• I swear I didn’t mean anything against you or anyone with pain problems, my mom just works in the ER and she comes home telling me about all sorts of crazy stuff, and I guess I didn’t read the post too carefully. I didn’t mean to come off as ignorant or biased! I think I just skimmed it and tried to have an input or something! Please, I honestly didn’t mean anything like “Everyone’s a seeker!” I suppose I just don’t know enough, and I’m sorry if I came off like that.

Q:I swear I didn't mean anything against you or anyone with pain problems, my mom just works in the ER and she comes home telling me about all sorts of crazy stuff, and I guess I didn't read the post too carefully. I didn't mean to come off as ignorant or biased! I think I just skimmed it and tried to have an input or something! Please, I honestly didn't mean anything like "Everyone's a seeker!" I suppose I just don't know enough, and I'm sorry if I came off like that.

I’m sure you didn’t, but just like Dr. Cranquis and his post, it was an unintentional generalization/stereotyping of all chronic pain patients and personally offensive. What most health care workers and healthy individuals do not realize is that those kinds of words when used to generalize or stereotype people have serious consequences for legitimate patients trying to obtain legitimate care.

That stereotype is the reason why I (along with millions of other pain patients) are afraid to be vocal about our suffering, afraid to go to Urgent Care or the ER and disclose our chronic pain diagnoses, afraid to fill prescriptions, afraid to say that our pain medication is not working well enough, afraid of seeing a doctor at all. So posts like that, while I understand both your comment and the original post, don’t help patients like me who are trying to break free of that “wacky” or “nutter” patient generalization unless they in some way note that chronic pain patients as a whole do not equal “the nutters” or “wacky.”

Although you and Dr. Cranquis understand that not everyone is a drug seeker, most Americans still hold that stereotype against us, and patients like myself and my readers need all the help we can get to break free of it.