If you have documented SFN (positive skin biopsy), then there should be no problem in taking your pain seriously and I think any doctor would do so. However, with your addiction history they absolutely have to approach your treatment plan differently. There are MANY medications out there to try BEFORE you even consider narcotics (and you really shouldn't be considering narcotics). Lyrica is known to make people loopy...I called it the zombie drug, when I took it.

You should contact a pain mgmt doctor that specializes in neuropathic pain. They will likely try neurontin, cymbalta (or a combo of the two) and if they don't work, then try other ones, like nortriptyline....or one of the many others on the list. They won't even consider narcotics until EVERY other avenue has been tried...and then they still may not be comfortable prescribing them. You just have to sit down and talk with a pain mgmt doc and take this one step at a time until you find the right combination of non-narcotics meds that work best for you.