[southernplaces7]

>Tylenol is "pain relief theater".

Say again? How exactly is this so if it does really relieve certain types of pain?

Also, choosing to let nature run its course is usually a surefire path to needless misery with no benefit. Pain relief drugs don't necessarily destroy your organs. You're badly overblowing that and even if it were the case in a very gradual way, it could still be a better option than being destroyed anyhow and much more painfully by "nature running its course".

Odd take.

[AStonesThrow]

For one thing, patients who believe they have "arthritis" and other forms of "inflammation" are often deceived by terminology. Arthritis and other -itis conditions may in fact be -osis or something else degenerative, incurable and mostly untreatable.

But they're called "-itis" because it falls into a category of "something we can treat" and so NSAIDs and analgesics are recommended/prescribed. "-itis" also implies "something that may eventually go away" so it doesn't entirely destroy the hope of a patient but keeps them as a good customer, at least in the drugstore. A physician who diagnoses things he can't treat could lose his practice, his license and his reputation. The practice of medicine is fundamentally where they match up a list of drugs in formulary with patients and symptoms. Unless the patient sees an ad and homes right in on what they want in the first place.

Any genuinely effective pain medication will be abused. Surely we've seen those commercials that tout how few Aleves you can take, compared to gob-stopping handfuls of other pills. Incurable chronic pain is a cash cow for OTC drug makers, because anyone who's that hard-up will studiously ignore side- or long-term- effects, in favor of seeking short-term relief from whatever ails ye. It's basically illegal to sell anything effective in a store; needs must regulate and gatekeep and extract maximum insurance money from them. And if you really read the directions on the label, many OTC meds will shout "DISCONTINUE USE AFTER X DAYS AND SEE A PHYSICIAN!!!" because why stay on the weaksauce?

Also, any substance/chemical that's available to consumers, and could be abused or used in suicide is deliberately adulterated/nerfed to make it really unpleasant/inconvenient/expensive.

Look at cancer: often someone with an incurable cancer will undergo arduous, horrific treatments that are really more guaranteed to sicken/kill them than the actual tumors. I'm always curious to know stats on who dies from chemotherapy rather than cancer.

I'm a Christian and I firmly believe in redemptive suffering, a topic on which my pastor wrote a dissertation, and he accompanied me in suffering, and there's no suffering that won't bring about a greater good. Nobody can relieve mine except Christ Jesus and his mother, and I will gladly meet them when the time is right.

[teruakohatu]

I am truely sorry you have been, or are, suffering.

I would email you but since you have no contact information on your profile I will just say I strongly urge you to seek medical advice, and maybe seek out a pastor at a mainstream church to discuss your situation.

I knew someone who nearly died and who held very similar non-mainstream medical and non-mainstream religious beliefs.

When they were in so much pain they couldn’t even stand up they finally agreed to be taken to a hospital where they lay on the floor of the emergency department. It turns out they had a near fatal infection in the spine, which was easily cured by antibiotics (after months of agony) and the suffering reduced by painkillers.

It’s a matter of personal belief but I don’t think there is any higher purpose to real suffering (suffering caused by illness or by other people).

I also don’t believe that you stand to lose or compromise your faith in any way by accepting medical treatment.

[AStonesThrow]

Yes, well, some of my "non-mainstream beliefs" included:

1. AStonesThrow has a right to be healthy, a right to time-tested and clinically-proven medical cures and healing, and a right to be fully informed when a treatment may in fact damage health, decrease functioning, or hasten death.

2. Doctors can dispense practical advice and order patients' good habits. Such as: "Rest awhile in bed for a few days. Your legs hurt because you walk around too much." "Take some time off work, because your flu/cold may be infectious or you're burned out." "Here's a common-sense organic diet that is tailored for you and will improve your health." 2a. That doctors would write down what they said verbally to me in the sacrosanct privacy of the exam room, so that I could understand and remember what they ordered/recommended, or, y'know, show it to my employer.

3. Doctors, clinics, hospitals serve the patients as customers, and every medical decision is made to prioritize the individual's good health and longevity.

4. Physicians are Biological Tech Support for the body. File a bug report, educate myself on biomedicine, document my findings, help him troubleshoot, and he will fix me up as good as new

5. Doctors (MD/DO) understand supplements and nutrition, and so if I regularly inform them with a complete list of self-treatments, they will take into account their effects on my system and adjust care accordingly. 5a. That supplements and alternative medical practice is somehow superior or preferrable over commonplace Western Medicine for people like AStonesThrow

6. Medical care is essentially free of cost and it's no problem to go make an appointment whenever I have an ouchie or boo-boo so a Candy-Striped Jasmine-Lavender-scented Nurse can Kiss it all Better and Reward me wif a Lolly-Pop from Pirate Treasure Chest.

All these faulty core beliefs conspired to give me a whoppin' case of Somatic Symptom Disorder, which still isn't notated in my charts or records, for some reason, and a visceral rage against the medical machine, and basically at this point I'm going reactionary and overcompensating.

I also recognize that for people whose Social Credit is nil or negative, we're not worth healing, rehabilitating, or putting back in the workforce, and the Good of the Many outweighs the needs of a few.

Dying is, by far, not the worst thing that can happen to a man. We all suffer in some way to some magnitude. In my firmly held traditional beliefs. Thank you for your public demonstration of concern.

[teruakohatu]

I am probably missing some cultural subtext and I am unsure which parts of your reply were sincere and how much was sarcasm, so it is difficult to write a reply on such a sensitive subject.

I do agree with you that is is awful when the medical profession decide that a patient is too hard a problem or they lump them into some category which means 'no idea but maybe the patient is at fault' rather than admitting they simply don't have an answer or the time to find an answer.