What should pain patients do about the medical industry and the DEA continuing to restrict and remove access to one of the few drug therapies (opioids) that work for chronic pain?
Should we run for cover? I dunno, it seems like a lot of us have already tried that, and it didn’t work.
Should we go quietly into the night? Hide behind closed doors, hang our heads in shame, and suffer quietly? And I got to thinking, who says we should suffer quietly?
A Google search for the phrase “to suffer quietly” returned some interesting responses — the most obvious being one of the definitions for “bear”: verb, to accept or endure (something).
Hmmm… when I think of the word “bear,” I think of bearing children. So you won’t be surprised that a number of hits for “to suffer quietly” were related to women.
But very few of these websites advocated for suffering quietly, many indicating how unhealthy it is to do so. One link was on “How To Be Fine After An Abortion” (Womenworld.org), indicating the likelihood of depression for those who “choose to suffer quietly.”
Another silently suffering group is African Americans, who have certainly been made to bear the weight of the drug war. Of course, it’s not hard to suffer quietly and anonymously when you’re behind bars.
In a 2009 book entitled, “Family Affair: What It Means to Be African-American Today,” describing his mother’s death, Gil L. Robertson, IV says: “My ability to suffer quietly has become a curse.”
And no one would argue that the mentally ill do a lot of quiet suffering. Here’s a quote from a mental health professional (drdeborahserani.com): “One of the greatest things I’ve been able to do,” Serani says, “Is to let others know that there’s no shame in living with a mental illness. Help is out there – and you don’t have to suffer quietly or alone.”
“Silently Suffering” is the title of a song by The Rosies about their father who has suffered from mental illness for over 30 years. (https://www.facebook.com/TheRosies)
Another group mentioned for suffering quietly was veterans. From http://www.fallenheroesfund.org: “So many of our men and women in uniform have returned from service in Iraq and Afghanistan to suffer quietly with psychological health conditions that are invisible to the public,” said General Richard Cody, USA (Ret.), former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army.
It appears the self-employed also “continue to suffer quietly in the Great Recession,” or at least according to workplacediva.blogspot.com in 2010.
An interesting link was from a sports website, in which a fan responds to being told to suffer quietly with, “Don’t tell me how to suffer.” (Ramsrule.com, 2013)
I think pain patients should get business cards printed up with that saying. I mean, basically the medical industry and the DEA are telling pain patients to suffer — but they can’t tell us HOW to suffer, can they? And I think we should suffer… in their faces.
I can see it now… An activist dressed from head-to-toe in dark, angry red, with a blank mask for a face and a white nametag that reads, “I AM PAIN.” I see a bunch of IAmPains hovering around politicians, actors, and famous people… quietly, just always being around… reminding, photobombing… And there’s one of the IAPs doing something with his hands around his head that makes it look like he’s miming a throbbing headache… Another one miming how it feels to have a bad back… Wait, I think I see an IAP miming fibro-fog hanging around a Kardashian…
Finally, we come to the subject for most of the hits on “to suffer quietly”: religion. Here are some examples:
From GraceBaptist.ws: “To suffer quietly doesn’t mean to deny all feelings or pretend everything is right. No, it means to submit to the pains of life without yelling at God, sulking…”
From the Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org): “If we would really be like Him, we must be willing to suffer quietly on behalf of others, even when they are the ones who deserve it. This is acceptable with God!” (Yikes!)
There were a few positive signs in the religious community:
At https://www.facebook.com/sthelenaYYAM/posts/545801505524454:
“You and I were not made to suffer quietly,…” I Am Not Depression. LifeTeen.com for Catholic Youth.
And from the Hindustan Times (www.hindustantimes.com/…/article1-1231748.aspx), we have:
Jun 20, 2014 – A generation of women brought up to suffer quietly now increasingly tells its daughters to speak up, to fight back, to resist.
So, what should pain patients do about the medical industry and the DEA continuing to restrict and remove access to one of the few drug therapies (opioids) that work for chronic pain?
Well, who wants to be a squeaky wheel? I’ve obviously given up suffering quietly (on the internet) — won’t ya’ll join me?
All Things Chronic 