Pain Management is Suicide Prevention

The greatest risk for chronic pain patients is not addition it is suicide. I was recently at one of the highest pain levels I have ever experienced for longer than I have ever experienced and it made me more suicidal than I have been in a long time. The standard pain scale runs 1 to 10. Objective comparison studies (where they ask people with different conditions to rate their pains in comparison between their conditions) show the actual most painful conditions would rank around a 20 on the standard person's pain scale.

Conditions like crps and fibromyalgia are not terminal illnesses so are not eligible for much of palliative care. But these conditions rank among the most painful in existence. Why is it considered unethical to allow someone to die in pain but ethical to force them to live with unbearable pain simply because we do not know when they will die?

Why can people understand that terminal illness is a death sentence but not that chronic illness is a life sentence?

When I have found myself pondering my newly uncertain future of diagnosis I often find myself hoping that whatever my label I will be placed in the terminally ill category. This is not because I wish to die. It is simply because I know I am looking at severe disability regardless and extreme pain so I wish to have a diagnosis that will allow me easier access to palliative care and pain management.

Finally, yes there will be people here with legitimate stories about how meditation and other lifestyle changes helped you overcome chronic pain. But please do not judge others in the comments based on that. No one wants to remain in pain. If someone is not able to manage their chronic pain it is not due to lack of trying it is due to inefficient support and often denial of the medications necessary to keep them alive long enough to accept their reality. Everyone has a breaking point. If you haven't reached yours that's a privilege, not strength.