HEY, watch your fingers there, lady!

Example not really necessary; let's call it what it is - "milking it". Is that "touchy"?

Veterinarians are keenly aware of it - I know of a couple who tell their animal patients (only half-jokingly) to milk it with their owners to get extra petting/treats. Doctors are already well-aware too, but it begins back with pediatricians. Hey, it's learned patterned behavior reinforced by our mothers/parents. It may be subconscious for a few, but I think most really know deep down when they're doing it. I have advised... more than once on this site that people not act-out their pain/symptoms while in a doctor's presence (office, ER, hospital). This is addressed on quite a few of the sites that come up when I suggest people google: talk doctor pain. I've gotten some disagreement/flack on this point (acting out for doctors) so I'm with you on that one - I'm just not one of the people that does it (exception: domestic partnership, but that goes both ways, and nobody's fooling anyone. There's a difference between, "Poor sweet baby" and, "Get off your butt and feed the dog!" which, oddly enough, have actually occured in exactly that order... )

I don't think I'd be so quick to put all that onus on chronic pain; anyone with any kind of chronic condition/disease is apt to fall into similar patterns. There appears to be an age element as well (second childhood?); it's the end of the world - until BINGO night. Then they're suddenly 20 years younger and a whole lot spryer, and don't get in their way... (...and I know all about adrenalin and something to look forward to...)

There's another end to that spectrum too; those that suck it up so completely because it's deemed "weak" to allow any kind of emotion/vulnerability to be seen/witnessed. That's wrong too, because those people, who really need help, are afraid/ashamed to admit/accept it, even when refusal is further detrimental. They can wind up - too often - as suicides, and that does harm to everyone.

I think we're really talking about another bell curve here.

From everything I've read, seen, and experienced with regard to the crisis in pain management, not to mention many conversations with doctors & nurses, the majority of problems stem from too many bureaucrats playing doctor - or wanting to - plain & simple. The way the system is currently set up (and works) a person would have to be crazy to even try, let alone want, to abuse it; there are too many hoops to jump through, and too much abuse to take - it's not/wouldn't be worth it. It's far easier and less expensive for junkies to get their fix on the streets. The "crisis", along with the majority of addicts & system abusers, can be dealt with very easily - end the war on drugs, and let the doctors practice medicine without interference of government and insurance companies.

This is not a chronic pain patient being "touchy" either; this is the pragmatism of one who has looked at this problem for over thirty years (decades before it affected me personally, from studies in Constitutional law, American & world history, anthropology, and others) and believes it is time to fix the problem - not the blame.

I have yet to meet a chronic pain patient who wouldn't do - or give - anything to be out of the system and productive again.

Doc