“Desire and love have to grapple first with reconstituting themselves in a body that has been altered to its core.” PainDesireSexChronic Pain Book:Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System Source: Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
“Empathy is an act of the imagination that grows from a gut-twinge of sympathy, a notion that I would not like to feel what that poor other person is feeling. We override our own flinching instinct to ask what another person's suffering might feel like.” PainSufferingEmpathyChronic Pain Book:Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System Source: Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
“I didn’t know all the rules of pain yet, the rules of doctors and power and the military decorum and submission, but I would learn.” PainDoctorsMedicineChronic PainStigmatized Book:Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System Source: Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
“Our fix-it-itis is not a simple social gaffe but the evidence of a deep blind spot born with the help of the market. We are educated about illness by television commercials... A puzzle like me that cannot be solved is a point of discomfort, a disjuncture, a black hole... My body is a discomfort, a burr in the hide of the marketplace itself, a reminder that not all pain can be treated with a purchase.” PainSocietyHealthIllnessHealthcareChronic Pain Book:Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System Source: Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
“I do not try to look sexy or cute. Pain pushes even gender out of the way, even vanity, even the hopes of looking like someone else. In some ways, pain returns me to childhood, my eyes to the naked, peaceful orbs of animals.” PainSexSexyAttractionChronic PainAsexualAgender Book:Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System Source: Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
“The body in pain is a deviant body that defies expectations, refuses the easy boxes of sick and well.” PainSickChronic PainWellSickness And Health Book:Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System Source: Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System
“I will be living with chronic pain for the rest of my life. I don’t have the mobility, energy or life options I used to have. I work hard to manage the pain, and I want the medical system to be a respectful and effective partner, not a jailer. The opioid crisis is not my doing.” AddictionChronic IllnessChronic PainPainkillersOpioidsJudgemental PeopleChronic Pain StigmaStigmatizationOpioid UsePain ManagementStigmatizedPain Killer Pills Author:Sonya Huber
“Chronic pain patients like me are not the cause of the opioid crisis; only 22% of those who misuse opioids are prescribed them by a doctor, and only 13% of ER visits for opiate overdoses were chronic pain patients. Most chronic pain patients are rule-followers who just want to function.” AddictionChronic PainOpiatesPainkillersOpioidsChronic Pain StigmaPain Management Author:Sonya Huber
“I take opioids to treat chronic pain. Stigmatizing them will harm me.” AddictionDrug AddictionChronic PainSubstance AbuseOpioidsChronic Pain StigmaStigmatizationOpioid UsePain Killer PillsPain KillersOpiod Abuse Author:Sonya Huber