A Pained Life: Seeing Failure as Success - National Pain Report
..."I remember reading a note one of my first doctors had written: “She is being victimized by her pain.”
I did not understand what he meant at the time. Now I get it. I feel a victim, not only of the pain, but of the lack of treatment options for it."...
..."I looked up the definition of victim online: “A person or thing that suffers harm, death, etc… from some adverse act, circumstance, etc.”
This added disclaimer surprised me:
“Using the word victim or victims in relation to chronic illness or disability is often considered demeaning and disempowering. Alternative phrases such as who experiences, who has been diagnosed with, or simply with and then the name of the disability or illness, can be used instead.”
But we are victims. Of pain that often controls our lives. Of a War on Drugs that we need to help us live. Without those drugs the pain can be so overwhelming that death can be seen as preferable, and for way too many of us, has been.
Changing the way we say it, “I am not a victim of my pain, I experience chronic pain,” does not change the experience of being victimized.
So maybe it is time to turn the equation around.
If we can look at each failure as bringing us closer to being helped, then we are no longer victims. We become warriors. And each new treatment brings us closer to the one where we just may prevail."... (if it is legal & not under attack - don't hold your breath for Sativex or opioids).
Steve
