• Addressing Common Searches: Fear of Addiction, Drug Seeking, and Faking It

Addressing Common Searches: Fear of Addiction, Drug Seeking, and Faking It

By now you’ve seen at least one installment of my Common Searches That Lead to Chronic Curve series. It’s hilarious, weird, strange, but sometimes it’s incredibly sad.

I see some of the same disheartening searches over and over again from all over the world and now, it is time to address some of these searches and the people entering these into Google:

“Can you fake autoimmune disease/fake illness how to/how to fake illness to doctor/how to fake illness to get drugs/fake illness instructions/how to fake illness in e.r./how to fake crohns/how to fake pain to get pain killers/fake sickness in college/fake sjogrens”

Do you know how many thousands of people fake illnesses and not only scam their doctors, but their loved ones out of money, time, and emotional/mental/physical energy? Do you know how many messages I get asking to promote someone for money that is faking? Do you know how many people here on Tumblr that I and other bloggers have revealed as fake? You should know that we are very much aware of who reads our blogs (your IP address is not hidden, so don’t think you’re anonymous) and who in this online community is full of shit. This is a community based on kindness, support, and honesty.

It is very obvious when you are here, so do not think you can hide or solicit money from this community. You do not belong here, nor are you welcome here.

”Pain clinic stopped my pain killers/won’t give me narcotics/doctor shopping/drug seeking/what doctor in FL will prescribe _________”

For the record: you will NEVER find my doctor’s practice information here. There are a few reasons why that is so- this being one of them. My blog, to the best of my ability, will not be used as a tool for drug seekers to obtain and use pain medication. There are thousands of readers here, most of whom are in very real, very acute pain and take these medications, that are punished for the minority’s drug seeeking behaviour.

Because when you go doctor shopping, seeking out the prescription pads, checking our various ER’s and urgent care’s claiming you have a very real chronic pain condition when you do not (and health care workers KNOW, so do not think you are fooling anyone even if you do receive medication), you ruin the next experience for us. Why? Because those doctors who have had experiences with drug seekers like you now treat us, legitimate pain patients with legitimate problems, with suspicion. And let me tell you, it is not fun and instills a very real sense of fear in the core of many chronically ill patients.

I will not help you contribute to that fear, so you, just like the fake illness bloggers, are not welcome here.

“doctor shopping/how to doctor shop”

I have said “doctor shopping” a few times in posts, but I mean it with a sense of humor. We hunt for various specialists for so many issues so often that it may as well be a form of shopping. But by this I do not mean seeing multiple doctors at once to obtain multiple scripts for the same medications. That is completely inappropriate behavior and no where on this website will you find me condoning it.

“I deal with the pain because of the fear of addiction.”

I get a lot of searches like this and messages asking me what to do, patients afraid of talking to their doctor about pain management, etc, out of fear of being labeled drug seeking or fear of addiction. Pain medication comes in many forms and is different for everyone. It’s imperative that one opens up a line of communication with a physician. Perhaps discuss seeing a doctor who specializes in pain management (and I’m not talking about the sketchy pain clinic notorious for giving away scripts like lollipops). They’ll be able to assess your pain and help you find ways (not just medication) to manage/control and hopefully eliminate it. It’s not easy, but no one should suffer in silence without tools to treat the pain. When someone asks me if I have an addiction because I take pain medication, I usually respond by asking them if they drink alcohol. If they say yes, I ask if they’re addicted. See my point?

Next post addressing common searches coming next week.

*Queued post. Out of town & away from blogging until August 3rd. Hope everyone has a pain-free & lovely week!