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This is a baffling mischaracterisation of the arguments. People don't say that opioids are a placebo. They say that people taking opioids develop tolerance for
by DanBC 6y ago
This is a baffling mischaracterisation of the arguments.
People don't say that opioids are a placebo. They say that people taking opioids develop tolerance for them and the meds lose effectiveness over time. This means that people are still in pain, but are now also taking dangerous and debilitating amounts of opioid meds. Their function is worse because of the opioids.
Providing talking therapy to these people isn't saying that the pain is not real. You saying this causes harm and you need to stop saying it, because you clearly do not understand what's happening.
When people have long term pain they lose function. They stop doing activities they used to enjoy. Their quality of life plummets. This makes their pain worse. (We know this, there's plenty of research.) Talking therapy aims to get people their life back by helping them regain function. They start to learn to live with pain. They get back to doing activities they enjoy. This doesn't eliminate pain, but it does lessen the pain and it improves quality of life.
You seem to think that "pain free but on opioids" is possible. For most[1] people in long term pain that's not possible, because opioids don't work like that.
[1] most, not all.
- edmundsauto 6y agoI've always heard the problem with opioids are when you get too many or too few.
- varispeed 6y ago> They say that people taking opioids develop tolerance for them and the meds lose effectiveness over time. And this is the root of those claims. Some people even started to believe that patients fake chronic pain just to get those sweet sweet opioids. I've been taking them for over five years and I have not noticed that they lose effectiveness, nor I had to increase the dose. You do still feel pain, but the difference is between being able to function in the society and thinking about killing yourself. I've been through many of those therapies and I have seen disbelief on people faces. You can't get your life back just by thinking there is no pain or that the pain will not take it away. What they do is they get people to learn some basic thought patterns that any CBT therapy do and then sprinkle it here and there with theories about pain. This is not bad in itself, but when you marry it with the thought that opioids are unnecessary, you sentence people for unimaginable suffering, while patting yourself on the back, that you are "helping".
- DanBC 6y ago6:30 in this radio programme: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b04wv052 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b04wv052 From 9:00 they interview someone who was on huge amounts of opioids and who managed to get off them.