In Pain, Travis Rieder
In Pain, Travis Rieder
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In Pain
A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids

Author: Travis Rieder

Narrator: Travis Rieder

Unabridged: 8 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/18/2019


Synopsis

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.

About Travis Rieder

Travis Rieder, PhD, is faculty at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, where he directs the Master of Bioethics degree program.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Malia on February 05, 2020

This is a fascinating book and one I would recommend to anyone trying to better understand the opioid crisis and addiction in general. The author writes honestly and in a way that felt compassionate and informative at once. He is frustrated, but does not easily cast blame, though he must have gone t......more

Goodreads review by Morgan on February 10, 2022

In Pain is FUCKING BRILLIANT and BRUTAL. This is my favorite kind of book about mental health issues of any sort. An educated third person “objective” perspective (the author Travis Rieder is a bioethicist) blended with honest, vulnerable writing from the first-person “subjective” perspective (Riede......more

Goodreads review by Carrie on December 04, 2019

Great!......more

Goodreads review by Katie on November 05, 2022

Summary: Both the personal story and the thoughtful analysis in this book made it a clear favorite of the books I've read on the opioid epidemic. This memoir by a bioethics research is by far the best book I've read about the opioid epidemic. Author Travis Rieder was in a motorcycle accident, after w......more

Goodreads review by Melody on December 13, 2020

Really well-done. Shines a clear light onto the opioid crisis both global and personal. Strong bias toward evidence-based science always works for me, and this book has it in spades. Rieder's suggestions are humane and actionable.......more