Labels & Stigma

We live in a time where pretty much everything has to be put in a nice neat little box with a label attached. This is how stigma increases! For whatever reason we do this to ourselves so is it by social pressure? Ever noticed that on Social Media Bio's ppl need to apply pronouns, flags of representation, even using self describing emojis to like, thumbs up, or an eye roll. I am guilty and here I am complaining about doing this.

In the medical world though being labeled I find offensive. Descriptive words of age, weight, even emotion during a visit is usually included in the notes. Example: Older aged hysterical female who is moderate obese presents today with complaints of........I guess using older age meant he couldn't find the year of birth easily on my paperwork lol. Hysterical I am also guessing wasn't meant that I was being funny although I certainly wasn't losing my "S" on him either. I dared to question a couple of statements he made that were incorrect. There are some with the "God" complex so daring to correct them is a big no no.

There is one label that I have been given on more than one occasion that I haven't corrected but really need to start doing this. It is the main reason for this specific post. It's the

Narcotic Dependent that is always added to my chart after learning that I am under the care of a Pain Specialist. Now while this may be a little correct, it leaves a lot out as to who may be reading this in the future. I am NOT narcotic dependent. Yes I daily take a long acting release opioid to help control pain, but dependent?? NO?!! Yearly I do wean off all pain medication just so I can see where my true baseline is. Am I getting worse, how well is this medication working, are other treatments helping to reduce the issues causing the pain etc. This was never requested by a treating physician just a self choice. I do not like taking medications and would prefer not to have to take any at all. Unfortunately my body, disease process has decided otherwise. At a time where my Insurance won't pay for my pain doctor, and barely covers the medication I would love to save that $400 a month out of pocket not to have to do any of this. The frustrating part, when reading my medical records not any of this information is included.

At what point is the truth actually revealed in our records? I had one new physician walk in and the first thing out of her mouth was; "Wow, you don't look near as bad as your medical records say you are". How do I respond to a comment like that? The crazy part is if my records look this bad then why am I even questioned to the need to be treated by a Pain Specialist? Why do I have to defend taking this medication? The scary part, it's like they don't trust that specialist so they spend a great deal of time going over pain where its located, describe the pain, how often, etc like they are taking over this speciality. One even had the nerve to say I didn't know the difference between a cramp and a muscle spasm. The Hell I don't was my reply. This is when you magically want to transfer your pain to them for at minimum 30 days so they can know the difference. A man OB/GYN has no idea what it feels like to carry and deliver a baby yet he is the expert on this?? So when someone who hasn't truly lived with long term acute pain (aka chronic), how would they know what you are experiencing?

Been a nurse for 49 years and I have heard comments from professionals calling patients frequent flyers, legalized addicts, hypochondriacs, attention seekers, among other names. It burns me to the core because I have also had to be the one who took care of them when hospitalized for some acute condition and I can say with 100% accuracy they were a pain in my rear with constantly complaining and needy. They say doctors make the worse patients.... it is so true. That experience doesn't change their attitude either. I guess having worked with these egos for years has put me in the position where I am never intimidated by their BS even as a patient. Most times now, I don't put down on my information sheet my level of education, field of work, or even if I am working or not. That doesn't seem to be important to being diagnosed or treated. Every visit I go in prepared with my list of current meds, present complaint, and notes I feel relevant for this visit. I have it all typed out and 2 copies one for them and one for me to go over. This is to eliminate forgetting something, being unclear about a topic, and hoping to not be misunderstood. I always request that this is put inside my record as well.

Confidentiality is also being eliminated from front desk employees on phone calls, to loudly asking questions about the sheets you fill out, to the provider in the hall dictating with ppl in waiting rooms. Had an outpatient surgery a couple of years ago and was laying on the stretcher in recovery with curtains drawn between patients. You can hear everything down to what or how much pain medication they are on. The respect for our care has gone down the drain. I didn't need to know the man in the next bay was on several different forms of pain meds for chronic pain. Crazy! I felt so bad for this guy because the nurses were openly making comments about him being "difficult to treat" because he was a "chronic painer".

Again a label with stigma attached.

The opioid crisis is real and not down playing addiction. Doctors and nurses are known to be the biggest offender when it comes to taking these medications and being addicted. The thing is, Xanax is probably one of the most abused drugs prescribed, one of the hardest to get off of yet you don't hear a peep about this. Addiction can happen to anyone on many things besides medications. Alcohol, food, gambling, tobacco products, etc all have many awareness to them but not the stigma. They all have consequences to them but not the stigma. Today, in 2025 there are more avenues, treatments, resources for addiction than there are for people who live in constant pain. So I have to ask, why is it an all or nothing approach for us only? We severely need a complete overhaul of the fight on drug abuse/addiction direction because its not working! The reason it isn't working is because they have attacked the wrong group of people. Instead of heading off illegal drugs, cleaning schools out of their "pharmacies", teaching the medical community how to actually treat pain correctly they have decided pain meds bad therefore we should stop using at all costs. This pushes people to search for other venues for treatment often leading to illegal use of street drugs. Let's talk about those problems now..... overdose, death, or even people just throwing up their hands and ending their life.

PAIN IS REAL, yes there are many different options to treat and never should we umbrella this. You don't take away chemo from cancer patients, Insulin from diabetics, or antibiotics from infections so YES pain medication does have a place for this treatment. It is sad when you feel like you need a cancer diagnosis for people to accept that you need these types of medications. We need to get rid of labels so we can end stigma for good.