Category: suicide

When suicide becomes the option due to the opioid epidemic

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, Chronic pain, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders, physical pain, suicidality, suicide, suicide attempt

When suicide becomes the option due to the opioid epidemic

I have been involved in the suicide prevention things for the past eleven years or so. I have been reading research articles from those in the field. Then I became disabled and my suicidality increased but I have not made any attempts. The reason I say this is because I am now involved in the chronic pain community and found that there have been a lot of suicides since the crack down on opioids really started bearing down on patients and their doctors.

Recently there has been a woman in Montana that ended her life after the DEA went after her doctor. I find this, sadly, preventable. These pain patients have severe pain and need opioids to get relief. Since October, I have been trying to get adequate pain meds to relieve my pain but have been facing nothing but red tape. I have had two psych hospitalizations, which have not been helpful in the least. My psychiatrist is really worried about me. I have a plan to end things in a few months. It is a coping mechanism for me to make these plans. I don’t know if I will go through with it but it’s helpful for me to know there is an end to my suffering.

In the suicide prevention community, specifically a social media twitter group called SPSM (suicide prevention social media) there has been a lot of talk about getting the medical professionals to talk openly about asking about suicide as there has been research stating most suicides happen a within a period of time after seeking a medical professional. I argue that the psych professionals also have to ask the question, which sometimes does not happen for a variety of reasons. What is missing in those with chronic pain, is also lacking the talk of asking about suicide after pain meds have been forcibly cut or stopped all together. This kind of action has lead to multiple suicide that Dr. Kline, a pain physician, has written about.

I really think that if the pain psychologist in these pain clinics ask about it or even the health care professionals do, there might be a chance of saving a life. These patients feel their backs are against a wall and they cannot function without these meds anymore. The epidemic is nothing but hysteria. The CDC lied about their statistics and made it look like prescription opioids were the problem when it was really illicit drugs. Compounding the problem with chronic pain patients not getting the meds they need are the patients that have substance abuse disorder. The stigma surrounding substance abuse is probably as bad as those with suicidal ideation. There are no easy answers as some chronic pain patients has been grouped with the substance use and vice versa. Both need to be treated with meds but stigma and thoughts of not being able to be “strong” enough to stand the withdrawals or handle pain is just not a way of doing it. Unlike alcohol abuse where abstinence helps, substance use need medical assisted treatment with meds such as suboxone. There needs to be no legal punishment for those seeking treatment. More overdoses have happened due to people being released from jail and then using again because their tolerance has been lowered while being away from their substance.

With chronic pain, those that have been stable for years and being taken off abruptly, often turn to suicide because their pain is making their lives miserable. They can no longer do the things they did while on pain meds for their chronic pain. Often these patients feel abandoned by their doctors and some have been and are unable to find another doctor to treat them. Some have to travel far from their homes for care. It is a sad situation. Pain needs to be addressed. It was the 5th vital sign but the crisis has done away with it. So those with deep emotional pain don’t get asked about suicide and those with deep physical pain are neglected and never asked about their suicidal thoughts. Can we bridge this huge gap? Tough question to be answered.

waves of despair due to pain

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders, painsomnia, suicidality, suicide

Waves of despair due to pain

The Sox lost their 3rd game of the season. I had something to eat because I was hungry and then I tried sleeping. My foot/ankle has been playing up throughout most of the game. I laid down and tried to get comfortable. The pain wasn’t getting better so decided to take another pain med. And that is when my foot/ankle really said fuck you to me. I saw fucking stars. All I did was try and sit up. Hard to swallow a pill while you are lying down.

So my thoughts went to suicide. I’ve been stuck in this hole and I don’t think there is anyway out. I really don’t want to see my therapist anymore. Just thinking about walking to his office makes me anxious. I don’t talk about my suicidal feelings or thoughts because the last time I brought them up, he said I was “angry”. Typical Freud? It just upset me and I just feel like I have no where to go to talk about this shit except here. NO I AM NOT GOING TO END MY LIFE RIGHT THIS SECOND OR IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS!! I am just TALKING about it, NOT ACTING on it. There is a fucking difference.

It’s the weekend so the information that I need to find out I can’t find out because the office isn’t open. I can make other plans though. I think I have a location that I can end things. I will scope the place out next week. It will be fun, get me out of the house for a few hours. It’s moments like this when the plan that has been going round and round my head has a chance to be written and spelled out because my stupid fucking pain is high and all I can think about is ending it. You know what is stupid? There has been less opioid prescriptions written since 2015 and yet there are more overdoses. People are still dying, want to know why? Because they are not fucking overdosing on prescription opioids!!! It is heroin and illicit fentanyl!! Way to go government and your stupid war on drugs.

I am so damn tired of being in constant pain. My niece is turning 13 today. I feel bad that her uncle will be dying soon because his pain is not being treated adequately. Hell, he isn’t even being taken seriously that he has pain. The only docs that believe him is his psychiatrist and the LGBT doctor. I am supposed to meet with the pain doc in two weeks. I don’t know if it will a waste of time or not. But in the mean time, I am supposed to wait. I will plan while I am waiting. Seems to be the sensible thing to do.

My Story of CRPS, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders, suicide

My story of CRPS, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

I have had complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) for almost eight years. I don’t remember exactly when it occurred. I would have to go back to the first podiatrist I saw in 2010 as he told me I had a sprain. The sprain occurred after I had a bad few days of really awful spasms in my foot. The spasms were so bad that it caused my foot to turn outward and even though I manually turned it in to stop the spasm, it turned right back. I was in agony afterwards. The meds, quinine and Zanaflex that I was taking did nothing to help these spasms. I had a nerve injury in my leg nine years prior and the same nerve injury four years before. I won’t go into that because it is another complicated syndrome.

I don’t have the typical presentation of CRPS. I don’t have the discoloration, temperature changes, swelling, etc. I just have pain and a little bit of swelling that causes my veins to pop out on my foot when I am in a flare. It makes the half of my ankle that is affected look bluish. I went to many doctors in the Boston area as well as in Boston. I must have seen specialists of all kinds, orthopedics, ankle surgeons, podiatrists, neurologists, physiatrists, etc. No one could really tell me what was going on. My neurologist that I was seeing for migraines and my nerve injury thought I had CRPS and so did at least two physiatrists that I saw. My former PCP was not convinced as he thought it was some mechanical thing going wrong with my foot/ankle so he sent me to more doctors that didn’t have a clue what was wrong with me.

During this time, I was working two different but the same type of jobs. I was working as a lab assistant in research and in the clinical labs. I worked anywhere from 40-50 hours a week. When my foot and ankle were bothering me, that kind of hindered my work. When one of the physiatrists sent me to a physical therapist to be evaluated for an AFO, I chose one job as moving around the two labs was difficult. I chose the clinical lab as I have been there the longest. But that was short lived as I couldn’t stand the pain when I came home. It was so bad and nothing was working except the opiate meds that I was taking, which I couldn’t take while working because it affected my cognition. Eventually, I had to put in restrictions as just walking around the lab was getting harder and harder to do. Because of my nerve injury, I couldn’t do certain things and then with my foot/ankle being impaired it made things harder. I ended up on forced medical leave and had to apply for long term disability and social security disability. Fortunately with all my medical records, I got both.

The pains that I had at first had changed. The pain is always changing during a flare. If my foot got cold due to the weather or even from the AC in my room, I had to wear thermal socks even if it was 90+ outside. Then the burning would happen once I got warmed up. It was terrible. I had to take one pain med for the physical pain and then another med for the burning pain. As recently as last night, I had several different pains at once. I had the feeling like a wire was around half my ankle, strangling it; a coring feeling that something round was trying to scoop out my last two metatarsals (foot bones) in my foot; there was stabbing along the tendons from my ankle down my foot in an L pattern; and the last three metatarsals were being played like a xylophone. There are other pains too. I sometimes feel like my foot is being crushed, the “glob”, which is an area of my ankle that has muscles, tendons, and ligaments are just throbbing. My bones ache terrible. My malleolus (ankle bone) was also being hammered severely last night. That is the worst pain that I have ever felt. I do not like bone pain because I have to take a strong pain pill for it and that pill can give me a lot of side effects, mostly constipation.

For some reason, only half of my ankle and foot are affected from the middle part outward. The inner part doesn’t hurt at all, though sometimes my big toe will hurt. No one has a reason for this. One doctor has said that it is a nerve injury and now my current PCP thinks that is the case despite my bone scan saying I have CRPS. It is very frustrating to deal with pain like this that just keeps you up at night or wakes you up in the middle of the night because your pain meds have worn off. All this week I have not had good sleep and have gone to bed between 4 and 6 in the morning. I tend to sleep all day, or most of it. It’s hard planning stuff because of my pain. I don’t have much of a social life. I don’t go to family gatherings or parties because I don’t know how my pain is going to be. Just taking half a step is enough to set off a flare. Or any type of movement can set it off. There have been many times I have been sitting in my bed, playing on my laptop and moved a little to get comfortable and wham, I am hit with pain. Another things that CRPS likes to do is after fifteen minutes of lying down or so, my foot or ankle will “explode” with pain. All I did was lay down. That was my crime. This is a terrible condition. I have thought about suicide many times during a flare. Fortunately, while in a flare, I am unable to walk so going through with something deadly is not going to happen. I tend to put it off till the pain goes down, but usually the morning comes and I no longer feel suicidal. I live another day.

I take small doses of short acting opioids throughout the day to manage my pain. My PCP wanted me to see a pain doctor so after four months, I did. He didn’t think I should be treated with pain medication. According to his notes, which I requested, he says I just need physical therapy. I was in physical therapy for three months. My flares were worse and the stress of going to the appointment and trying to keep up with home exercises was causing me more pain. I decided to quit PT until I had adequate pain control. I am still waiting. A month ago I last saw my pain doctor. He said he need to collaborate with my PCP and my psychiatrist then get back to me. I am still waiting. I honestly don’t think I will be treated with pain medication. In his notes, he has stated that he does not think pain meds are for me, though doesn’t state the reason. I am too exhausted to care. I pretty much decided to continue with what I am currently taking. I have made the decision to end my life at a specific time. No doctor wants to help me because the opioid epidemic is all based on lies and deceit. More chronic pain patients will end their lives or die a sudden death like Dr. Forrest Tennant has written about. The suffering will continue as long as the DEA continues to threaten doctors and keep them from being doctors.

Easter Sunday 2018

by Midnight Demon, posted in Bipolar Disorder, blogging, chronic physical pain, CRPS, depression, mood disorders, suicide

Easter Sunday 2018

I woke up to my fricken med alarm around 645 this morning. It scared me out of my sleep and all I wanted to do was throw my phone against the wall. I shut the thing off and dutifully took my meds. My back was so bad. It hurt more than my CRPS pain in my ankle/foot. I had to use the bathroom and it hurt to move. I decided to cancel therapy for tomorrow as I wasn’t sure how my back was going to be. I was sure that just walking to the office would not be a good idea. When I came back to my room, I texted my therapist. I then got my heating pad and adjusted it a few times to get the heat where it hurt, which was mostly around my hip. I had used a tennis ball to try and massage it but the pain was so intense. I know I need to do it a few more times to get the knots out. I am lucky it is just muscle pain or it could be a lot worse.

I fell back to sleep. My sister was having Easter dinner at 2. I think I woke up a little after 1. My pain was a little better but my ankle was throbbing. I heard my mother make her way downstairs so thought the food must be ready. I followed her after gobbling a few chocolate chip cookies for an appetizer. My brother in law’s family wasn’t there yet. The time my sister told her to be there and the time my brother in law said was off by an hour. I have no idea why he said 3 pm as we never have dinner that late. That caused a little argument. Just what I wanted to hear, fighting on Easter.

The in laws arrived about a half hour later, which was good because I wanted to eat. Everything was good and peaceful. I saw my nephew and his sister, who I haven’t seen since Christmas. They don’t come over much or call. I might get a text from them every so often. I still can’t believe my nephew is going to be 24 this year. Seems like only yesterday I was holding him in my arms and playing catch with him. This caused him to puke on me for at least his first two years. I never learned. I was just happy to play with him. He often was like Dino the dinosaur in Fred Flintstone. I would come home from work and he’d promptly attack me with hugs. Later it was just to grab my baseball hat so I could chase him.

I spent most of the afternoon and evening down my sister’s. My back was surprisingly cooperating and so was my foot/ankle, though it was still throbbing. It hurt to go from a seated position to a standing. My aunt came over around 6. She saw a stray cat and wanted to take it home as it was malnourished. It had been living for some time on my sister’s porch for at least a month. I guess she told my cousin and he talked her out of it. Now my brother in law will be calling some cat shelter for it. That really pissed me off as the cat would have had a good home with my aunt.

I was late in taking my meds because I was downstairs. I hope I am not up all night. I did have a cup of caffeinated tea. For some reason, having tea late can either not affect me or will. I am tired so hopefully I will sleep.

I read twitter before writing this blog. There was a tweet that someone wrote that got my attention. It was about chronic pain and people being forced off their pain meds because their doctors are no longer prescribing it for them anymore. One tweet read that they were planning their suicide. I felt that person’s pain because my thoughts are the same. I am also planning. I don’t know if I will go through with it, even though I have given myself a date and some time to actually plan it. Not saying that it will happen the way I do plan it but the thought is there. Now that the CDC is admitting it falsified its data for their proposed guidelines, hopefully that will make doctors treat patients the way they should be treated. I don’t have hope that I will ever be treated for my pain because I have a psychiatric illness. I think that is why my PCP and pain docs are staying away from me like a 10 foot pole. I can’t prove it but it makes sense. I think that is why my PCP is in constant contact with my psychiatrist, which is kind of leading me not to trust my psychiatrist as much. I know what I tell her is confidential and all but my paranoia gets the better of me. I don’t know if she tells him how suicidal I have become. I have no idea what she writes in her notes about me because he reads them, even though he is not supposed to. I am too scared to request my records from her. It would be easier if I had access to them when I was hospital employee, but now I need to fill out a release like every one else. Plus I am not so sure reading them will benefit me in anyway.