1/3 of People (but 2/3 of Seniors) Suffer From What?

Did you know that 1 in 3 people (this includes children) have chronic pain and that 2 out of 3 seniors have chronic pain? Many  of these people don’t look ill. They live with an invisible chronic illness.

Since it is invisible the comments they often receive are not encouraging and downright rude. Understanding for lack of participation gets sparse as the illness gets worse or lingers too long. Name-calling (like lazy, hypochondriac, drama-queen, faker, attention-seeker) adds to the condemnation a person with an invisible chronic illness feels.

“To many we appear to be flaky and/or unreliable when the truth is very different. People don’t understand when you tell them you’re in pain and they can’t see why.”  CS

Dealing with pain that is unpredictable in its pain level, duration, and arrival is fatiguing and often leads to isolation.  “Chronic pain is a horrible isolating pain. Regardless of the depth of your faith, pain takes over and consumes your every thought.” EK  The name calling also contributes to the isolating behaviour.

So my challenge for you and me today is “Look Around.” If 1 out of 3 people have chronic pain, you know someone who deals with this issue. If I add up the number of people from work, school, church, family, neighbors and friends, that comes to about 133 people that I know who could be dealing with this!

But wait! About 30 of these people are in the senior population and so that adds 10 more to the number.  I potentially know 143 people (men, women, teens and children) who deal with chronic pain and all its accompanying social, emotional and spiritual hurdles.

Let’s look around and see what we can do to help.

Do you have any suggestions or comments?