In Pain

A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids

De: Travis Rieder

Narrado por: Travis Rieder

A bioethicist’s eloquent and riveting memoir of opioid dependence and withdrawal—a harrowing personal reckoning and clarion call for change not only for government but medicine itself, revealing the lack of crucial resources and structures to handle this insidious nationwide epidemic.

Travis Rieder’s terrifying journey down the rabbit hole of opioid dependence began with a motorcycle accident in 2015. Enduring half a dozen surgeries, the drugs he received were both miraculous and essential to his recovery. But his most profound suffering came several months later when he went into acute opioid withdrawal while following his physician’s orders. Over the course of four excruciating weeks, Rieder learned what it means to be “dope sick”—the physical and mental agony caused by opioid dependence. Clueless how to manage his opioid taper, Travis’s doctors suggested he go back on the drugs and try again later. Yet returning to pills out of fear of withdrawal is one route to full-blown addiction. Instead, Rieder continued the painful process of weaning himself.

Rieder’s experience exposes a dark secret of American pain management: a healthcare system so conflicted about opioids, and so inept at managing them, that the crisis currently facing us is both unsurprising and inevitable. As he recounts his story, Rieder provides a fascinating look at the history of these drugs first invented in the 1800s, changing attitudes about pain management over the following decades, and the implementation of the pain scale at the beginning of the twenty-first century. He explores both the science of addiction and the systemic and cultural barriers we must overcome if we are to address the problem effectively in the contemporary American healthcare system.

In Pain is not only a gripping personal account of dependence, but a groundbreaking exploration of the intractable causes of America’s opioid problem and their implications for resolving the crisis. Rieder makes clear that the opioid crisis exists against a backdrop of real, debilitating pain—and that anyone can fall victim to this epidemic.

Hits close to home

As unfortunate as it is it was uplifting to hear this story of struggle and triumph from a medical professional perspective. So many times it feels like we are the only ones experiencing every thing he described in the book. To know that we are not alone keeps the drive alive one day at a time. I'd like to hear the story from his partners perspective as that's the role I am in and hear how she survived this time in their lives. Inspiring.

Excellent Book to be read by Health Care Professionals, Politicians, and Patients

Excellent book providing insight on acute pain leading to dependence. It explores the flaws of our healthcare system as well as the 3 Opioid Epidemics. The book is well written and narrated. As a former plastic surgery resident and currently an Acute Pain Medicine Fellow (via Anesthesiology), this book was an eye opener to our obligations to patients when deciding to start them on any medication.

This book should be read by all—especially all members of the healthcare profession, politicians, members of Congress, senators, and even patients.

I love the fact that the author presents some reasonable solutions.

Fascinating perspective

Loved this book. It sheds such an important light on the complexities of the opioid crisis, our fractured health care system, and gave me the hope to do what I can to fight back against this overwhelming problem. My mom has been taking rxn opioids since the mid nineties and I am also a registered nurse and mother of 4. I’ve too struggled with my own debilitating addiction. Travis’s vulnerability helped me feel connected and understood, it has been and continues to be such a frustrating and overwhelming problem. Thanks for your work Travis!!

Covers all bases; hits it out of the park

I heard an interview w Dr Rieder in NPR and was hooked on this book (hmm...bad choice of words in this context, perhaps). As a retired oncologist, I lived thru the “Pain-is-the-5th-vital-sign” era and the “Pain is what the patient says” and “Din’t worry about dependence.” I had never known the interesting history of the evolution of opiods and especially the early experiences in the US including the addiction of Civil War survivors!

This book is so powerful, however, not just because of the gripping scenes of his courage in the face of withdrawal (I honestly did not think I would make it thru Chapter 5!), and how his personal story illuminates the problem our country faces. It is powerful because he drives this story right into our living rooms with contemporary events—eg, the clean needles program in Ohio signed into law by a reluctant Gov Mike Pence as the lesser of two evils—addiction vs spread of HIV—but he uses his training as a bioethicist to provide a framework for moral decisions in this area where there are many strongly held, and often negative, beliefs.

Dr Rieder lays out the complexity of this problem empathetically but starkly and challenges us to act. Not with simple solutions, but with a simple change in mindset: this is a medical problem that requires expert medical treatment not shame AND with widespread acceptance of this attitude, then the political, legislative, and financial muscle to effect this treatment.

Finally, I can’t imagine how his wife held it together with a toddler and the agony in which she saw her husband. In that sense this is the most uplifting of love stories.

I ALWAYS LOVE AUDIOBOOKS READ BY THE AUTHORS. I feel like I am sitting across from them in an easy chair listening to their animated retelling of their story.

A great read!

An essential read in a time of crisis

This brave, important book belongs on the nightstand of anyone touched by the opioid crisis—that is to say, most Americans. In direct, lucid prose, the author interweaves the harrowing story of his own struggle with opioid dependence with philosophical, clinical, and policy-oriented reflections on the roots of the broader opioid crisis in the US. Rieder’s role as both a professional ethicist and a pain patient places him in a unique position, and the book is laced with careful but substantive suggestions for ways to change everything from medical prescribing to drug laws to our own attitudes about race, addiction, and blame. A stunning achievement.