If you’ve been around any healthcare settings that treat people with chronic pain one term that comes up a lot is “drug seeking” or “med seeking.”  When it’s brought up it’s usually in a pejorative way.  For example “there’s another of those drug seeking addicts.”  Unfortunately, many people who are living with chronic pain are not getting their pain managed effectively.  In some cases it’s because the medical professionals are afraid. 

I have a lot of compassion for healthcare providers who teat chronic pain patients in California. On one hand the DEA is playing big brother and their war on drugs has now moved to a war on pain management.  If you want to really know how I feel about that go to my article http://www.addiction-free.com/articles/articles/view/war-on-drugs-war-on-pain-management and download it for free.

On the other hand when the medical professional takes a conservative track and under-prescribes; now they are at risk for litigation. The other big problem is most medical professionals don’t realize that being opiate tolerant is not necessarily opiate addicted.  Anyone who is on prolonged opiate maintenance will have built up tolerance and needs periodic increase in the dose.  Unfortunately, some people can also develop a condition called pain rebound or even hyperalgesia and now the medication has become—at least in part—the pain generator.
 
I invite people to eliminate the phrase “drug seeking” or “med seeking” from their vocabulary.  What people are really seeking is RELIEF.  They want the pain to stop.  They want to have some relief from their suffering.  They often; however, mistakenly believe that the only way to get that relief is by taking more medication.  In fact some pain conditions do not respond well to traditional mono opiate medication management.  If you are interested in learning more check out the other articles on my website or go to the publication page http://www.addiction-free.com/publications.html to check out the books that address this problem.