1/ Makes me sad-
The same arguments/facts we were making back in 2014 when Share Our Pain was one of the few E-advocacy groups here are the same things new people are just realizing.
Siobhan Reynolds-way before that.
GOV KNOWS the HARMS.
All the anti-opioid PROPagandists know.
2/EVERY #chronicpain pt needs to know our history re: our advocacy. Siobhan Reynolds was a lion, hunted down by GOV, cut down in the prime of her life.
Her voice will echo through time, forewarning the atrocities we see rapidly increasing in real time now. doctorsofcourage.org/siohban-reynol…
Thread-I've asked the pain community to write letters to the @WhiteHouse ATTN: @FLOTUS or @Potus.
This is my own letter already sent re: how MY family's been impacted.
Now an #OpenLetter.
It will take all of us writing for #PainAwarenessMonth to make an impression. #ChronicPain
1-Stop the, 'Over prescribing caused the opioid crisis.' narrative. I read article after article where 'liberal prescribing' is ascribed as the cause of the so called #opioidcrisis.
Many articles are written by people in our own community, self proclaimed pain pt ‘advocates’.
2-To this, I’d like to point out that in OC even a judge recently ruled:
"There is simply no evidence to show that the rise in prescriptions was not the result of the medically appropriate provision of pain medications to patients in need," #RxOpioidsSaveLives #ChronicPain
Thread...How people in pain are being abused.
Let us count the ways.
1-Emotional Abuse:
Invalidation of person's lived experience
Distrust
Gaslighting
Ridicule
Threats
Constant monitoring of activities
Judgment/punishment #ChronicPain#WeWillNotStaySilent
2-Intellectual Abuse
Being forced to prove your abuser wrong
Mind games
Making the person in pain feel stupid
Attacking the person in pain's ideas or wishes
Manipulation of information, even in medical records
Power Imbalance
3-Financial Abuse
Forcing person to attend needless appointments
requiring co-payments, transportation costs, paying for 'alternative' modalities, Coerced into costly surgeries and 'minimally invasive' procedures, endless lifelong drug testing.
2-Cut down in the prime of life.
Victims of #IllicitFentanylPoisonings.
Deaths happening due to a deadly drug supply, deaths that could have largely been prevented.
These are people, people who were loved, not statistics. #SafeSupplySavesLives
1- I remember way back when advocacy for pain pts started merging with the addiction community's advocacy.
Pushed back on ADX community's mantra of opioid 'over prescribing' & stated that drugs don't cause ADX.
Maia Szalavitz chastised me, told me to basically stay in my lane.
2- In fact, many in the 'upper echelon' of advocacy still embrace the #PainParole status quo & the 'over prescribing' narrative.
Usually if one pushes back, we're blocked or put on the blacklist of CPPs, and now there's even a blacklist for 'rogue' addiction advocates. 🤔🤫
3-You see I was here advocating since the time when the first seeds were being planted on Twitter re: our E-advocacy. #ShareOurPain was a small ragtag group of CPPs who banned together for the cause. This was before there even was an 'upper echelon'.
I commented on the CDC's rewrite.
For whatever that's worth.
I'm exhausted, angry, & now grieving a loss that no parent should ever have to face.
I've had my health & ability to live stolen and lost far too many people I love and care about to this #OpioidInsanity.
Thread...👇🏼
2- My comment?
You have no intention of ending this atrocity. You have had people in the pain community chasing their tails for years while asking for our input and 'comments'. #Chronicpain
3-We've explained over and over that we are suffering and dying out here in the real world. That MDs tell us to our faces that they are AFRAID of the DEA, and that we are not worth risking their licenses over. #Chronicpain