Why I Wrote “The Painful Truth”

People in pain have never been heard as legitimate patients.  With more than 30 years of listening to heart wrenching stories of how people in pain are ignored and denigrated, I wanted to give them a voice.

The scarcity of the public and medical understanding about pain has translated into people with pain’s being misunderstood. They often carry the weight of skepticism from all those who they encounter–loved one or stranger. They are often maligned because their disease turns them into the lesser version of themselves. They also become marginalized, a byproduct of pain recognized as a symptom and not a disease that it can be.

When misunderstanding, maligning and marginalization converge, people in pain look elsewhere for answers. Sometimes the search for answers leads to support from loved ones, but it can also drive some to a devastating addiction or a tragic suicide. The hard reality is that there are no easy answers and the status quo is failing them, which means we are failing as members of the medical profession and as a society.

The problem of treating chronic pain is complex and so are the solutions. I felt that helping a few of my patients convey the meaning of their pain would be the best way for others to learn and appreciate what it is like for millions of people also experiencing pain.

I also realize how, in a split second, one’s life can be changed forever with an injury or accident that leads to chronic pain.  This makes it personal to me, and it should be personal to everyone who reads my book.

People with pain must be seen as our family members, friends, colleagues and neighbors. When that happens, society will demand a change from our payers, regulators and lawmakers that would improve the lives of people with pain.

My goal is to convince Congress to devote more monies for pain research to accelerate the development of more effective and safer treatments.

It will require a massive cultural transformation of attitudes.  This magnitude of a change requires a grass roots movement.  My desire is for this book to give people in pain hope, and also to inspire them to become part of a larger social movement.

In that extremely ambitious spirit, I wrote The Painful Truth so everyone would come to know people with pain, and to understand that pain could be their unbidden guest tomorrow.  This is a reality that all of society must just understand, and respond to.

That’s why I wrote my book.

My book, “The Painful Truth,” was just released in September 2015.