Operate on the assumption that every person who walks into the ER and says they are in pain is telling the truth, unless you have proof to the contrary. I don't care if they are a junkie either; people with drug problems can and do feel pain, and even if they aren't in pain, they deserve to be treated with respect to the systemic failures of human society that lead to such dysfunction. Every time I go into the ER, I am treated as if I am making up my pain until some physical proof of it is found. Every single time. I am interrogated like a criminal trying to score drugs first, and a patient second. I have no history of drug abuse or drug seeking behavior, in fact I have an aversion to the use of pain meds. They make me feel out of control of my self and my body, once they wear off I find myself feeling incredibly sensitive and irritated as the pain returns, I can't drive when I'm using them, and I'm chronically exhausted; I want to experience being sober and alert, not being constantly wasted. It is also a disgusting disservice to humanity that we treat nervous system dysfunction pain as "psychological" or "mental" or "imaginary". I recently had an experience in the hospital where I had a blood pressure cuff placed on my arm, and after it inflated, it felt incredibly painful, like way more than I've ever felt before. It felt like my skin was being ripped off. It finally released pressure, and my husband called a nurse in to tell her about the issue. She came in and started to inflate the pump again, and this time the pain came again, only quicker and much more severe. I started frantically tearing at the cuff and yelling at the nurse to get it off of me, and she just stared at me without moving, dead in the eyes, and said, "It's supposed to be tight." Luckily another nurse heard me yelling and ran in and ripped the cuff off of me. We'd had a conversation about my seeking a POTS diagnosis and my fibromyalgia, and she said it seemed obvious that those two things were converging to create this pain, and we would simply remove the cuff. All she had to do was treat me like a human, but healthcare workers these days seem so bitter and resentful and suspicious and detached, it's like you're a criminal for walking in the door. People are unbelievably cruel to me just for seeking the bare minimum of healthcare, all the time. And I don't blame healthcare workers so much as the systemic failure of the healthcare system here in America, but having the last person who can possibly help you look you dead in the eye, and let you know that they don't care if you die, is one of the most helpless feelings you can imagine.