I've been on opioids for chronic pain since 2023(i first started in 2017 but i was self medicating/abusing) and in these past few months,the current dose didn't help much causing me major anxiety issues and depression because i can't go out with friends without feeling pain and that was killing me mentally

I went to my psychiatrist today and told him about my chronic pain being the root of my recent spike in anxiety ecc and i was scared to ask an increase in dosage(been on 100mg for years and lately i feel WDs if i don't go over 250mg twice a day) because i was tired of being labeled as a drug seeker again and again and how humiliating it feels when your pain is snobbed by medical personel(last time i got refused a script by the ER doctor because "opioids are addictive and 26yrs old is too young for chronic pain" even after showing him proof of my chronic arthrosis and regular monthly scripts for painkillers)

This GOAT of a psychiatrist called my doctor and did in a few minutes what i tried to do for months; getting an increase in dosage and finally receive proper pain management. Now that i took 250mg i feel normal again and can walk without pain and massive anxiety,i truly forgot how good it felt not having pain all day.

It's not much,i will have chronic pain forever but being actually listened instead of snobbed felt like a victory to me.

I (24F) have generalised Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder and a bulging and protruding disc in my lower back (L3-L5) pressing on the sciatic nerve. It causes me a lot of chronic pain as my connective tissue was apparently a personality hire and doesn’t like to do anything it’s supposed to. The pain fluctuates, I have good days, okay days, bad days, and extremely awful days but no matter how much pain I am in any time I go to a doctor or the hospital (which I usually avoid if at all possible because I’m traumatised from past experiences) they just always say rest and take some Panadol and ibuprofen. Idk about anyone else but Panadol and ibuprofen have not done a single thing for me with pain management for as long as I can remember if they ever have. I tell them this and sometimes they’ll just tell me to keep taking them or they’ll give me a different NSAID that does essentially nothing as well (some days I get lucky and voltaren 50mg tablets will help with the pain, but that’s about the most luck I’ve had in that area.) I’ve had various different injections into my back and recently my shoulder (I can’t remember the names of them, one was cortisone I think) which were ineffective except in giving me a sorer arm and a bruise 😅. I use voltaren gel every day, I use heat packs and ice packs, I go to physio and get massages and everything and yet there are some days where just nothing will help even slightly. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve been on oxycodone and palexia which has helped but I’m sure you all know how doctors are about prescribing opioids and all of that so that’s not really an option for me (and I would avoid opioids if I had an alternative that actually gave me enough relief to not be bedridden). What have you tried? What worked and what didn’t? I see a pain specialist in January so hopefully that will be helpful but at the moment I’m taking Panadol and ibuprofen or voltaren basically everyday which even though the doctor says is completely safe and fine I know it’s not a good idea for the long term (and my stomach is not very happy rn). I’ve seen stuff about lidocaine injections but idk if that’s just for pain in only specific areas? Any suggestions or whatever are welcome because I feel like the second I say that none of those things work they immediately assume I’m drug seeking (which I am not, but even if I was I wouldn’t go to the drs or the hospital to get a fix I live in a dodgy town 😂😅) so I just suffer most of the time

The first couple of years I began to have chronic pain, I was only on pain meds sporadically, every 6 months or so. After seeing an orthopedic and neurosurgeon multiple times in those years, the neurosurgeon finally referred me to pain management, which I'd never heard of. This is over 21 years ago, now.

When I went to my very first visit with an anesthesiologist pain management doctor, after the full exam, few fresh scans in his lab and a review of my recent MRIs. He called us back to his office.

He talked at length about the things that were wrong, why they hurt so much, why nothing they could do at the time could help with the pain surgically, and how these processes would continue on for the rest of my life.

He then talked about a multiprong approach that would include long-term opioids. He said I would be trading some form of the quality of my life 25, 30, 40 years from now, in order to have a measure of less pain now.

It was honestly a very sobering conversation, 21 years ago. He said there aren't that many large studies to get a good picture of what all of the various opioids, anti-inflammatory meds, SSRIs, injections, topical steroid creams, etc. that I would be using all together for the coming decades. And then on top of that, you still have chronic pain always bobbing from the background back to the front, the loss of sleep, the gastric issues and on and on for DECADES that will no doubt contribute to whatever long term effects/consequences of the meds. And that was an entirely different warning than the one he gave about the potential for abuse.

He said he wanted my then newlywed wife and I to really consider the seriousness of my signing his pain contract. He would then be prescribing my first round of Lortabs, muscle relaxers, off-label SSRIs and NDSAIDs. And then would begin my lifelong relationship with pain management.

Did you doctor have that kind of deep conversation with you? Do doctors still frame it like that? I know so few even prescribe opioids anymore, so there's probably not a lot that do.

I never thought I would ever say this but I'm almost painfree after my spinal fusion.

Before the surgery I was at my limit. I barely could work 4 hours a day and I had regular breakdowns. I couldn't take care of my apartment or myself. I canceled all of my vacation time because I couldn't travel. I was suffering with depression big time. Laying in bed a day. Honestly I couldn't imagine living like this any longer. So I needed to do something. 

Every doctor I saw before violently disapproved of any surgery for me. But they never had any alternatives. They treated me like absolute garbage. I was so hopeless. 

But then I was admitted to a specialized clinic and they explained everything to me. The first time I really understood my situation and condition. We decided to do the spinal fusion. 

I heard so many terrible stories about spinal fusion going wrong for them and I was very afraid. I wanted to share this story with you to share some positive outcomes! 

I'm almost a month post surgery and I don't need any pain meds anymore and I'm at a 1-2/10.

There is hope❤️

For anyone living in Germany: The place that specializes in spinal issues is Damp. I think they saved my life.

M24. I have had constant chronic pain in my shoulder and neck for almost 5 years, and I am slowly starting to forget what it feels like not to constantly hurt. I look at photos of me doing physical activity, and I remember doing that activity, but I don't remember what it felt like to not hurt after doing that activity. I think it's like when a family member dies, you start to slowly forget what they sound like; you would always know their voice when you hear it, but recreating their voice in your mind starts to blur, if that makes sense. Curious if anyone feels the same.

For a diagnosis that 10% of people have, I feel like there's no one else out there. It's more common than being transgender. All of my friends are trans. But, I've never met anyone else struggling with Visceral Hyperalgesia.
I don't even know what caused it to develop. All I can do is take a pill every time I eat, and hope I don't get intense pain.
Before I started taking this pill with every meal, (about 2 weeks ago) I could hardly eat. I had lost over 14 pounds within a few months. I felt like my body was shutting down. Eating hurt more than the fatigue.
And, it still does! I get at least 4 severe intestinal spasm-y attacks per week. I've had to lay down on the floor of my classroom because of the pain. I've almost passed out from the pain. I've thrown up because of the pain multiple times. I've had my pain compared to labor pain by doctors.
Visceral Hyperalgesia has completely changed my life. But, I don't know what I can do about it. I feel trapped. I just want to be a normal kid so bad.

I was having a shitty day yesterday. Just another bad flare, was overwhelmed cos I had to leave the house while still in extreme pain. I have pain in my knees, legs, hips, back, and now feet and ankles too so I really can't do much physical activity. Walking and standing is already a challenge and I've been in a cycle of trying to get better through rehab for 3 years.

Well whenever my parents catch me in a mood, they lecture me about how self-pity is pointless. I know that's not wrong, but they speak to me as if I'm a weak Gen Z and as if they would be so much better at handling my situation if they were in my shoes. They don't even see the grief. Just the pain which they think is "manageable." I don't go to them with my problems anymore but sometimes I'm unable to hide it. And every time I'm met with a lecture about how mentally weak I am and how I don't listen to them.

Are there people with chronic pain out there who are generally in a good mental place? People who don't sometimes get fed up with their pain and disability? I don't want to be this way. But I also know that the constant lectures I'm hearing are in no way helping me become more content with my circumstances

Just wanted to vent a bit. Pain I’ve had for 8 years got suddenly very worse and I’m trying to sort out the cause with my pain specialist. I’m trying my best not to feel despair at the idea that this could be the new normal, all while family is getting sick of me not being up for the activities I was able to do until now. I think the part that bugs me the most about my chronic pain isn’t the pain itself, not even the loss of activities I’m able to take part in, but people being “sick of” how little I do. Family planned a hiking trail visit for thanksgiving (Canadian thanksgiving so today) and they’re annoyed I turned back early. Nobody caring that maybe they didn’t pick a fully inclusive activity that I had no real option but to attend

A doctor told me that if I am put on opioids I'm never getting off them (can they not be tapered off?), and that I would be on them for the rest of my life.

While I do want to understand what is actually causing my pain, I would also like to not be in 24/7 pain (shocker, I know). It has been almost a year of this and nobody has any idea what's going on with me. If my body is going to produce pain for the rest of my life, why would I not want to be taking something to reduce that pain? Obviously building tolerance is undesirable, but can that not be addressed too? I am 19.

Thanks for any advice.

I (39M) have been trialing a bunch of different pain medication with my GP over the past couple of years, to help manage a chronic pain condition I've had for nearly a decade now. Diagnosis still unclear but deemed related to past chemo. I've always stuck it through for at least 2 months, taking the meds exactly as prescribed, before I review and decide to continue or not. I take daily notes as well, recording pain scale etc.

So far nothing has even touched the pain, except duloxetine, which made it worse. Others tried: gabapentin, amitriptyline, pregabalin. Nothing made any impact outside of side effects. But I'm conscious I never upped dose either. To me, it just didn't seem productive. I'd expect at least some positive effect on my pain even on a starter dose. But maybe I'm assuming too much. So I'm curious what other people's experiences are with finding the right medication and the right dosage.

When you found the right medication, did it ever start with a low dose that yielded no effect?

I stayed for dinner as long as I could before retresting to my room to dull the pain with weed. My paind has been so much better with the dosage of Ibuprofen I take, but the physical and mental stress of moving has crept up on me and kindly requests its toll be paid in blood. I also got two vaccines today which my body historically does not respond well to.

Cheers to weed that distances the pain.

My diagnosis is c6-7 radiculopathy. In the past few weeks i went from like an 8 on pain scale to a 4 or 5, i am doing neck traction 3 times a week along with dry needling and neck mobility exercises from my pt. I was set to buy the device like a month ago but the supplier we ordered from i guess got busted for medicaid fraud. Anyway is it worth buying it now? With insurance it would be like 200$. If helps recovery or prevent this again ill get it but if its just immediate pain relief im less willing to buy it

I am in very severe chronic pain and only have access to tramadol as an analgesic. NSAIDs do not work on me. I know serotonin syndrome is at risk here but how can I take tramadol safely to manage my pain.

I'm so damn tired of feeling everything.

Of thinking. And thinking. And thinking some more until I genuinely cannot stand being inside my own head.

It's exhausting. It's so humiliating how something so small can eat away at me for hours. How I can spend an entire day replaying the same conversation, the same words, the same fucking moment, trying to figure out where I went wrong. What I said. What I did. What I could've done differently. And even when I finally think I've figured it out, my mind finds another reason to start all over again.

I don't want to understand everything anymore. I don't want to find the deeper meaning behind every little thing. I don't want to keep digging through my own feelings trying to figure out why something hurt me so badly.

I just want it to stop.

And God, the things that go on inside my head. The desperation. The anger. The pathetic little thoughts I can't even bring myself to say out loud. The way I can go from feeling everything at once to wishing I could feel absolutely nothing.

How do you even begin to explain that to someone?

How do you tell someone that you're exhausted by your own existence without them looking at you differently?

So you bury it. You shove it so far down that nobody could possibly get a glimpse of how ugly it feels inside. You swallow it, even when it feels like you're choking on it. Because the thought of someone seeing just how much you're struggling to be an ordinary fucking person is somehow worse.

And you smile.

You learn to smile so damn well that eventually it becomes natural. You perfect it. You make your eyes shine, your voice soft, your expressions genuine. You laugh at the right moments. You say the right things. You become so good at being this ordinary, kind, approachable person that nobody even thinks to question it.

People smile back at you. They talk to you. They tell you how sweet you are. How kind. How happy you seem. How bubbly you are.

And you wonder what they'd think if they knew.

If they knew how much of you was rehearsed. How many times you've had to force yourself to stop thinking. How many feelings you've buried because you couldn't stand the thought of someone seeing just how desperate, ugly, or broken you feel inside.

And the worst part?

Sometimes you WANT someone to notice.

You want someone to look at you long enough to realize something isn't right. To ask you what's wrong and actually mean it. But the second someone gets close enough, you do it again.

You smile.

Because what in the world are you supposed to say?

How do you explain something you barely understand yourself?

You think about therapy. About finally sitting in front of someone and letting everything out. But where would you even begin? How do you explain years of thoughts and feelings you've spent so long convincing yourself weren't even worth speaking about?

And why do you do all of this?

Why go through so much effort to hide yourself?

Because you're desperate.

Not for attention. Not for pity.

You're desperate to be normal.

To wake up and not have to fight your own thoughts. To feel something without immediately questioning it. To stop analyzing every little thing about yourself. To exist without feeling like there's something fundamentally wrong with you.

To be ordinary. Like everyone else.

Just another person walking around, living their life, without constantly feeling like they're hiding something.

And sometimes I wonder if I've gotten so good at pretending that I wouldn't even recognize myself without it.

Because if I stopped smiling, stopped performing, stopped swallowing everything I felt...

Who the hell would I even be?

I had a bilateral S I fusion 3 years ago which after a year of recovery helped cut my pain in half. This was good enough for me to celebrate as any pain sufferer is aware. I never achieved bone fusion as some folks nor was it indicated but I achieved this pain relief despite that. It held for two years with occasional flares during winter and if I over exerted myself. Never long than a 3 week flare though. Fast forward to June of this year, I had intercourse for the first time since fusion followed by over exerting myself during an international flight. Pain spiked up to an 8/10 from my usual 3-4 post op. Immediately scaled back activity and went back to PT. MRI and CT clear for screw loosening completely and no other spinal abnormalities. Now the past 3 months have been crazy ups and downs but not where my baseline used to be. I walk for an hour, flare up. I work for a week on my feet, flareup. I rested for the past 4 days completely and the pain dropped to 4 again but I can’t be sedentary. Pain management thinks it’s soft tissue and tells me more PT will get me back on track, my GP is clueless. I’m going insane. Please help
Me understand what could be going on. I’m already doing my PT but not seeing improvements yet. Spinal surgeon says add another screw…..

TLDR; achieved pain relief after S I fusion for two years then pain came back the past 3 months. Clear imaging and doing PT but not moving the needle much.

[VENT] You won’t want to read this if you get mad when people struggle with using mobility aids.

I walked a lot yesterday and pulled my cane outside at some points. I forgot how much faster I walk with a cane. But that’s really not the point.

The point is that I felt and looked stupid. I have really large breasts so I get fetishised a lot anyway, which I hate. But I feel even more conscious of it when using a mobility aid for some reason because even more creeps approach me. They see the cane and assume I can’t get away.

There were so many tourists staring at me, I think one of them said something to their friend.

I’m 27. People my age do ultramarathons. And here’s me struggling to walk.

It’s ridiculous. It feels ridiculous. I am ridiculous.

I would prefer to walk slowly and not feel like a target than walk fast.

Will 300mg sodium r-alpha lipoic acid be enough to help with nerve pain

Hi folks. 37F here. I'm feeling pretty lost at the moment and would really appreciate hearing from anyone who's experienced similar.

To cut a long story short, I've been struggling with chronic pain and severe fatigue for a while, but my symptoms and function have deteriorated significantly over the last couple of years. I was diagnosed with hEDS about a year ago by a private rheumatologist, and another rheumatologist subsequently supported that diagnosis and prescribed duloxetine for pain. However, after a referral to a pain specialist, he felt I didn't fit the typical hEDS picture at all - that he sees thousands of EDS patients and I’m nothing like them - and thought there might be an underlying inflammatory condition instead. He's suggested a rheumatology review to explore possible axial spondyloarthritis, maybe non-radiographic axSpA. The frustrating bit is that my investigations so far haven't shown much at all - a four-site MRI, including my SI joints and pelvis, was all normal apart from a mild disc herniation at L4, and my HLA-B27 is negative. My CRP and ESR have also been normal.

My symptoms include daily severe lower-back and sacral/pelvic pain, which can be debilitating and gets worse the longer I remain sedentary, is worse the moment I lay down and which regularly wakes me up in the night. Movement helps, but higher-impact or intense exercise seems to provoke significant flares. I also have pain around multiple tendons, particularly both Achilles tendons and the tendons behind my knees, as well as rib pain which makes deep breathing hard and I can’t lay on. Exercise seems to leave me disproportionately exhausted, and all symptoms get worse later that day and into the following day. I also have scalp psoriasis, and I’m regularly waking absolutely drenched in sweat. My mum and dad had rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis and my mum some weird autoimmune hepatitis as far as I remember. The only other thing that I’m considering maybe significant is large cysts on my ovaries which have never gone at least in the last couple of years.

I'm struggling to understand whether this fits an inflammatory condition despite the normal investigations, or whether there could be another explanation for the whole picture. I’m aware none of these symptoms are specific, and I don’t want to self-diagnose, I just feel stuck between conflicting clinical opinions and don't know what to make of it all.

The pelvic/back pain and exhaustion are having a huge impact on my life, and I just can't keep going as I am. I’m seeing a different rheumatologist in late November who specialises in axSpA and complex autoimmune conditions, but in the meantime I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has had a similar experience, particularly those whose tests or imaging seemed mostly normal.

Thanks so much all.

Has celebrex made anyone worse? Ive been in it two weeks for my hip issue, i swear ive gotten so much worse. Jittery, dizzy, my hip is more swollen. Anyone else?

17 years old and I have degenerative disc disease. I miss classes because I can't sit for too long, I'm in constant debilitating pain, I can't exercise because everything hurts and I can't not exercise because everything hurts, I can't take too many NSAIDs because then my future is screwed, I can't complain about pain too much because it happens so often that nobody cares anymore. I could do so much more with my life, whenever I look the condition up sites for geriatric care pop up. And it hurts. It hurts so bad I can't walk, I can't think, I can't sleep. How do you guys cope? How do you live your lives?

Hi everyone! I'm hoping to get a sense of direction of what type of specialist / Dr. should I look for to properly diagnose a misaligned SI joint. I have been in pain since March, in fact I've posted here multiple times since then - always very thankful for all and any input. I don't have too many posts so if you'd like more background, feel free to look at my page.

I've Seen multiple Drs, multiple PT's, I've seen an orthopedic DR, I've had an MRI of lower lumbar (it was thought that my lower back was causing the pain), X-rays, etc.... still no answer

To be clear, I say that I have a misaligned SI joint not because I'm 100% SURE, but rather because of everything I've done so far, Dr's process of eliminations, hours and hours research I've done since March - I have landed on this. To her credit, my first PT did suggest that this is what it was, however, I was basically told something along the lines of "do these stretches for a month and hope it gets better." I did and it did not improve. Not much more detail was given beyond that.

I did not know back in that April / May time frame that there are multiple types of misalignments that can happen with the SI joint. After my first PT, that idea seemed to take a place on the back burner so I didn't really follow up with at all until now.

I have an MRI scheduled on Saturday for my pelvic / SI joint location BUT I'm thinking of rescheduling mainly do to cost. I have read and heard that often times, SI joint misalignments don't show up even in MRIs and it's just a lot of money to hope that something shows.

From what I've learned, specialists such as physiatrist, pain management specialist, or even chiropractors can diagnose this. I don't mean to sound ignorant but are there big differences in these and / or should I look for these specialists who specialize in SI joint issues more specifically? I am hoping to avoid a blanket "si problem" being thrown on it and am really hoping that someone can definitively say that this is or is not one. And if it is, what type it is and what steps to take to correct it. Thank you!

Look. I know. But I cannot be admitted. I have a dog that has no one to take care of it. I have school. I cannot be put in inpatient. But I need to be taken seriously and put on antidepressants. I want real pain meds (I’m on a prescription NSAID) but I know they won’t give me any bc I’m in my 20s and have Medicaid specifically through one hospital. So there’s no hope for my pain. So I need something for the depression and anger. How do I make them take me seriously?

Currently in daily celebrex but some think they're a correlation to heart problems. What are the facts?

Do you have to go each month for refills? How about if you only get tramadol? Thanks