Book 247 - A Year of Magical Learning (Part 1/2)

Reflection Title: Embrace the Pain – The Treatment is You!

Book – Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones (Part 1/2)

Book Description: From a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of Big Pharma to main streets nationwide, an explosive and shocking account of addiction in the heartland of America.

In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland.

Reflection:

What a Mess!!!

Dreamland is a fascinating and haunting look into how we ended up where we ended up today with yet another opioid epidemic unleashed on this world! It is a tale as old as humanity with this morphine molecule! When will we learn that OPIOID’S ARE ADDICTIVE…PERIOD! They have always been addictive and will always be addictive. This will never change, no matter how much we try.

Just like all things giving to us by nature, opioids have an important place, role, and purpose to play in this world, but that purpose definitely shouldn’t have anything to do with managing pain in our everyday lives. After finishing this book, I think it is pretty clear why nature brought opioids into this world, and that is to end life in a painless state. The key word here is TO END LIFE! That is opioid's job, and it is damn good at it.

I’ll personally never forget the role that opioids played in Emilia’s last few days with us here in this world. In her final few days, Emilia was in immense pain. Even though she couldn’t speak and tell us, we all could see it. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to observe in my life. I honestly don’t know how she was hanging on to continue fighting for a chance at life looking back on it. These exact moments are some of the reasons that I will always tell anyone and everyone that Emilia is the strongest person I’ve ever met. She was the ultimate fighter and gave it everything she had for a chance at life in this world. She is, and will always be, my hero.

Even though Emilia was fighting, she needed help, and opioids were our only thing we could help her with in her final few hours here on this Earth. The only thing that gave her any relief was morphine and fentanyl. She was getting as much as she needed to feel no pain…and she needed every milligram of it. Each time a new extra dose of fentanyl was administered to her in those final few hours, you could see her whole body and breathing relax to and provide some much-needed momentary relief. 2 hours later, the last dose would wear off and she was back in immense pain and the cycle would start again. Those brief moments after she received the morphine molecule, just a little bit of her, and our pain, was eased as we waited for the inevitable to come.

Proper applications of opioids are for extreme pain and acute situations like Emilia’s where we have no other choice and this is only tool we have left to help ease our pain.

For everything else, it is time to stop running from everyday pain that we experience in this world.

Whether it be physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain, mental pain…PAIN IS NOT OUR ENEMY!

I get it, pain sucks. Pain is scary. Pain is traumatizing. Pain is uncomfortable. Pain is well…painful!

While all of these things may be true, pain is also necessary because pain is how we learn and grow. Pain is nature’s way of telling us that we need to try something different. Pain is a wakeup call to question, to explore, to change, and to grow.

When we ignore everyday pain and medicate it away, we stop moving forward. When we stop moving forward, we die…it is that simple.

Each person’s pain, just like them, is unique. Listen to your pain, explore your pain, and seek to understand your pain. There is no magic cure to rid yourself of pain, the treatment will always be you!

Question: Are you embracing your pain or running away?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones