Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Don't Demonize Opioids

Our preoccupation with opioid misuse could become the tail wagging the dog
Bob Roehr biomedical journalist. Washington, DC, USA
BMJ 2017;359:j4727

It is rare that we hear from those who use prescription opioids on a chronic basis. Their voices are important counterpoints to the loud, self-righteous jeremiads of physicians, politicians and law enforcement professionals.

Roehr tells us:

• Demonising prescription opioids can come to no good end.
• I use an opioid drug, hydrocodone, every six hours, and have done so for about a decade.
• The surge in opioid related deaths in the US is troubling. But it is important to remember that it is fueled by street drugs and by fentanyl and its analogues, either alone or laced into a variety of illicit drugs.
• People who have lost access to prescription opioids have turned to cheaper, more accessible, and more dangerous, potent black market options, according to experts, and the death toll has soared.

Full BMJ article: Download Roehr Don't Demonize Opioids

Self-Medication

Giving You Drugs Won't Help Your Husband

“Are you not giving me any medicine?” her patient asked?

Ms. Shahab was silent for a moment, and then said with a sympathetic gaze, “Medicine for you will not cure your abusive husband.”

"The therapist was born in the isolated Afghan village she still lives in, in 1987 or 1988 — she is not sure. Her father was shot and killed at his mosque shortly before she was born. The reasons for the killing remain unclear, but it shattered their family and forever changed life for Ms. Shahab and her two siblings.

Ms. Shahab and Client (NY Times)

"A marriage was arranged to a man almost 20 years her senior when she was only 13. But the marriage did not stop her from completing her education. She took two of her youngest children with her to school, placing them at the kindergarten as she attended classes."

She is now a therapist in the village, caring for women battered by family and war.

This is an inspiring article:  Afghan Therapist Finds Empathy is Good Medicine.

 

Little Green Pill

by Madelyn D. Kamen

Print version is better formatted: Download Little Green Pill

He was there every day,
Looking at her from the other side of the window,
Smiling at her as she handed over his little green pill.
He wasn’t that old and she wasn’t that young;
Neither had ever married.
She was a psychiatric nurse’s aide who understood the inmates
Because she had been abused as a child, pulling into herself
To avoid punishment.
He was there because he had been bullied as a little boy,
Making it a habit of staying away from the big guys who could
Beat him up.
Now, they were adults, albeit imperfect ones, who
Occasionally would sit together on her coffee breaks
And tell light-hearted jokes.  And forget their pain for a while.
Their shrink had suggested they might have a lot in common.
And truth be told, it had occurred to both of them.

One day, he was not at the window.
On her break she sought him out.
In his room, the bed was stripped.
His toiletries and clothes were gone.
Where was he, she wondered?
She asked the nurses.
They answered in soft voices with hooded eyes.
They said they didn’t know.
The next day in the obituary column she found his name. She went to the funeral with the little
cup and a pillbox in her purse.  After service was over, she pulled out the familiar little green pill, the one she had given him every day, and dropped it in the coffin.

Author Bio:  Madelyn D. Kamen, D.P.H. is a free-lance writer and the founder of a document development and management-consulting firm.  Prior to establishing this company, she was an associate dean and professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Kamen holds masters and doctorate degrees in public health. She has served on numerous boards in the community, particularly in the areas of women and children’s health and welfare.

 

Rite of Passage

My poem, "Rite of Passage," was written for my fiancee's brother, a childhood friend.  She and I helped him get into recovery three years ago. At the onset, he was hospitalized for some time.  I wrote this for him during that time to help him understand that I knew what he was going through, that I had been there too,  and that I cared.

for my friend, Brian

The only way back to the other side,
Is through a swamp full of hell,
It's a wicked rollercoaster ride,
One that only the true can tell,

The bravest of men will try,
But only the strongest will prevail,
In a boxcar full of demons,
Racing on a slick and evil rail,...

for full poem: Download Rite of Passage

William Lightfoot bio:  Download Lightfoot Bio

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