt so angry and worried and frustrated when I had the doctor’s pharmacist go through my meds, question the opioids and suggest coming off them, a process I then had to go through again with the GP. I was very fortunate because my current doctor is a bit more empathetic and understanding, and she overruled the pharmacist (as well she should, being the doctor, when it’s in line with what the patient needs). I never wanted to be on opioids. It was a last-ditch open to keep me alive. Pain patients did not choose this life. They are just trying to make it through each day as best they can. I should leave it here otherwise I’ll go on forever with my anger over it all.
Absolutely fantastic post. Painful and honest, and every single word needs to be heard by everyone, including government bigwigs and so-called experts.
Caz xx
So the timing of this piece is right on with the path of my life right now. Recently my doctor sent me to the “Pain Clinic” for better control of my pain issues. Biggest mistake of my life. Right away they discontinued all opioids that sent me into a painful detox and spiral of thoughts I don’t even want to admit too.
They put me on an anti-seizure drug gabapentin which I could not tolerate. Then they tried another anti-seizure Pregabalin. This medication authorized for the use of nerve pain, fibromyalgia and other off label uses has more side effects than any opioid I was on. At 65 these medications are hard for me to take. It caused terrible confusion, stuttering, memory loss and gait disturbances, not to mention mouth ulcers, nausea and headaches.
But they insist that my pain medications should only be used for cancer pain!. Never once did I feel my brain was being turned into spaghetti until now.
The opioid crisis has doctors totally reversing their talk of two years ago. I do not buy into that all pain can be rated so easily. If your not a cancer patient, your pain should not be that bad. Guess what? It is. I suffer from multiple sources of pain, and my levels can easily spike to levels of incapacity if I have overdone it.
I believe people all tolerate pain differently. Some better than others. But if I say my pain is an 8 out of 10, they look at me like Why?
At my worst suicide crossed my mind. It may again. At this point I am stopping all this alternative stuff that causes so many more side affects than any pain medication. I know it’s addictive, I keep that in mind. But at 65 I just really think it’s not that big of deal unless I start abusing it.
I do not know the answer, I cannot think of managing these side effects, nor not being able to get pain relief . The detox was cruel, the with holding of pain medication is cruel. I will take urine screens, I will sign opioid contracts, I will not abuse.
The medical field is scared because insurance is hitting them hard. If your a good doctor, manage your patients pain use, there should be no problems.
What are my options, none. I refuse to take medication that totally has me feeling like a 70 year old with Alzheimer’s and a drinking problem. I guess learning to live with this pain is my only option right now. And really, how long can people endure high pain levels? I guess I will find out.
I am so sorry Debi. What the pain clinic did to you was dangerous and not okay. I don’t know how these doctors live with themselves. I too have tried many alternatives and all they did was make me gain weight and feel a lot worse.
I’ve often wondered how long I can endure these pain levels. I try not to think about it and take it one day at a time, but it’s difficult. I hope you can find a decent doctor and some treatment soon. Hopefully the tide will turn for people in pain.
I completely agree. I am told more and more often that I am suffering from depression, when what I’m actually suffering from is physical misery due to pain. I actually do have access to opioids right now, but I can only take them once a week because I’m pregnant (I know I’m still extremely fortunate).
I’m so happy to hear you still have access, that’s rare these days. I could technically still get access, but I just don’t have the energy or the money for the fight.
Kudos to you, ChronicMom for this post.
I agree with you 1000%. I have Central Sensitisation and I could not get by (at least at this time) without painkillers. Even then, the pain is not entirely diminished but these meds help A LOT. I worry that one day, due to the “opioid crisis” my doctor will not continue to prescribe. This is a really scary thought for me so I try not to dwell too long there.
And I agree with you, suicide is an option for people like me- that can’t get along without opiates. And death rates will go up if they have not already. We all need to speak out and post on this subject because there are a lot of people suffering…and probably dying too.
Thanks again, CM.
~ Jen
A really good book about all this: A Nation In Pain by Judy Foreman