Chronic Pain Awareness month! And being painfully aware...

It's Chronic Pain Awareness month! And some of us are painfully aware. In fact, we're unable to forget that we have chronic pain, because that's the point... it's 24/7. And yet, you may not be aware at all.

This is why we need Chronic Pain Awareness month.

Some people find it hard to believe... "but you don't look like you're in pain?!", "what do you mean you're in pain all the time?". And I get it. Before I experienced it, I wouldn't have been able to comprehend it either, it is a difficult concept to understand. And maybe this is part of the problem, and why we need more awareness.

When we can't see something, or it doesn't look like what we'd expect, being able to comprehend something becomes more difficult. I mean, until we physically travelled around the world we thought it was flat... In other words, until we experienced the roundness of it and could prove it without a doubt to others, we couldn't believe anything different to our original ideas.

To understand how people can keep going, doing every day things, and living their lives, being in constant pain... it is difficult. We're taught that when you are in pain, you stop, you rest, you maybe seek medical help, and then you rest until you don't feel the pain anymore. But with chronic pain, when it is indeed 24/7, this isn't possible. You have to keep going, you have to live your life, you have to find a way. So how can you understand something that people are desperately trying to conceal and carrying on regardless of how they feel?

It's also because when we're at our worst, you won't see us. It's the days where we can't get out of bed, where we physically can't get out of the house, where our pain becomes invisible to anyone other than those living with and around us. 

Invisible disability often means, we make our disability invisible to the outside world. Because sometimes it's only those closest to us that can see the worst pain, and it's only those closest to us that can see the subtle differences when we're not okay. It would be pretty miserable to constantly be showing your pain, so we don't, we hide it, we put on the smile, and we carry on... unless we can't. When we hide away and hide our pain from anyone.

So, awareness. It's difficult. But this is why you probably hear people from the chronically disabled community talking about it a lot, advocating for us a lot, because otherwise you wouldn't see it at all. 

It's not because (as the recent headlines would make you believe) it's cool, or over diagnosed. It's because we're trying to support people who otherwise would not feel supported, make visible the invisible struggle, and make it okay to share you are not okay; creating awareness of something that most people (thankfully) are not aware of in the slightest.

This is why we not only need an awareness month, but general awareness. Not pity, not sympathy. Understanding. Support. Compassion.