So, I was watching the news the other morning, and after the obligatory violence it turned to the one-year anniversary of Prince's death.

The most striking thing to me was how it was all about the drug and trying to find someone to blame. Not two words were given to what got him — like a lot of chronic pain sufferers — where he was going. I mean death, because we do not know how to treat people with chronic pain.

I am still here, but barely. Prince and I are alike in that we both suffered chronic pain. We were also the same age. He got his pain as a performer; who knew that could lead you to the same end as a laborer? The only difference is that he was wealthy and could do everything possible to fight his. I got mine working for a city around here, and I have to deal with worker's comp. And that means I'm getting less than top-notch care or no care at all.

But the pain is the same. I ruined my stomach for a year with pain pills, so now I can only take them sparingly or I become extremely ill. But I feel the same problems.

People don't believe chronic pain is real, they believe it is in our heads. So you feel a little shame in it. Plus, the doctors for us working stiffs put you through hell telling you you're making it up, or it's all in your head, all while your former employer dumps you like yesterday's trash into the Medicare and Social Security system. Your usefulness to them is done.

So you are alone with your pain, and with very little help from medical people. You watch your life slipping away and then it seems there is only one way out, and you take it.

Or, you fight like hell to survive.

People say chronic pain is not fatal, and I tell them yes it is. Prince proved it. I don't want to go. I am not rich and I owe myself some life after earlier mistakes, and I will fight. But I feel each day I am losing just a little more.

We chronic pain sufferers don't need just sympathy. We need to have our ailment recognized for what it is, and more understanding that we did not ask for this, it just happened in the course of a work life, whether playing a guitar or carrying a jackhammer. And it is real.

The difference between Prince's death and mine will be that he has been and will be mourned by millions. I will be mourned by few. But nobody will understand what killed either one of us until the world opens up its mind and stops just focusing on the drug abuse side and starts helping with handling the pain side.

Try talking to chronic pain sufferers, not at them. Try to have just a little understanding.

Harold Collier lives in Bloomington.