{"id":32,"date":"2020-01-05T07:37:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T14:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/painvalley.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2020-03-04T20:52:30","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T03:52:30","slug":"why-pain-is-so-lonely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"Why Pain is so Lonely"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alone\"<\/a>\"Creative<\/a> Jonathan Kos-Read<\/a> via Compfight<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

Many people in Chronic Pain feel very alone sometimes, myself included.\u00a0 There is a big reason for that loneliness, mainly the fact that YOU are the one in pain.\u00a0 Despite how much we wish our doctors or loved ones could feel our physical pain in order to understand and validate how we feel, there is no device that will allow us to hook our pain receptors up to another person (but we can all hope for that one day).\u00a0 No one else can feel YOUR pain.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We may not be alone in our journeys, but we are, essentially, alone in our pain.\u00a0 Additional factors that contribute to loneliness for those living in chronic pain include:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Depression<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isolation<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Inability to do activities outside of the house<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Inability to work<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marital problems resulting from emotional issues connected with chronic pain<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Strained relationships with family and friends<\/p>\n

Loneliness is often not our choice.\u00a0 I did not choose to have back problems and other health issues.\u00a0 I did not choose for my pain to change me.\u00a0 I did not choose to have relationships lost as a result of what this life has done to me.\u00a0 But loneliness is very common for people in chronic pain. And it has a lot to do with the factors listed above.\u00a0 Chronic pain makes many people depressed, feeling hopeless, and therefore many isolate, choosing to stay home and not socialize.<\/p>\n

For some it is difficult to get out of the house.\u00a0 I am able to leave the house and go to the gym for physical therapy, I can spend time with friends and family, but like most, my time is limited.\u00a0 My back has a time limit for standing, sitting, walking, so things like travel, or long event are difficult.\u00a0 But, going out for a little while doesn\u2019t always help the loneliness, especially if pain increases when returning.\u00a0 Sometimes being with others is wonderful but then the recovery is painful and can perpetuate the cycle of depression, isolation and loneliness.<\/p>\n

I try to fight loneliness where I can though.\u00a0 I can\u2019t do anything about the marriage issues that have arisen as a result, but I can use my support system.\u00a0 I actually find that since my separation I do a lot more.\u00a0 I have a weekly dinner date with my niece and nephew, I see my best friend most weeks, go to my classes, spend time with my family.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize how much I had isolated until all of this happened.\u00a0 I am very lucky to have a supportive system, but at the same time, sometimes you can be with 10 people and still feel alone because people don\u2019t understand what you are going through.\u00a0 As I have said, the bottom line is YOU are the one in pain and you can explain it, give examples, try to make others understand, but it is still YOUR pain.<\/p>\n

How do you deal with loneliness?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Kos-Read via Compfight Many people in Chronic Pain feel very alone sometimes, myself included.\u00a0 There is a big reason for that loneliness, mainly the fact that YOU are the one in pain.\u00a0 Despite how much we wish our doctors or loved ones could feel our physical pain in order to understand and validate how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pain-care","tag-dbtag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/painvalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}