As another well known, famous, loved, and unique artist and singer passes away, social media floods our news feeds with article headlines screaming "overdose", "drug problems", "abuser", etc. It is common that we attack someone once they are gone by blowing up a flaw or aspect of their life and making it into something false and negative. Very few articles out of the ones that have been swarming the web regarding Prince's death mention chronic pain...something he without a doubt suffered from.

Prince suffered many injuries to his hips throughout his career as a result of the astonishing performances he put on. His body was crippled with pain for many years and he relied on opiate medications for relief. Many said he was addicted to these pain medications when, in reality, he was solely dependent on it and not in a bad way. Dependence is not always a bad thing especially if whatever the person is dependent on is truly helping them and was prescribed by a doctor. Why point fingers at someone who suffers from chronic pain and treats it through medication if you wouldn't criticize someone with a heart condition for taking medication?

It is time to stop turning a cheek to the well-trod path of chronic pain that so many of us have stumbled down. After all, it wasn't the pain pills that killed Prince, it was the chronic pain. It is a very real, and a very debilitating condition. Opiate medications are not an uncommon treatment when it comes to chronic pain. Yes, nobody's ideal situation is to be on medications, although for people who deserve relief it is often their best option. We must be able to decipher the difference between addiction and dependence. We must understand the risks associated with being on opiate medications for an extended period of time. But most importantly, we must strive to understand and trust what one is going through when it comes to chronic pain.

Everyone can relate to getting injured in front of a large amount of people and not wanting to appear weak. You have to play the "tough guy", meaning fake a smile, get up, and go about your normal day pretending that everything is alright. Being someone who suffers from Chronic Pain, take my word that we have no choice but to be that "tough guy" every second, minute, hour of our life. It gets exhausting both physically and mentally, to tell you the truth. Chronic Pain is a condition that comes with a lot more aside from the pain alone and puts one through pure hell.

I think it is important to sit back and view Prince's situation as a whole with an open mind. There is a lot more to him than some artist who let fame get to his head and sought drugs. He had a medical condition that got him those drugs for good reasons and there are millions of others out there who are in his same position. Instead of labeling his death as an overdose, in other words- a self inflicted wound, we should be looking at him as someone who had an ordeal of a medical problem and was giving it his best shot. Nobody will ever know the reason behind there being too many drugs in his system that day and what his intentions behind taking them were but lets give him the benefit of the doubt.

Who knows, maybe it just became too much for him to handle. Lets allow this to serve as an eye opener for what it means to suffer from chronic pain. Maybe chronic pain itself cannot kill you but I hear of a passing everyday from complications of chronic pain and it has been for too long that we have viewed this issue with such an in considerate mind.

Please allow me to spell it out for you- C-h-r-o-n-i-c p-a-i-n k-i-l-l-s. Stop brushing it aside as if it is not serious because Prince's situation alone goes to show that chronic pain as well as opiate medications are both very real issues in today's society. Lets do this in hopes of not only viewing Prince's death with an open mind but in order to help those in the future, the ones who are still in a fight with this never-ending battle.