Ok, you can tell me if I'm paranoid or not...

From: cathy:- (anonymous@medispecialty.com)
Thu Nov 29 21:52:29 2001


I read through both of the recent links that Helen Dynda about addiction and chronic pain. (Yes, I read them all, Helen -- you are one of my personal heros for tracking down all of this fabulous info!) I must say that both of them raised the hair on the back of my neck.

"Risk Of Addiction To Pain Relief Is Small, Expert Says" Then the article goes on to simply repeat this as a bald-faced assertion over and over. It gave NO explanations, NO reasons, simply stated that it is true. Well, you know, I'm not believing doctors simply because they ascend their thrones and proclaim things to be true! (ESPECIALLY things that they so sincerely WANT to be true!)

I can think of several plausible scientific explanations for why it might be true that people who are in pain and take narcotics are unlikely to become addicted. For example we know that pain is a chemical reaction in the brain, and we know that drugs work by causing chemical reactions in the brain. It would be completely plausible if the brain scientists find out that pain chemicals interfere with the chemical process of addiction. Or maybe there is only a tiny fraction of the human population whose brains are wired up to become addicted and so among chronic pain sufferers there is only a tiny fraction who are at a risk for addiction. Or maybe it is some other reason. Or maybe in that study of pain patients and addiction they manipulated the data and said that anyone who needed the pain relief wasn't addicted when many of them actually were.

But the point is that these Lords of Medicine do not deign to actually give us stupid little patients any information like that. Instead they pat us on the head and chuck us under the chin and tell us not to worry our pretty little heads about addiction and if we are in pain we DESERVE those narcotics. There are just so many things wrong with that attitude. First of all, I've heard enough "don't worry your little head" statements to know that I SHOULD worry. Don't worry nothing bad could happen from this c-section or tubal and that hysterectomy is a triviality and adhesions don't hurt. Secondly, I don't give a horse's patooie what anybody else thinks I DESERVE in the way of pain relief. It's not just that I have the right to pain relief, I have ALL the rights. I have the right to decide how much pain I can stand. I have the right to decide whether or not the benefits that any particular drug gives to me are worth the side effects that the particular drug has on me. Those are MY rights. MINE! MINE! MINE!

Ok, I finished ranting, I'll stop now. If ya'all think I'm out of my mind, well, alright you wouldn't be the first ones!

--
cathy :-)

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