6 Things About Chronic Pain You Didn't Know You Knew!

Hey Hey Hey

I want to share and adapt on a blog post I read that gives a great insight on what dealing with Chronic pain is like. What it is like to deal with Chronic Pain everyday, is something you can never fully understand unless you have experienced it. This post, will hopefully help you understand how it feels and affects people both physically and mentally! I know some of you may have seen a post like this already, but it never hurts to get it out more and more to try and explain in any way we can. 

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Chronic pain isn't just constant pain, though, that would be more than enough for anyone to handle. The truth is, chronic pain always brings 'friends' along. These added challenges are obvious when you think about it, but are rarely taken into consideration by "healthy" people unless it slaps them in the face. Remembering that like all bullies, chronic pain travels with a gang may help you better understand the life of someone in chronic pain.

Pain is exhausting. We have all had a bad headache, a twisted knee, period pain (assuming you're female..duh!), or a pulled muscle, and by the end of the day it is a monumental effort just to read a text message. You may not have consciously realised it, but the pain that has relentlessly nagged you through out the entire day has drained you as bad as any flu would. Even when you try to ignore the pain, it stays in the back of your mind, screaming for attention whilst draining away all of your energy. With chronic pain, this is amplified because it isn't just one day, it is months or even years of struggling to live with this very demanding money on your back. It all builds up and catches up with you BIG time. I'm tired just thinking about it to be honest.

I'm so tired... I'll don't mind where it is!

Pain causes poor sleep. You would think that after a long day of fighting with constant pain, sleep would be a great relief. Unfortunately, that is just a dream (pun intended). For starters, chronic pain can make it hard to even get to sleep let alone staying asleep. The pain will pul you right out of any deep sleep leaving you spending the rest of the night tossing and turning (and getting tangled in your duvet). Many pain patients take medications to sleep because of how vital sleep is to your health, with or without chronic pain or illnesses. Even when you do manage to sleep, the pain signals continue in your brain and can cause the sleep to be broken, restless and funnily enough, exhausting!

Pain makes you cranky. Chronic pain sufferers aren't (all) just cranky buggers by nature. Pain drains you physically and mentally. When you are in pain, even the simplest things feel overwhelming and people tend to react accordingly. You may have only asked your chronic pain spouse if they would like to go to a movie, but in their head they have considered if they can sit still that long, how much medication it would require, if they have the energy, if they will stay awake through the movie, how high their pain is now and how it might increase, if the go will it make getting through tomorrow harder, and most importantly, give all this, will it be any fun. They didn't grouch at you for the fun of it, pain just makes it very hard to remember that everyone else is coming from a totally different perspective, where a movie is just, well, a movie. 

I'm NOT cranky!

Pain kills your concentration. Most chronic pain patients fight like crazy to live a normal life. They try to ignore the pain and go about their days, but it's just not that easy. Even when you ignore pain, push it to the back of your brain and focus on, say, work, pain doesn't give up. You can sit at your desk working on your computer trying to concentrate, while your pain plays the part of a toddler or a dog, desperate for your attention. Pain will poke you, tug at your clothes, spill juice of your keyboard, scream your name and try to use you like a punch bag. No matter how hard you try and forget about it, part of your brain is always processing the pain and it often pull your concentration to terrifyingly low levels, or to no concentration at all.

Pain damages your self esteem. The pain has made you tired, cranky and killed your concentration. Being exhausted all the time makes everything more of a challenge than it should be, your quick temper has strained or destroyed a once strong interpersonal relationship and your inability to concentrate has hurt your job performance. You can't do what you want to do with your time, even when you try and it seems like everyone is mad or unhappy with you no matter your efforts. Life as you know it is crumbling and all because of.... you? Most pain sufferers blame themselves for these failing, remembering that they used to be able to do everything. They see chronic pain as a sign of weakness or a personal defect that they should be able to overcome. The end result is that on top of everything else, chronic pain damages your self esteem.

A smile & an appearance can be deceiving! 

Pain causes isolation. When you're in constant pain, the last thing you want to do is attend the company party, the neighbour's backyard barbecue, or even small gatherings with your closest friends and family. In fact, it's the last thing you'd even consider or think about. Your friends and family are still the light of your life, but the physical and mental energy it requires to go out and be social can just be too much to handle. You start to bow out of parties and cancel plans but not because you don't want to go, but because you just can't. Eventually people stop inviting you, calls to make plans decline and the scary thing is, you don't actually mind. The pain has slowly but surely isolated you.

What are some other affects of pain seem obvious, but aren't?

Remember, just because someone is smiling on the outside, it doesn't mean they are okay on the inside. Don't make assumptions that just because the person looks fine that they are not struggling!

Stay Strong

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Original Post/ Credit To:  

http://invisibleillnessbattle.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/6-things-about-chronic-pain-you-didnt-know-you-knew/