I said no such thing!
Direct your anger elsewhere.
Chronically ill patients are NOT the problem! Please understand, we are law abiding citizens and were never the problem. Opioids allow some of us to live a full life and without them we are bed bound or home bound and can’t work or enjoy family.
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Misunderstood sorry , I really suffer in the winter and have not been myself , I believe in acupuncture , I wish I could afford and find and asian med Dr. The very first tattoos on body’s found , point out the points at which acupuncture is used .
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Agree🙏🏻
Great to hear. Maybe you will give a quick vote to allow acupuncturists to get paid by Medicare: Medicare Acupuncture Coverage .
Thank you! 
Yes is my vote in support to stop the stigma to millions of pain patients. Also to stop the suicides of pain patients.
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Adequate pain relief is an essential part of the practice of medicine.
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My life literally depends on opiates for CRPS and degenerative arthritis. I was 25 when my pain started and my life was lost because of inability to function. I’m 34 now and in even more pain. This is actual abuse. My doctor even prescribed me opiates but it was denied by the pharmacy for no reason. Please help us.
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I am behind you %100 on this!
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FIND CURE FOR PSSD
I am writing to urgently bring to your attention a critical and growing public health crisis caused by the long-term effects of SSRI antidepressants, specifically Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). This email is also being forwarded to the Trump Administration and the White House Office, as this issue requires immediate intervention at the highest levels of governance.
PSSD is a debilitating condition that has devastated countless lives in the United States and around the world. The condition, caused by SSRI antidepressants, leads to a permanent loss of sexual function, emotional numbness, and other severe side effects, leaving individuals unable to live normal, fulfilling lives. Many have tragically taken their own lives due to the unbearable impact of this condition.
Key Points of Concern:
- Fertility and Health Crisis:
PSSD contributes to the falling fertility rate in the U.S., as it significantly impairs reproductive health and function.
The long-term damage to mental and physical health threatens the well-being of millions, undermining the vitality of our nation. - Inadequate Regulation:
Despite mounting evidence, SSRIs continue to be prescribed without adequate warnings about their irreversible side effects.
Who is responsible for approving and monitoring these drugs, and how are they allowed to remain on the market despite their catastrophic consequences? - Need for Immediate Research on Cures:
No effective treatment or cure currently exists for PSSD, leaving sufferers without hope or recourse.
Urgent funding and focus must be directed toward finding a solution for this condition.
This situation is not just a personal health issue-it is a societal crisis. The health, happiness, and productivity of our citizens are being systematically eroded by the unchecked use of these hazardous substances.
I implore the FDA to take the following actions immediately:
Review the approval and monitoring process for SSRIs to prevent further harm.
Mandate stronger warnings on all SSRI medications about the risk of PSSD.
Allocate resources soon to RESEARCH and develop CURE for PSSD.
The future of America depends on its people, and their health must be safeguarded above all else. I respectfully request your urgent attention to this matter. Millions of lives, including my own, are at stake.
Thank you for your time and action.
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This is critical for pain patients, literally a matter of life and death. I’ve been disabled due to painful spinal injuries and a crushing injury to my foot for 37 years. Needless to say at 66 years old the deterioration is serious as expected.
The persecution of compassionate doctors is unbelievable, the government overreach in every aspect of my medical care, the stigma, constant shortages, all of it is out of control. My husband has watched my deterioration and all he can say is they are slowly killing me with lack of proper care. Enough of this.
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I live in Michigan and there has been no changes from the 2022 CDC guidelines update. If anything it’s gotten even more restrictive and almost impossible to receive proper care. Fewer doctors are willing to prescribe and the ones that are willing are barely prescribing anything but weak medications and under prescribing for severe painful conditions.
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Im 41 years old and struggle with significant chronic pain to the point I am sometimes bed bound. I have degenerative disc disease, spinal arthritis, endometriosis and adenomyosis that I am seeking care for. 6-8 months waiting list to get a consultation for endometriosis specialists, 2 months waiting for MRI, still waiting for surgical consult for endometriosis and possibly a 4 month wait for surgery. That’s just the wait until I can get surgical treatment to help with only my endometriosis and adenomyosis. Due to the war on opioids, doctors are afraid to prescribe, the department of justice and DEA are out of control with opioid restrictions and reductions. Pain patients don’t get high on pain medication, they get out of pain. I can only get radiofrequency ablations on my spine one a year because the insurance will only cover it one time a year. The nerves grow back within 6 months. Medication is a necessity of life for people in my circumstances but I still struggle. I have destroyed my digestive system from long term ibuprofen use and the doctors warned me that taking excessive amounts of NSAIDS can destroy my kidneys. I was taking so much ibuprofen it affected my blood pressure.
Our bodies are broken and we get treated like criminals. Please please please help us. Where is the compassion for those that are suffering?
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Thank you so much for doing this!! I would love to see some kind of law where if we are labeled as addicts in hospital systems drs etc as drug addicts drug seekers etc we can get this removed from our formal records. I’m so tired of being called a drug seeker!! I have been dealing with chronic pain for 17 yrs and I’m terrified to go to drs and hospitals cuz I have been treated like I’m such a low life. I have been refused treatment for various things such as when I had pneumonia. As soon as I said I go to pain mgt he says he is refusing to treat me meanwhile I could barely breathe and he wouldn’t even give me an antibiotic and he told me I’m a drug seeker and he’s labeling in my chart so everyone could see. I asked for nothing for pain. Then I went to hospital because I shattered my whole wrist and I was told I couldn’t get anything for pain cuz I’m a drug seeker so they proceeded to wrap me up while I was begging to stop it hurt soooo bad!! I was left in the hallway and everyone was watching me while I cried and screamed for help. They put me in a Uber told me I need surgery and booted me. I am a retired probation ofc because I became disabled due to my chronic illnesses and couldn’t work anymore. I am a licensed social worker and drug counselor and I’m being told I’m a drug addict. I NEVER touched illicit drugs in my life and I don’t drink. I have no history of substance abuse besides what they fabricated about me. So many people have this same story!! People are dying cuz it’s like being in prison in your mind and you can’t function cuz you are sick and in pain!! We need to be treated as a patient again. Please help!!
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Yes it is insane what they do to chronic pain sufferers
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Maria, thank you for putting this together. A close family member is on medication and goes through so much every month just to get her prescription. It’s ridiculous. She is made to feel like a criminal and it’s downright degrading. They need to look at the real issues of street drugs and fentanyl and not hurt those who are just trying to live a normal life.
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Suffering from chronic pain since the age of 10 my stomach is shot. 30+ years of NSAIDS, increased NSAIDS and yes even mixing different NSAIDS all prescribed from doctors I am no longer able to take NSAIDS and most medications that are out there even by injection. I am however able to take opioids prescribed to me by my doctor. I have never misused them. I am tired of the stigma of being “too young” they are “addictive”, etc. My pain will never go away, I have been told numerous times by numerous providers that there is nothing more that can be done for me. I do my best to stay active, jump through whatever hoops are required of me, been a test subject for several different treatments that did not work as well that ended up not being passed by FDA or found to work, I have scars from countless procedures that were tried and failed, surgeries to try to correct problems, and medications from just about every spectrum. One medication almost killed me and the hospital kept pumping it in me and blaming it on underlying health issues that I must have lied about. Medications deemed safe that caused me to have life long chronic pain that is worsening as I get older, medications that caused me to not know where I was or who my children were. Pain patients have gone through more clinical harm than most other patients. Those doctors that treat them are forced to put us through these procedures over and over no matter how many times they didn’t work. Stop punishing ADULT pain patients and let us get the medications that work for us, stop going after the doctors that want to treat us and give us back our quality of life.
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I just voted, not sure if it is too late?
Somehow this has got to come to an end. On Christmas Eve, due to my disability in my low back with numbness running down my left leg I fell and broke my Hip and Pelvis. I was told its very rare to break boyh. You know I gotta go all out!
At any rate, my husband had to call 911 because I could not move. I did get off the floor and managed to walk to the Truck but it was a big NO from there. The paramedics were having a hard time as I cant have dilaudid nor morphine because my by goes into SEVERE Debilitating spasms near my ribcage. They finally had to push me, bless their hearts. They didnt want to.
The ER after about an hour got me stable.
The next day I was scheduled for surgery and the Ortho surgeon told me upfront he writes NO pain meds and the hospitalist would have to be responsible.
I get 20 mG a day from my PM Dr, which isnt enough already to keep my Chronic Pain under control. So i had 3 discussions with Hosp Dr and he repeatedly told me he was going to give 2 weeks, 20 mg every 6 hours. That was perfect. Except at discharge my husband picked up RX for 4 days. 
I scheduled with PM right away and they got me in quickly. She asked about everthing I was given and thank goodness I brought my empty RX bottle to prove what I said because she did NOT believe a word I said!
I wish there was a way to explain the “FAKE” shock on her face. She was apoplectic over it. I thought she was going to fall over and have convultions! 
She then proceded to preach to me that I would go from 2 10 mg a day to 3, but (pointed finger in my face) it would ONLY be for 2 maybe 3 months and I best not expect to continue. I was so floored by her behavior.
She told me “your going to be fine, My mother broke her hip 5x before a replacement”! My thereapists (OT and Pt) as well as Primary Dr said they have NEVER seen a pt that has done that.
These so called PM NP and PA are not human. They have no soul.
I have been on the same 20mg for years and struggle daily to care for myself and suffer in silence because they ley me know years ago to not ask for increase. No point in looking for a new one within 200 miles of me. They are ALL the same.
I think its too late to see anything good from what the restrictions have done! Its inbedded in every student in every college and the great older ones are in Prison. I dont know what to do anymore.
My hip is getting better, my back pain is far greater than that at this point, but Im keeping my mouth shut for the next month or two! God Bless EVERY single person here! 
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I’m a chronically ill/chronic pain patient & have been since 1998 & I’ve been going to pain management since 98. I live in AL and have been diagnosed with these conditions:
- Scoliosis 1990
- TMJ 1992
- C-Diff. 1992
- IBS. 1997
- Trigeminal Neuralgia. 1998
- Endometriosis. 1999
- PCOS. 1999
- Chronic back pain. 2000
- ADHD. 2001
- Kidney stones. 2002
- Stenosis. 2003
- Sciatica. 2003
- Bulging discs. 2003
- DDD Degenerative disc disease. 2003
- Lordosis. 2004
- Spondylosis. 2004
- Kyphosis. 2004
- SI Joint dysfunction. 2004
- Osteophytes. 2004
- Anemia. 2004
- High triglycerides. 2004
- High cholesterol. 2004
- Low HDL. 2004
- High LDL. 2004
- Osteoarthritis. 2005
- RLS. 2006
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. 2006
- Insomnia- due to pain. 2006
- Adhesive Arachnoiditis 2008
- Ankylosing Spondylitis. 2008
- Chronic migraines. 2010
- Torn stomach lining. 2014
- GERD. 2014
- Scapulalgia. 2014
- Peptic ulcers. 2016
- Polyps. 2016
- Myositis. 2016
- Myalgia. 2017
- Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. 2017
- Reynaud’s Syndrome. 2017
- Pancreatitis-beginning stage. 2017
- Fibromyalgia. 2018
- Sleep apnea. 2021
- Endomytritis. 2021
- Esophageal stricture. 2021
- Gallstones. 2022
- Deviated septum. 2022
- Enlarged spleen. 2022
- Fatty liver. 2022
- CRPS Chronic Regional Pain Sy 2022
- Vasomotor rhinitis 2022
- Gastro-esophageal reflux disease with esophagitis 2023
- Dysautonomia 2024
- POTS 2024
- Osteopenia Femur 2024
- Osteoporosis. Spine. 2024
I was deemed permanently disabled in 2003 but back dated to 1998, I’ve been in constant debilitating pain for as long as I can remember, I used to get halfway decent medical care. Now chronic pain patients cannot find a doctor to prescribe real pain medication, they will only prescribe Buprenorphine or any of its derivatives such as Suboxone, Subutex and/or Butrans patch which is not intended to help chronic pain but will help people with a heroin addiction, true chronic pain patients are not addicts & they don’t have addictive behaviors. With the way things have gone for the last 10 years it’s nearly impossible to find doctors who treat patients pain properly so when a chronic pain patient receives proper care the last thing they want to do is jeopardize what little quality of life meds they receive so they don’t misuse the opioids. I tried Suboxone in 2010 & it almost killed me, so the ER put it on my severely allergic list. The way the government has basically outlawed proven methods for treating pain has had a very negative consequence on pain patients, cancer patients, palliative care patients, hospice patients, patients with painful inpatient surgeries that hospitals are no longer using pain meds to help patients recover from surgeries when they’ve been used for thousands of years & worked well. The PROP (physicians for responsible opioid prescribing which is funded by the company INDIVIOR which makes Buprenorphine) anti opioid initiative took over studies starting in 2010 & those who participated in the studies had no business being the ones to conduct these studies. PROP lumped all the heroin overdoses with, cocaine, crack, hallucinogenics, illicit fentanyl, meth, alcohol and/or prescription drugs. That overinflated number was used to represent the prescription opioid patient overdoses written by doctors when in reality it was all of the illicit drugs overdoses , polypharmacy (illicit & prescription meds) overdoses and prescription only overdoses lumped together so the number that was presented to Congress & the Senate was a gross overstatement of what the prescription opioid overdoses really were in order to help fund the Opioid War beginning with the treatment of Suboxone leading the way to fix all the addicts. Now INDIVIOR has changed the DSM code to include all pain patients that take their prescription opioid medications properly to be diagnosed with OUD so that those pain patients will get put on suboxone and make INDIVIOR even more millions of dollars, because isn’t that’s what it’s all about.
I moved back to Alabama in 2012 due to a messy divorce and I could not find a doctor to take over my medical care because I am what you call a very complicated patient. I was on 23 medications I had to go off of cold turkey & I had zero pain meds to help with my chronic illnesses so I took over the counter meds, 1,000MG of Tylenol as a I woke up, 4 hours later I took 800MG of Ibuprofen & rotated said combo 12-16 hours a day. A year later I wound up in the ER throwing up bright red blood, the ER said I had torn my stomach lining & done some pretty nasty damage to my liver but guess what I got a pain clinic appointment within 3 days and it only cost me my stomach. So in 2013 I started on the pain clinic Merry Go Round. I would start off strong and build my way up to meds that worked & every single time the doctors would always there’s nothing more I can do for you so I got referred to a different clinic. Each year it got harder & harder to find doctors to treat me like an actual human being & not a criminal just for needing pain meds to get out of bed on a daily basis, permanently disabled people shouldn’t have to prove to doctors over and above their records that they deserve to be treated properly. My last pain doctor fired me because I received a bone density scan (I kept telling her I felt like my bones were aching so bad, she would never order A DEXA scam so my PCP did) I found out at age 49 I have osteopenia in my femur 1 point away from being osteoporosis and my spine has osteoporosis. My rheumatologist told me it was due to pain clinics making me get epidural steroid injections 3 times a year since 1998 (108) & they’re not FDA approved, she said for me not to get anymore injections or I would end up making the holes in my bones even worse. I told my pain doctor I could receive anymore injections and her response was “no injections no meds” and she fired me. I interviewed 5 different pain clinics and none of them wanted to treat me with real pain meds and only offered the medication I am deathly allergic to, I reminded them I’m allergic and can’t take it, all of them said that’s the only medication we offer so we can’t help you. I had to go to a methadone clinic for a couple of months because I was on 110MME’s a day when I got fired and my PCP could only offer 45MME a day but I could not keep going because I had to get to a clinic that was an hour drive one way every single day & my chronically ill body would not let me continue to do that every day so I was to go to my PCP so overnight I went from 110 to 45 (4hydrocodone a day & 25mg tramdol a day) I just received my January fill and only received 3 hydrocodone a day and was told by the doctor that it was a mandatory opioid reduction for their hospital. There’s no pain clinic willing to actually treat me so I’m going to have to go back to the methadone clinic and I’m not even an addict, this is what the government & doctors terrified of prescribing pain meds because they don’t want to end up in prison for treating their patients, I’ll have to find an addiction doctor and tell him I’m a pain refugee and he’ll probably diagnose me with OUD just cover his butt with the state medical board and the DEA, buy illegal drugs off the streets, just naturally withdraw from the pain meds I’m on which has been causing super high blood pressures (221/148) due to untreated pain and I’ll probably have a stroke or a heart attack or I could put myself out of the misery of being gaslit by every doctor I go to (PCP & 9 specialists) and none of them have an answer for me when I ask what is the solution. This is the chaos pain patients go through on a daily basis trying to figure how to get by on an hourly, weekly, monthly basis when doctors really don’t care if you live or die because the government has pushed them into a corner, what has happened in the USA is a disgrace.
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I’m truly hoping that this new administration will look past the propaganda and see that not everyone who uses opioids becomes an addict. Some of us just want to function at a level somewhat similar to normal people. We are patients, NOT ADDICTS!
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