Lurkers, members and my fellow Brothers and Sisters. I have been in uber pain for 9 years now. Never found a pain clinic clinic that wasn't some kind of inept money mill. Have done the works with Docs who didn't understand my illness and one who does. Acupuncture helps but who can afford it? Opiates ....although they make me feel like I did before I was ill they don't work over time. I balked under the Authority of oppression. I have been narcotic free for six months and life ain't no crystal staircase but my spine feels like one. I was never an addict, I just don't do well with the Treatment I have had. I wonder if at the root base of my problem is that I am in denial, not about pain killers, but about living with this disease. About living a life of chronic pain. I tried to use opiates to be NORMAL. It is a slippery slope. I don't know if I could say take just 30 pain pills a month and use them cautiously for when I am over whelmed. After six months opiate free the chronic pain is starting to take it's toll on me. Some of us have been there, taking Gaba pentin and other nostrums that don't take the pain away. A ME CFS patient with chronic pain issues is a 1000 foot red flag to any non ME CFS Doctor. More to come...........please share your experiences. For what it is worth, my first sympom was pain in the neck.