I want to warn you up front that this is going to be a vent. If you're looking for nice and feel good, today is not the day to read my post. I turned on Dr. Phil today and he was in the middle of reaming out a mother who was addicted to pain pills. As far as I am concerned anything he can do to help stop people from abusing drugs makes my life so much easier. Although, I do not believe he is an advocate for pain medicine in pain management. I thought he could have been a little nicer to her but hey, she volunteered and all she had to do is watch how he has treated the addicts in his previous shows, to know what she was in for.
All that being said, the female doctor he brought in to help give advice, who is on his panels of doctors made a statement that just made my blood boil. She said something to the effect that they were studying how much impairment a person had who was on drugs. Not just addicts, but pain patients prescribed pain meds. I think it might do them better to judge how much impaired a driver is who is in either chronic or intractable pain. For myself and others that have commented on this topic, there is way more impairment when in pain. Don't think so? Go to the emergency room and look at those suffering from migraines, kidney stones, failled back syndrome and really look at how they move. Do you want to be on the road with these people?
It would be fairly simple to gauge this and I'm surprised there hasn't been an official study done on this, unless there has and they just don't want to admit that pain patients properly medicated are just as safe as anyone else.
Since he has never had anyone on his show on proper pain management, it's somewhat tough to figure out what his belief's are, but from a couple of things he has said like when he was working on a pain floor in a hospital. When he first met a patient he told them to get all their venting out now, because after this conversation, he would not let them talk about their pain. Ah, excuse me? How many times have we heard him say the same thing over and over? I understand constantly dwelling on the problem and talking only about your health and pain is the wrong way to go, but to never speak of it again?
I get so tired about how all these people, programs, news crews, report on this issue without getting the pain patients point of view. No wonder most of the country thinks pain meds are the devils playground. Those of us on these kinds of meds are treated as pond scum a great deal of the time. I wish someone would walk around in my shoes for one day and then tell me to just deal with the pain.
Melissa
All that being said, the female doctor he brought in to help give advice, who is on his panels of doctors made a statement that just made my blood boil. She said something to the effect that they were studying how much impairment a person had who was on drugs. Not just addicts, but pain patients prescribed pain meds. I think it might do them better to judge how much impaired a driver is who is in either chronic or intractable pain. For myself and others that have commented on this topic, there is way more impairment when in pain. Don't think so? Go to the emergency room and look at those suffering from migraines, kidney stones, failled back syndrome and really look at how they move. Do you want to be on the road with these people?
It would be fairly simple to gauge this and I'm surprised there hasn't been an official study done on this, unless there has and they just don't want to admit that pain patients properly medicated are just as safe as anyone else.
Since he has never had anyone on his show on proper pain management, it's somewhat tough to figure out what his belief's are, but from a couple of things he has said like when he was working on a pain floor in a hospital. When he first met a patient he told them to get all their venting out now, because after this conversation, he would not let them talk about their pain. Ah, excuse me? How many times have we heard him say the same thing over and over? I understand constantly dwelling on the problem and talking only about your health and pain is the wrong way to go, but to never speak of it again?
I get so tired about how all these people, programs, news crews, report on this issue without getting the pain patients point of view. No wonder most of the country thinks pain meds are the devils playground. Those of us on these kinds of meds are treated as pond scum a great deal of the time. I wish someone would walk around in my shoes for one day and then tell me to just deal with the pain.
Melissa
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