I have two bad knees, pain gets so bad sometimes I can't walk without pain or even stay asleep at night...I get the cortisone shots about every three months or so, but the relief takes at least a day and pain from the injection is hard to manage with just Tylenol or ibuprofen sometimes...yet sometimes mental-health staff get concerned about having to take anything stronger than those. Why do they worry so much about addiction, in someone like myself who has a medical condition that is far from 'in one's head'? The pain meds I take don't get in the way of living my life, doing the daily things I have to do to care for myself, my cat, and my home..

I have to wonder if mental health people really know about physical pain or have the knowledge to understand it. And how would, or do, they deal with stuff like knee problems, or any kind of physical issues?