The truth about pain

Here is the thing about pain, the truth; once you reach a certain level of pain, or have a particular type of pain, no amount of medication or happy, positive thinking is going to take it away. You will, to some degree, have to learn how to live with and manage your pain. Oh, you'll undoubtedly get all sorts of platitudes from people who - through no fault of their own - cannot possibly understand what you are going through. Often the people who are trying to comfort you and tell you that it is all going to be okay, that the medication will solve everything, have experienced nothing more painful than the occasional headache. How can we possibly expect them to understand just what constant, unending, nerve-searing pain can do to a person?

What you are going to have to do, as someone living with a pain condition, is try not to explode too many times. Much as you may want to just shove everyone out the door and scream "Leave me alone!" I'm here to tell you that that just ain't healthy. Been there, done that and have a whole room full of tee-shirts (I wish! I could sell them and make some much-needed cash). I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will tell people to just leave me alone at some point in the future, but I am trying to be a lot more polite about it.

How on earth do you describe pain to someone who hasn't experienced long-term pain? It is like trying to explain blue to someone who has never been able to see. Yeah, okay, you can come up with comparisons "Blue is like a warm summer's sky" but that doesn't really explain the true nature of blue, does it?

Likewise I can say that one particular element of pain has made my skin so sensitive to touch that it is like my clothes are made out of sandpaper, or that I permanently feel as though I have the flu. Those descriptions may help a little if someone has tried rubbing their arm with sandpaper or if they have had flu, but... You see where I am going, right? It can give an idea but doesn't get across the constant wearing down that comes with constant pain.

That said - I still think that we should talk to people and try to explain as much as possible. We all know that pain is invisible, it is one of those conditions that is ignored and ridiculed: "It's only pain, why are you making so much fuss?" "Drama Queen!" and so on. If we want people to better understand pain, then we need to talk about it and the impact it has on our lives.