AMERICANS ARE IN PAIN

[Insurgent]

Ran across this eye-opening article and thought it would be of interest to some 
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Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making of action in spite of fear; the moving out against the resistance engendered by fear into the unknown and into the future.

~ M.Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled~

Yesterday's news brought forth the not-surprising revelation that the use of pain medicine in the United States has nearly doubled in the last ten years. Various rationalizations abound-the baby boomers are aging, and there are more of us, and well-you know the song and dance that basically attributes the use of pain killers to the hoards of graying flower children who wish they were feeling groovy instead of arthritic. Not far behind is the rationalization that whereas physicians two decades ago used to inform patients that pain was part of the healing process, they are no longer doing so and are prescribing pain relievers instead. According to an Associated Press story on August 20, "Hydrocodone use increased 217 percent; morphine distribution went up 180 percent; even meperidine, most commonly sold as Demerol, jumped 20 percent" during the past decade.

And of course, the pain is not just physical. One in ten women takes an antidepressant, and the use of psychiatric drugs among children has soared to unprecedented heights. Juxtaposed with the ever-new potpourri of such drugs available to us, is a decrease in the availability of mental health coverage in employee health benefit packages. If such coverage exists, it is most likely limited to a paltry twelve sessions per year with multiple "engraved invitations" from insurance companies and employers to not use or cease using those benefits.

Viewed from other nations around the world, Americans have no reason to be in pain. We have it all; we are the fat cats of the planet, drowning in "stuff" and feeling no pain whatsoever about the teeming millions of people on the planet who live on two dollars a day and have a life expectancy of forty if they're lucky. Our whining, entitled sniveling is repugnant to the majority of the planet's inhabitants, so why don't we just suck it up and get over it?

Read complete article at:
http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/92/3/

[Fragilityh14]

this is my I am a strong advocate of marijuana > several pharmaceuticals.

I wonder if the excessive pain is also in part due to people working longer hours etc etc?

Also they have just mass marketed those damn (and scary) SSRIs.

[dalebert]

It's a brave new world out there.

[Insurgent]

Ran across this eye-opening article and thought it would be of interest to some 

I saw an article about this a few weeks ago and almost posted it. The huge increase in painkiller use has to make one wonder why.

You subscribe to Dr Baker's daily email update, too?

I think the excellent essay describes why we are seeing a huge increase in painkiller use--Americans are in pain.

[Rochelle]

Man, all these people on drugs are making me feel left out I need to get a prescription because there must be some kind of pain that I'm experiencing that a nice bit of percoset won't cure...

Then again, seen from the prospective of a person working in in the pharmaceutical business, yippee! Drugs for everyone!!