one woman’s journey navigating a new normal
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. It's also Pain Awareness Month. While suicide is a difficult topic to address, it’s vital that we do so. As suicide rates are elevated in people with chronic illness and chronic pain, it’s important to be aware of the ways that chronic illness and chronic pain can increase vulnerability to suicidality.
Every day, our Research and Education Projects hear from persons with a serious pain problem who can’t obtain enough relief. There are multiple reasons, but a major one is that they are trying to relieve their pain with oral opioids. It appears to us that there is a gross misunderstanding and ignorance about the inability of oral opioids to ever provide good pain relief in many persons who have Intractable Pain Syndrome (IPS).
All Intractable Pain Syndrome (IPS) patients have nerve damage somewhere in their brain, spinal cord, or nerves. Consequently, IPS patients will either need extra GABA or a GABA surrogate to force damaged nerve tissue to correctly function and relieve pain.
You Don't Look Sick Blog 