Pain Killing

More women are dying from overdoses of narcotic pain medication than cervical cancer or homicide. They tend to be poor, olderwhite women living in rural areas who are also taking medications fordepression and anxiety.

Some of the reasons for this trend are asfollows: Pain medications are readily available; women are prescribed pain medicationat higher doses; women are diagnosed with depression and treated withmedications at a higher rate. Women who are single mothers struggling financiallyare more likely to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety (duh!).

It’s somehow rational that an unhappy ordepressed person would succumb to the quick, narcotic relief delivered in apill. Why not take a respite from pain when it simply means swallowing a pill,even though taking this short cut can mean dealing with serious consequencessuch as full-blown addiction and even overdose. One symptom of depression is a shortened sense of time or the inability to consider the future at all; so the depressed person is not likely to consider the risks involved when self-medicating with an opiate.

This phenomenon illustrates the fact that substanceabuse and mental illness are two sides of the same coin. It also shows that personal choices and lack ofproper planning can cause stresses later on. At the same time, government policies also createhardship that contribute to poor mental health. And, pharmaceutical industry is guilty of profitingfrom products that are often abused as a quick fix to escape thehardships.

It also shows us that managing symptoms with medication alone is inadequate because it only cushions ourability to handle anguish. A pill cannot change the facts of a life and itscontext. Experience of pain can be temporarily delayed but it cannot be erased.Soon or later one must begin the tough work to locate the source or the cause of emotional pain. And,if the source of pain is outside ourselves then we must adapt to it or work on changing the environment.

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