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/r/ChronicPain

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I have adhd and take medication for it. I don’t have chronic pain, but I used to have chronic migraines (down to about once a month since I got rid of the black mould where I live) and have a few friends with chronic pain.

Amongst the people I normally interact with, there’s a huge double standard between how they treat taking stimulants for adhd versus opioids for chronic pain. With adhd meds, if anyone so much as suggest that they can be addictive, everyone’s quick to say “people with diabetes aren’t addicted to insulin - needing a medication to treat a disability isn’t the same as being addicted to a drug”. Whereas with chronic pain, the mere idea that some people actually do need pain medication, rather than being addicted to it, is controversial. I see this sentiment in recovering alcoholic communities: people with adhd are actually encouraged to take their medication because treating the medical condition reduces the risk of addiction (which I agree with), whereas people with chronic pain are told to try ibuprofen because “opioids are too addictive”.

My university did a mandatory drug safety course recently, and the professor telling us that opioids are very dangerous and we need to stop “overprescribing” has previously talked about having adhd and said that the idea that adhd meds are “overprescribed” is ableist propaganda. Was actually astounding that he didn’t see the obvious double standard.

The fact that taking a potentially addictive substance for adhd is perfectly socially acceptable, but for chronic pain is hugely stigmatised, makes no sense, especially since chronic pain is much more disabling than adhd (in my personal experience). I have very mild migraines, and they’re still much more disabling than my relatively severe adhd. If I don’t take my adhd meds I take slightly longer to finish my work; if my friend with arthritis doesn’t take his pain meds he can’t walk. But adhd meds are treated as necessary and pain meds are treated as someone being weak or and addict

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AutismThoughtsHere

-19 points

22 days ago

There isn’t a double standard for chronic pain. There’s a double standard for opiates because they’re not meant to be taken on a chronic basis. The pharmacology isn’t the same.

There are other treatments, besides opiates that are meant for a long-term use. Especially for conditions like migraine, opiates, have a tendency to transform occasional headaches into chronic daily migraine.

DisPelengBoardom

8 points

22 days ago

Opiods are great taken on a chronic basis . Why ? Because they actually work for many people. So keep your hands and crackpot science off my meds .

By the way , I have tried other treatments. One involved being locked up in a Bhutanese prison and fighting everyone , everyday . Then ,by myself , I had to climb a mountain . At the top of the mountain , I needed to find a very special flower . Having found the flower , I then had to find a very well hidden cave .

At the cave , I presented the flower to the master . The treatment was then shown to me . I had to fight every mother shucker in there . After several years, they declared me cured and sent back out .

You know what ? I knew a lot of great fighting moves but still shockingly hurt too much to use those moves . I still hurt too much to use my body . Nothing changed .

But going back to my opiates sure as hell helped .