Storify: Don't Give Suggestions to Chronic Pain Patients

Storify is shutting down in May and has informed users that we have to migrate our content elsewhere if we wish to save it. This is one of my old threads.



Don't tell chronic pain patients how to manage their pain.

Don't offer suggestions.

Don't help us.

Don't.

Yes, I know about weed. Yes, I know about acupuncture. Yes, I know about yoga. Yes, I know about meditation. Yes, I know about chiro. Yes.

I know about your aunt who does crystal bowl sound therapy. I know about the lady who tapes tarot cards to the hurty spot. I know.

I know about that thing on Amazon and that other thing on Amazon and the back brace and the neck warmer and the tube socks and I KNOW.

I know the impulse comes from the best possible place. Nothing is kinder than wanting to heal the world. But stop. STOP. S-T-O-P.

Offering suggestions for pain management to spoonies is the metaphorical equivalent of pouring a canister of salt on an open wound.

If we want suggestions, WE. WILL. ASK.

Every. Damn. Person. who urges me to use weed has NO idea that:
- it's not legal in my state.
- it's not a protected class from firing.

So they're literally urging me to lose my job and go to prison. GET FUCKED.

Not to mention the sheer breath-taking audacity to think that, while I'm over here in pain 24/7, I've never Googled pain management. This is stigma against chronic pain patients: the idea we're so "addicted" to our meds that we've never thought about alternative methods. Like a doctor gave me opioids and I just took them like a wide-eyed little lamb and never considered that Big Pharma is against the tarot lady. My medication works better than anything else available to me, so please insert your suggestions into the nearest loo.

In closing: I've used all the above methods (except weed) so miss me with claims that I don't like tarot or meditation or whatever. Tarot and meditation are lovely things I use for my own personal reasons but they DO NOT MANAGE MY PAIN and you can take my word on that, buddy.

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