As a chronic pain sufferer, whose conditions go under-diagnosed and when diagnosed go untreated, I can authoritatively state that treating the conditions that cause the pain would significantly lower, if not eliminate, the related depression and MY DESIRE TO CEASE LIVING IN CHRONIC UNRELENTING PAIN!

I have specific, treatable problems, back and neck pain that has become unbearable and i need to lie down all day, all night, every day of my life. I have developed other conditions, cannot sit stand or walk, cannot be intimate with my partner of ten years, cannot wear clothing because it hurts so much, and so much of this could be treated if a doctor could bother to make the appropriate referrals and follow up, and if my insurance would cover what would help me most, MANUAL LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE. Degenerative conditions in my spine could be treated.

FIX the problems, the core problems, and depression and suicide would all but disappear. There would be no risk of depression/suicide if I weren't in intractable pain at the age of 47, having degenerated steadily since the age of 41. Some one could help me but they won't. Spend the money on treating patients instead of researching the obvious. The doctors will figure out that they could have helped me when the autopsy is done in a few months.

My replies keep getting censored because i answer the obvious question.

Joe,

Your comment was simply brilliant. Hey, doc I walk into things in the dark. How do I decrease that risk?

This is what people who never suffer pain will understand. They can't understand because they cannot conceive of what we are saying. Just like a 5 year-old child trying to understand nuclear physics, they don't have the ability to conceive or understand that language to process the information they are given.

Thank you.