Society 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. Share on XDo 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.
