Setting our sights on Chronic Pain

Chronic pain isn’t something you come to accept … ignore … or rise above.  And while its true that the amplitude fluctuates and the peaks may shift from location, location, location … the experience of The Pain may seem never ending.  Because it is.  That the headache is subtlety different from yesterdays temple pain is irrelevant.   We still hurt.  It still drains our energy.  It still fucks with our experience of happiness and bliss.

Is it possible to be at peace and simultaneously still in pain?  Most definately.   All the time?  Not bloody likely.  Our ability to cope with chronic pain is a constant dance in the darkest places of our being.  We can feel like we are being pulled or pushed across the dance floor.  Dipped and spun into the abyss of agony.  And like some dark dance marathon of the great depression the music never stops and you are left feeling de-feet at the end of every day.

Pain doesn’t have a silver lining.  We can paint a picture of it as noble, empowering or as an otherwise teachable moment.   The reality is pain is simply painful.  And the concept of chronic pain can be so overwhelming that most of us discount what it must be like to the point we look insensitive to another person’s experience.   So overwhelming that we quickly go into a tailspin of What If each time we get a bad headache, hip strain, shoulder sprain or rib head out of whack.  Because we worry as we grow older … what if this time my body never heals?  What if I will be forever sentenced to life in pain?

Pain scares us.  Not only in our self … but in those we love.  And while we  may be able to quantify our own pain level … we are at a loss to fully understand another sentient beings pain.  Perhaps he puts on a brave front. Maybe she whines … subsequently we discount her discomfort.  We might perceive our own pain as greater or less than someone else based on only glimpses of perceived reaction and vague responses.

But in truth there is no measure of pain.  No scale we can use to truly know or recognize another person’s experience. And sometimes even our own pain can be so devastating that we can not quantify our own experience. There is no barometer or thermostat  to help guide us in any moment to see the level of another person’s pain.