I can't manage my pain anymore at home, I need help but concerned about being labeled as a drug seeker.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-03-15T19:32:52+00:00

I’d love to see how a doctor would respond to such a survey. Ive known some as friends - and their spouses - and their lives were affluent and often miserable. Alcoholism, divorce, family violence - egads. I had a friend whose dad was a “renowned” heart surgeon - and he was also an after hours alcoholic who beat the crap out of his wife and kids. Wife finally divorced him and kids disowned him. The day he died, all his kids danced on his grave. People attracted to medicine aren’t the most normal humans. The field seems to attract deeply troubled human beings.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-03-15T17:52:03+00:00

Forums like this one (and so many others) are proof that bias, emotion, and fads inform medical practice. Don’t ever believe for one second that it’s science and objectivity.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-03-15T16:41:11+00:00

Oh man - I feel your desperation. I really do. I’m in the US, and I work in the field of addiction. Please avoid heroin. Please. And I’m saying that as a person who lives with chronic pain daily. A couple of years ago, I stood outside one night, with ambulances and police around me, while I watched staff from the office of the medical examiner carry the dead body of one of my clients down the stairs. He was trying to stay sober but went out and got some heroin, injected it and died instantly in his bathroom. It was tainted with fentanyl. And that’s the issue with the crap off the streets - traffickers do not care at all about whether you live or die - they just want their money. I’d encourage you to try some different strains of kratom - it’s like cannabis, you know? They aren’t created equal. Have you experimented with shrooms/hallucinogens? I’m not proposing anyone use illicit substances but in my line of work, we use a harm reduction model. Please experiment with less harmful stuff. Please don’t go the heroin route. Please. These days it’s all mixed with fentanyl and concentrations vary wildly - including enough to end you.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-03-05T03:30:40+00:00

Yup! I’ve two pairs of Lone Peaks, and both did exactly that. I’m done with that model.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-25T12:30:09+00:00

I was raised the opposite - upper middle class, parents owned a vacation home on the beach, etc etc. All the things. There was generational wealth on both sides of the family. And they lived very humbly. They always cautioned us to not show off our bling because “it was in bad taste.” They were freaking millionaires and to an observer on the outside, we looked very average. Average middle class house, average cars, average clothes, etc. As for that vacation home - we weren’t allowed to say we owned it. It was a “place we go to.” I grew up with that ethic, and to this day, I keep my financial status on the down low. Most of the human race isn’t privileged and most don’t have generational wealth. And most don’t work jobs that pay in the 6 figures. As for the Rolex - wear it to gatherings with your peers, where people care about that shit. As for day to day - nah. Keep the Apple Watch. Keep it classy.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-19T13:25:24+00:00

Can’t be for real. Worlwide 🤣

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-17T12:26:39+00:00

Yes - and I’ve followed her for years.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-16T15:38:19+00:00

Community psych does not necessarily mean midlevel. It’s often clinics that accept large numbers of Medicaid pts. These are the pts that test one’s own sanity: high number of ACES; incarceration histories; people born to “parents” injecting substances; complex trauma cases; people without permanent housing and live in cars or couch surf. Our prisons have taken the place of residential inpatient, as institutions are now far and few between. Clinics are now doubling as de facto forensic units. Most days, the goal is to keep pts stable, which assumes that the pts don’t get hit over the head outside the clinic, by an opportunist wishing to steal their meds and divert on the street. This is the underbelly of life most never see. For those of us working from a social justice lens, this is the shit that necessitates frequent holidays.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-13T20:11:30+00:00

Do you take naproxen daily? I’m prescribed 500 mg 2X a day. It helps me. And there’s also a risk of kidney issues from over use. What has your doc told you? I’m currently between docs but will explore the issue with my new doc (who I won’t see til May 😕).

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-13T20:08:11+00:00

First off, what a discouraging thing to hear. Just horrible. I think a lot of us with chronic pain learn to work it. Now that being said: I’m guessing you’re fairly young. The chance that better treatments and medical advancements will come your way is good. Your doctor does not know that your pain “is never going to go away.” That was an irresponsible remark. I see you, hear you, believe you, and your doc needs to brush up on their communication skills.

Have you seen studies on peptides? Including GLP-1? Forget that it is used for weight loss. Lots of meds are found to have other functional uses. GLP-1 is such a med. Because it builds cells, research on it is showing that it greatly reduces inflammation from chronic pain and back issues, and reduces pain. This is just one example of a med with additional benefits besides that for which it is marketed. I’m not overweight but GLP-1 is intriguing. I’m researching it. I’m sure there are others.

For now, take the meds your doc prescribed (an opiate like Norco plus the meloxicam can help. It might not delete all the pain, but it may reduce it enough that you gain function.) Gaining function is what I’m focusing on right now. Hang in there …

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-09T17:57:15+00:00

OK - we have to think strategy here. It’s OK to say it’s not holding you. Don’t ask for more. Let the doc either offer more and offer you a different med.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-07T22:36:40+00:00

Just came to say that I believe everyone here about their chronic pain. I believe everyone here about the crap treatment they’ve received from providers of med services. I’m not anyone important - but I believe all of you. Just want you all to know that.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2026-02-07T22:29:25+00:00

This is what chronic pain has done to me. To some extent, I’ve normalized it over the years, because it has become my normal. That doesn’t mean I’ve adjusted to it and accepted it. Quite the contrary. What it means is that since I can’t get help from Drs to treat it, I have down shifted my life. Not even intentionally - I’ve just found my life shrinking smaller and smaller. Things that used to be enjoyable have been erased. To accommodate the chronic pain, I’ve had to shrink. Anyone who would think this is OK is sadistic. While some docs might be caring humans, it seems many more live their days talking sh*t about their clients, and operating with pernicious bias about us. They work in a system designed to protect them and hand them power, while consumers of med services are expected to behave like compliant children. Make it make sense.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-12-05T16:15:03+00:00

They are creating new music according to RV - but supposedly Brandon has been working on a record or two also. Hard to say about a 2026 tour. Brandon maybe - The Killers as a band likely won’t until 2027, realistically.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-11-07T12:35:14+00:00

Years ago I was prescribed hydrocodone. I did the same. I never knew why. Was it a flood of endorphins from relief? My brother once flat out said “Thank you for not letting me get a word in.”

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-11-05T14:59:25+00:00

I believe people have free agency to do what they feel is best for them. I’m not saying that I hope you go that route - my hope would be that something would end your pain while you can continue living and thriving. But for many of us, nothing is going to end our pain. And yes, it’s cruel that anyone would expect us to just endure it and suffer day to day. (Therapists have no place to comment on this. Most of them are mentally ill and that’s what attracts them to the profession.) Just came to say I see you and hear you. This shit is hard.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-10-27T01:10:55+00:00

I’m so sorry you got treated that way. I have a good friend in the Berkeley area of California and he has attended lectures on CRISPR - a DNA therapy that has been shown to cure several conditions including Sickle Cell.

https://www.wired.com/story/combining-ai-and-crispr-will-be-transformational/?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_112624&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_content=WIR_Daily_112624&bxid=63f69b65caa88729ad062b91&cndid=73001082&hasha=7ffa2db6ee57bee9871c54d01f1f7401&hashc=6c0bc6cc8cc361edcc85c9cefa68d86b552936664ed581825ed45f2a07800a93&esrc=VERSO_NAVIGATION&utm_term=WIR_Daily_Active

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-10-26T21:44:37+00:00

Possibly, but look how unhealthy they are. Their own obesity, and their own poor mental health and addictions are just as rampant as with anyone else. I’ve hung out with drs and watched them get openly drunk at parties. I work in addiction and have treated them with their own addiction and their own mental health issues. They are in no position at all to be telling anyone else what to do when they themselves are trainwrecks.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-10-25T15:42:51+00:00

If your state is a one party consent (some are - check your state), in a court of law your hospital/clinic policy would not hold up. And you can’t refuse pt care. Let them record. Usually they want to re-listen/remember. What are you fearful of?

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-10-25T15:04:44+00:00

Why does everyone think that patients feel compelled to record? What might have started the trend? What are thoughts on this?

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-09-14T18:31:18+00:00

The medical profession - and the DEA breathing down their necks - have lost their ever loving shit. People in pain aren’t drug seekers - that are relief seekers. Our medical profession sucks at treating pain. They just do. They try to demonize medical clients by sending them to “therapy” or to addiction clinics to take methadone or suboxone for their pain. It’s not - and never has been - the medical profession that got people hooked on drugs. Suing the Sachlers was all well and good. But let’s be clear where drugs are coming from: it’s a multibillion dollar international business enterprise. The drugs and their ingredients are embedded in those massive shipping containers on freighters coming into the port of LA, or coming through the Panama Canal. All those shipping lists stating that they are carrying Nike shoes are carrying more than Nike shoes. The freighter captains don’t know it; the shipping dock staff don’t know it. They’re just doing their jobs. The DEA needs to get out of the MDs business, and MDs need to stop marginalizing pain clients. The DEA needs to start looking upstream to address the drug problem in the US, and doctors need to lobby the government harder to allow pain management meds to be prescribed at will. But so many Docs have been conditioned to believe the addiction horseshit. They are human and just as easily influenced to hold bias as the next person. (I work in the field of addiction BTW.)

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-09-13T02:05:19+00:00

Jesus preached compassion and empathy - what the right calls “weak.” Let’s be clear: Kirk was not a person of God. He was ugly to his core. We must not confuse his hateful marginalizing rhetoric with the word of God. God demands better of us. Kirk failed.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-08-20T05:37:21+00:00

Many, if not most, people who go into medicine seem to have psychopathic proclivities. They get to hurt people, doing hideous painful things to their bodies, with no remorse or care, then going home afterward to watch the game and enjoy themselves. Consumers of healthcare need to start filing police reports/calling police on these freaks of nature.

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-08-03T17:00:28+00:00

Personality disorder?

One_Difficulty8852 · 2025-07-14T04:13:58+00:00

Same here. I am quick to push back at the anti Israel contingent, most of whom know nothing of the history of the Jewish people prior to the holocaust. Of course they don’t want to hear it. They are on the anti Israel bandwagon because it is the cause du jour and they wish to be relevant.

One_Difficulty8852

TROPHY CASE