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When pain doesn’t go away
For people in the United States living with pain that has lasted for months, and for the people beside them. What chronic pain is. How to describe it so a doctor hears it. Treatments that are not medicine. Pain relievers from the store, and opioids, used safely. What pain does to sleep and mood. And the words to say at the appointment. One thing at a time.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- Pain or pressure in the chest? Call 911. Our heart attack page has the signs. (This line is ours.)
- Think you took too much of a pain medicine? The Food and Drug Administration says that if you think you have taken too much acetaminophen, get medical help or contact Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 right away.
- Someone took opioids and is hard to wake, or is not breathing? Call 911. If someone may have overdosed.
- The pain has you thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour. In danger: 911.
More help
- Getting ready for the doctor: Get ready for your appointment, Symptom diary and My medicines.
- No insurance, or a bill you can’t pay? When you need a doctor and can’t pay and When a medical bill is too much.
- Planning a day around what you have: Energy budget and One step at a time.
- Work: Ask for what helps you work and Applying for disability benefits.
- Sleep and mood: Can’t sleep?, Sleep diary and When the heaviness won’t lift.
- A medicine, or alcohol, is becoming a problem? When drinking or drugs have become a problem.
- Looking after someone in pain? When you’re caring for someone and Help as you get older.
- All our free tools and Get help now.
Pain, a bone or a joint, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for back pain, arthritis, pain that lasts, headaches, broken bones and sickle cell, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- When the worry won’t switch off: what anxiety disorders are, panic attacks, and seeing a doctor.
- When the doctor says cancer: a cancer diagnosis: the questions to ask, a second opinion, the fever during chemotherapy that is an emergency, paying for it, and free people to call.
- When it’s sickle cell: sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait: the symptoms that are emergencies, a pain crisis, testing, the treatments, and pregnancy.
- Migraine and headaches: migraine and headaches: the warning signs, the kinds of headache, triggers, what to do during an attack, and the medicines.
- When it’s arthritis: arthritis: the types, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and gout, how a doctor finds out which, and the treatments.
- Back pain: when to see a doctor, what can cause it, and what helps: back pain: when to see a doctor, what can cause it, and what helps.
- Fibromyalgia: the symptoms, getting a diagnosis, treatment, and living with it: fibromyalgia: the symptoms, getting a diagnosis, treatment, and living with it.
- When it’s Long COVID: Long COVID: the symptoms, why tests can come back normal, getting ready for an appointment, work and disability, and children and school.
- Insomnia: when sleep won’t come, night after night: insomnia: what it looks like, what causes it, the sleep habits, the therapy that comes first, and what to know about sleep medicines.
- Shingles: the signs, the first three days, the pain that can stay, who can catch what, the vaccine, and when to call: shingles: the signs, the first three days, the pain that can stay, who can catch what, the vaccine, and when to call.
- Medicines and your kidneys: the blood pressure medicines, your pharmacist and your list, NSAIDs, and a plan for sick days: medicines and your kidneys: how to tell an ACE inhibitor (-pril), an ARB (-sartan) and a water pill; one pharmacy and one up-to-date list; NSAIDs in pain, fever and cold medicines; the questions to ask before you get sick; and why being dehydrated changes things.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physical therapist or psychologist has reviewed it, and it was not written by someone who lives with chronic pain. The facts come from pages read on October 5, 2026: MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine’s health site (medlineplus.gov: chronic pain, pain relievers, non-drug pain management, and safe opioid use); the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov: three pages on pain and prescription opioids); the National Institute on Aging (nia.nih.gov: “Pain: You Can Get Help”, written for older adults, which says its content was reviewed on April 10, 2020); the Food and Drug Administration (fda.gov: acetaminophen, and disposal of unused medicines); and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (samhsa.gov: the National Helpline). Changed on October 9, 2026: the part about pain, mood and sleep, and the lines about depression elsewhere on the page, used to pass on a MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia article (“Pain and your emotions”). The encyclopedia is licensed from a publisher that does not allow its text to be reused, so those lines now come from three pages read on October 9, 2026: the National Institute of Mental Health (nimh.nih.gov: “Understanding the Link Between Chronic Disease and Depression”, revised 2024, which is about chronic disease in general and names pain as one), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (ninds.nih.gov: its pain page) and the National Center for PTSD at the Department of Veterans Affairs (ptsd.va.gov: “Chronic Pain and PTSD”, written for Veterans). The link to the encyclopedia article is gone. The page says whose words it is passing on. We link to one more National Institutes of Health page, on complementary approaches, that we did not take facts from. We did not read about any single painful condition, about pain in children, about pregnancy, about cannabis, supplements, creams, injections, nerve blocks or implanted devices, about any state’s prescribing rules or the CDC’s guideline for doctors, about what to do when a prescription is reduced or ended, or about what any treatment costs or any insurance covers. We give no doses except the one daily limit the Food and Drug Administration states for acetaminophen. The line about 988 was read on October 1, 2026. Many lines are our own suggestions, and the page marks them as ours. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a clinic or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].