Every day, we publish a selection of your emails in our newsletter. We’d love to hear from you, you can email us at yoursay@theconversation.edu.au.Monday November 10Managing pain“As someone who has lived for decades with chronic pain that is severe, wide-spread, and present for over 90% of waking hours, I am one of that small group of people for whom ongoing opioid therapy for pain management has been life changing, yet your article pretty much denies my existence. I don’t take opioids because they are fun, or because they are some kind of quick, easy fix. I have to consult regularly with my pain specialist, and attend the same pharmacy every week to get my prescription filled. I’m fine with the regulations and rules around access to opioids, but it is a shackle that makes it difficult to travel, and that exposes me to gaslighting about addiction and substance use disorders from other medical professionals and misinformed but opinionated others.”Name withheldPracticing kindness“Thank you Gary Mortimer et al, for sharing your study into reducing retail abuse – a timely reminder to genuinely connect with each other as human beings as we head into Christmas! It seems the more digital connections we have in our lives, the less capable of this we have become – the drop in community engagement and volunteering being another symptom of the same disease. In the face of global challenges human connection, empathy and seeing each other as equals will provide the solution.”Sarah Murton, Sunshine Coast QLDCop criticism“Why do you include a dig at the Liberal Party in your editorial on COP30? It’s quite unnecessary to the story and out of place in a publication reliant one way or another on public funding.”Peter Murray