Discuss how our society differentiates between chronic users

Discuss how our society differentiates between chronic users of pain medications. cite your reference

Solution

Chronic Pain – Any pain which is felt by humans for more than 3 months is considered as chronic pain. It should not be confused with acute pain, where a normal sensation will be there when an injury occurs. Chronic pain arises when you suffer from the pain for a long period of time, may be years. It may arise due to some injury, such as back sprain or some illness. It is often accompanied by sleeplessness, mood swings, reduced appetite, which affects people strength and stamina. This leads to disability in carrying out some activities and also sometimes to despair. Pain is an individual experience. There is no test to measure the pain level. Chronic pain may occur in any location of the body and the individual along with the doctors should work in tandem to find out the causes and symptoms of the pain and how it can be relieved. The objective of the treatment should be to reduce pain so that the person can go on doing his daily work without any hindrance. There are many ways to manage pain, some of them are, Medications, acupuncture, surgery, etc. Medications – For treating chronic pain, medications can be used to alleviate the suffering. Better results can be found when treatment has both medications and Physical therapy. Pills, Creams, Gels, Sprays and Injections are different types of medications given for treating this pain. As the individual takes more and more medication, their body will start developing tolerance to that medicine. So the individual has to take more dosage to alleviate the pain. As it happens in some cases, the individual tends to get addicted to the drug. The medication becomes an addiction to the user so much that he overuses it. The people who are using medications for chronic pain are misunderstood by society which is leading to stigma. This stigma arises when society does not get the difference between chronic illness medication and drug addiction treatment. Consumers are in a persuption usage of any kind of pain relievers can lead to the addiction and negetive outcomes(effects).Some times this is because of usage of inapproprate stigmatize language which influences the consumers in another way.