Not long ago, I found myself self-medicating. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was abusing alcohol and over the counter pain medication as a desperate means to relieve the agonizing stabbing pains in my face, the cause of which was evading my doctor over a period of weeks.

I write this with gratitude at the top of mind because I had the support of a loving spouse, access to a caring family doctor, access to specialists, and within six weeks, the cause of that devastating pain was diagnosed and treated. It only took those few weeks for me to realize the depths some of us may go to in order to catch relief from that kind of constant, sleep depriving, life altering pain. Since then, I have wondered what would’ve happened to me, if those support systems weren’t in place, as is the reality for so many others.

COVID-19 has been all consuming and dominates all the medical and health news coverage. What this small window of suffering made clear, is that there are countless people who are suffering from chronic pain and life altering ailments that are not receiving the attention and care they so desperately need.

Before the pandemic, political leaders were finally starting to address the opioid overdose crisis, but it now rarely garners a headline. The epidemic has been worsening during the COVID-19 pandemic with many communities across Canada and the United States reporting record numbers of opioid related deaths, emergency calls and hospitalizations. North Americans are the largest per capita consumers of opioids in the world respectively. Before we stigmatize who these victims are, remember it could easily be you or I.