Thread by @purplemamabear

#PainAwarenessMonth
#Pain impacts all areas of ones lives. It’s difficult to address. The current climate around those with #chronicpain is full of stigma & biases. The narrative that #opioids are bad & do not assist those w #pain or that there are a plethora of non-opioid 1/

continues to impact those that have #chronicpain negatively. IF you have #chronicpain you are acutely aware that care for those in #pain is poor in the USA. There may be ‘pockets’ where one can access superb care but I believe it is few & far between. We did NOT need the #CDC 2/

guidelines. They were Honecker by an ‘expert’ group whose sole focus was on #SUD NOT the treatment of pain. I believe they took the guidelines and encouraged the misapplication of these guidelines. Instead work should have been done to focus on better treatment options 4 those 3/

with chronic pain. ALL medications have risk/benefits, that’s just not #opioids. Physicians and #patient and or #caregiver must assess the risk/benefit for the patient THEY are treating. Individual care needs to be provided not care based on the anti opioid groups 4/

clinical administrators, #PBMs, insurers, politicians & government. We have seen what this has done to #medicine. It has destroyed it. The ramifications are clear; Those in pain have been marginalized particularly by anti opioid groups who attribute psychiatric 5/

diagnoses to us in order to silence us, to make our voices meaningless. Historically this has been done time and time again; POC, those who are gay, women, salves. Dislegitimizing population by a psychiatric dx has consistently been a way to control. I am not 6/

disparaging the field of MH. I work in it and believe it can do a lot of good as long as people are checking their biases. The misapplication of guidelines and the hijacking of these guidelines by many groups has sorely set pain care back. The foundation of good 7/

medicine I believe is trust between a physician & patient. For many #patients with #chronicpain this trust has been violated. Assumptions made by physicians quickly based on climate, abandonment, dismissing pain as psychological or not that bad. Forcing patients to attempt 8/

therapies they already have (and experienced failure with) all in order to push patients of a medication that has helped bc clinic administration wants it, bc doctor fears the DEA, because of the climate.......in all this chaos the #patient is missed, the #patient is harmed 9/

I truly believe those w chronic pain need to be at the table when there are discussions about pain that impact policy, procedure etc. I also believe we need to be partners in the research that is being done. @Canada is doing it. We need to take their lead or continue 10

harms will occur. #OurVoicesMatter. The course needs to change because each minute we continue this direction people are being harmed @TickTock no more time....... 11/