United States.
"Suicides increased by 24 percent
from 1999 to 2014, and are now
the 10th leading cause of death in
the country. In 2014, nearly
43,000 Americans committed suicide,
over twice the number of
deaths that have been linked to
opioid overdoses. Most often, suicides
are blamed on depression,
mental illness, financial problems,
or drug and alcohol abuse. Untreated
chronic pain is rarely even
mentioned. However, in recent
months, there have been a growing
number of anecdotal reports
of pain patients killing themselves
because they can no longer get
pain medication or find doctors
willing to treat them."
I know I can safely speak for the
chronic pain community by saying
that we often feel forgotten, misunderstood,
criminalized, and crazy.
Frustration, devastation, stigmatization,
and, desperation are
sentiments that seem universal.
Frequently, we don't even know
how to communicate our pain - if
we don't look to be in pain, how
36—iPain Living Magazine
much pain can we be in? Conversely,
if we express too much
pain, the assumption is that we are
doing it for attention or medication.
Chronic pain can be an incredibly
lonely and isolating existence
- an existence that can become
so unbearable, our community
is sadly turning to suicide.
A recent population-based study
used data on nearly 5,700 adults
representative of the U.S. population
to investigate pain and suicide.
The findings?
29% of the subjects had chronic
pain, back or neck pain, frequent
or severe headaches, or
other non-arthritis pain.
All of these conditions "were
consistently related to suicidality,"
with chronic severe headaches
having the strongest association.
People with chronic headaches
were 4.3 times more likely than
those without such headaches
to think about suicide, 4.6 times
more likely to plan suicide, and
6.5 times more likely to have
attempted suicide in the previous
12 months.
Those with "other" chronic
pain also were more likely than
those without such pain to have
thought about (2.5 times as
likely), planned (3.5 times), and
attempted (6.2 times) suicide.
Regardless of where you stand on
the opioid "issue," it is abundantly
clear that creating a standard protocol
in a chronic pain patient's
treatment plan, whereby mindbody
techniques are immediately
implemented in conjunction with
traditional Western medicine, unnecessary
suffering has the potential
to be alleviated.
Realistically, though a lovely sentiment,
it is one that is going to
take time for our medical (and political)
system to acknowledge and
execute - so what do you do right
now? Where do you begin? How
do you learn the skills necessary
to live in a pain-ridden body with
intense, dark emotions?
First and foremost, if you or
someone you love is contemplating
suicide, please know there is
available help. The National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline is a valuable,
credible, and reliable resource
in the United States and is
(Connued from page 35)