The Opioid Pain Refugee Crisis
Many of us with disabilities suffer from chronic pain conditions which are corrosive, debilitating and incredibly challenging on a day-to-day basis. There is a national narrative in America that there is an "opioid crisis". But opiate analgesic medications are first-line treatments for pain resulting from cancer, HIV, as well as other diseases, and of course chronic pain.
This article provides a clear and direct explanation, as well as a starting point for understanding the effects this narrative has had on patients who rely on these medications, particularly the 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.
Sadly that's what ruined my life. I was in a serious car accident, and my doc put me on oxycontin. Fast forward 3.5 years she got in trouble for overprescribing narcotics, and I as well as many others were cut off our pain contracts. Cold turkey. Which is the point at which I turned to heroin, and later fentanyl. And have spent 12 years trying to get my life back. And I know many many opioid addicts share a similar story as me :( most of then began with the prescriptions they were given. But the opioid crisis isn't a narrative but fact. 150 people die everyday just from fentanyl alone, not accounting for other opioids. There is almost no one left that hasnt been touched by the opioid crisis in some way or another, whether they are battling it themselves, or have loved ones and friends dealing with it, or that have lost people close to them from overdoses. Every single day, I hear about someone overdosing just in our small town. And in the past year alone, I've lost 6 people that I was very close to. The problem with long term pain pill use is that it weakens ur pain tolerance. I thought the pain I was in 12 years ago was bad.... I legit have zero pain tolerance today because of long term opioid use. So I deal with debilitating chronic pain everyday, and it will takes MANY years for my pain tolerance to balance back out. If I knew back then, everything I know now about long term opioid use, it's affects on the body, and especially its effects on the brain, I would have never taken that prescription. Never. Because I'm in far worse shape today then I was then. And living sober is horrible for me now. Not only because of the pain, but because of the emotional instability and severe anxiety i suffer with now, that I didn't have before. I'm not saying opioid pills don't have their place, because they do. However the mass prescribing of them for everything (especially for chronic pain since studies (and personal experience) show that opioids are not beneficial for chronic pain. Acute pain yes. Cancer pain yes. But there are sooooi many alternatives, that are Far better than this. I don't wish this on my worst enemy. And frankly I'm sick of losing people I love to this opioid epidemic. It's out of control, small children are dying because they accidentally picked a pill up in the park and ate it. Because are overdosing in the streets on a regular basis... its out of control. And certainly not a narrative as I said before. It's very much fact. Nothing is worse than seeing people who have never abused drugs before, fall into that trap all because they took a medication their doctor prescribed them... and suddenly after years they are a slave to this substance that they can't stop, and their tolerance just keeps building and building until they are searching elsewhere to make up for it when the doc finally says that won't increase the dose anymore. It's a visuous cycle. And one I was NEVER even told about when I was put on oxy. I didn't even know what withdrawal was. Hindsight is 20/20 tho