Comments on: The Pain of House

By: Ranking Disability « Reasonably Angry

Ranking Disability « Reasonably Angry — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:29:46 +0000

[...] in the show House from reading some of Ouyang Dan‘s posts. She has already discussed the issues of pain medication very well, so I don’t feel the need to cover that, clumsy as I assume I would [...]

By: Where I jump in and defend pills… « random babble…

Where I jump in and defend pills… « random babble… — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:05:00 +0000

[...] is that Vicodin does something that a lot of scoffers don’t think about (something apparent if you watch House); it gives me some of my life back. It lets me do frivolous things like get out of bed, cook [...]

By: Ouyang Dan

Ouyang Dan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:50:46 +0000

That is a good point. I kind of just saw them acting like people do after someone experiences loss…it’s like you need to hurry up and heal so they can move on too.

One thing that stood out w/ me is when Wilson tricks House into taking anti-depressants to prove that he needs them (which I don’t think anyone should be forced if they don’t want to because of the high number of side effects that can occur). Granted, House doped Wilson w/ ritalin, but it is clear that he did it to be an ass, not a preachy and paternalistic concern troll.

By: EKSwitaj

EKSwitaj — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:51:33 +0000

One of the interesting things about House is that while it’s very clear that he is not to be taken as an admirable behavior, the characters around him are actually engaging in acts that are objectionable for the very seem reasons. House doesn’t respect patients’ choices; his friends and co-workers don’t respect his.

After Kutner’s suicide, people are outraged by his failure to respect other people’s grief, but no one respects that trying to figure out what happened is his way of grieving.

By: Ouyang Dan

Ouyang Dan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:15:10 +0000

My most recent Rheum (whom I am no longer seeing since we moved) beat me w/ the “if you want to get better you will take Lyrica”. He doesn’t prescribe narcotics unless you do, and I wasn’t his patient long enough to earn that privilege.

I am bad at taking a daily pill (it’s one reason I don’t use the Pill for BC), but I can take a pill when I hurt. It’s not hard (and for the record, I would take the Lyrica again because I wan’t on it long enough to know if it helped). Even my anti-convulsant, which keeps my headaches at bay, is hard for me to remember.

The point is that the stigma surrounding narcotics keeps people from taking them (I don’t want to be called a drug seeker), and keeps doctors from making reasonable choices in prescribing them.

By: Ouyang Dan

Ouyang Dan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:10:33 +0000

Yup, I know those episodes. And, you are right. They have turned the dynamic into all this concern for his addiction, NOT his pain, even if they disguise it by saying they care about his pain. And that frustrates me beyond belief.

I think the thing I like about House is that he isn’t all cuddly and inspirational and brave, or whatever other trope people like to throw at people who are differently abled. He’s a cranky jerk (possibly the only well developed character other than Chase and Cameron, who I think are) who deals with pain, and the flaw, IMNSHO, is that those people feel free, even as doctors, to object to his care choices. They can’t get past that he is happy that way, that his addiction, which doesn’t affect them, is their problem, not his.

By: kcjones

kcjones — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:07:26 +0000

Thank you for this. I’ll have to show it to my mom also. We both have chronic pain and how the other character’s treat House’s chosen method of pain management annoys the hell out of both of us.

I used to have to take psych meds every day and now I’m finally stable enough to be off them, but I do have a pain killer – Darvocet- as a PRN for my fibror. I could go back on something like Cymbalta (an antidepressant that helps with joint pain), which is non-habit forming, yet ironically, if I did that, then I would be taking it everyday, whereas with the pain killer, I get to decide when I take the medicine. People like to tell me which medicine is better for me to take and I really wish though that they would just let me and my doctor decide!

By: mzbitca

mzbitca — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:26:11 +0000

There is an episode in the first or second season where he detoxes off of it and admits he’s dependent. They all get excited but then he reports that dependent does not mean addicted and that he can still work and HE is happy with his life so he does not have a problem. The issue comes from people not liking WHO he is and the constant search for a reason.

Would I want House as my GP, no. Would I care what he was like if I was in critical condition, probably not.

I think the show has declined in quality recently, mostly because of the way they have handled both Foreman and Kutner’s characters as well as 13 and Cuddy. They have created them as concern trolls (awesome analogy) and people designed to fill in the negative space around House as opposed to complex characters.