I'm finishing up my PhD in healthcare ethics, I have about 2 years left. I was picked up to work with with a local hospital and a group within my state legislature to help combat the opioid crisis. My research was primarily on public health problems so this role suited me nicely and I really enjoy the work I do.
Most of it it centered more closely around relief and prevention programs as well as pharmaceutical and prescription regulations.
My girlfriend's mother died of a heroin overdose when she was 11 years old, and her father, also a drug addict also then left her, so she was raised by her grandparents, who luckily were wonderful.
My girlfriend hates that I currently work on this problem from the pharmaceutical and provider side, and is especially angry that some of my work seems sympathetic to those who have become addicted due to irresponsible prescriptions. Because of her past, and the fact her parents started spontaneously and not from prescriptions (to the best of her knowledge) she vehemently disagrees with attacking this problem from the provider side, and gets angry when she reads my papers or proposals that focus on those topics. She'll often yell and storm out of the room that I've never lived with people who used drugs and I don't understand, and that a lot of them are just assholes and went and started using drugs they weren't victims of prescriptions.
But it's my JOB and as a grad student, I'm not turning down funding and the ability to work during my PhD in addition to my stipend (most additional sources of income aren't allowed while receiving a PhD stipend from my school).
I always try to be understanding, and reassure her, and explain I'm not trying to destroy personal responsibility or anything like that.
Edit 1: We've been dating for four years, we met when I was just finishing up undergrad. It's only been within the past 4 months that I've started really focusing on opioid related health issues. Before that it was just one of many things I worked on.
Edit 2: If this helps at all, the anger really only flares up immediately following her having to hear about my work (zoom presentations) or reading something I've written (some of it is public access). Like an hour of her being incredibly upset, and then two days of all good no issues until I have another meeting where I have to speak again.
tldr; My work involves creating increased prescribing accountability to combat the opioid crisis, my girlfriends experiences have shown her the problem is with the addicts - creates friction.
Submitted February 15, 2021 at 06:20PM by Floppy_Mycologist https://ift.tt/3qosk09
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