WHAT A PAIN ACKNOWLEDGING

This article discusses the common, invisible suffering of adults living with chronic pain. According to a 2021 Center for Disease Control and Prevention report,1 20.9% of Americans live in chronic pain and 6.9% of adults report living with high impact chronic pain. Generally, pain is considered chronic when it occurs most days or every day in a 6-month period. High impact chronic pain is pain that occurs most days or every day in a 6-month period and frequently limits activity in life’s major domains: social, work, and recreational.

Many lawyers experience chronic pain but choose to keep it to themselves. Instead of seeking support and understanding, lawyers suffer in silence. Why? I have a working theory: no one in our profession wants to admit weakness, and we consider admissions of pain as admissions of weakness. However, pain is a legitimate sensation. Feeling pain is part of the human condition. If your mind alerts to pain, it is responding to a stimulus and telling you to protect yourself. Pain can mean impending illness, an injury, or the physical manifestation of an unaddressed mood disorder. Pain is a person’s ultimate warning system, yet many of us bypass the entire concept, always to our detriment. Ignoring pain can have severe consequences on physical and mental health. Consequences well beyond the exacerbated injury or viral infection, unaddressed chronic pain can affect sleep, stress levels, and even contribute to anxiety and depression.2

Twenty years ago, I was diagnosed with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis,3 an autoimmune condition that affects all joints major and minor with pain and swelling, fatigue, and joint decomposition over time. It can be challenging to work among colleagues suffering from chronic pain. Keep in mind that your pain and the pain of your colleagues may present differently, it may come and go at different speeds, and it may have a different set of aggravators. Here are three things to know from the perspective of a manager of chronic pain:

1. Let me exist. I need to move at my own pace and in my own way.

2. I am doing my best. At every moment, I am working my hardest to meet your expectations for my mobility and my availability.

3. All is not equal. Just because I moved quickly and with precision yesterday does not mean the same is true today.

If you find yourself in pain as described by the CDC, please seek medical advice. Properly managing chronic pain will improve your physical awareness, sharpen your brain function, and steady your mental health. See you in the waiting room!

1 “Chronic Pain Among Adults” https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/ mm7215a1.htm#:~:text=health%20status%20characteristics.-,During%20 2021%2C%20an%20estimated%2020.9%25%20of%20U.S.%20adults%20 (51.6,experienced%20high%2Dimpact%20chronic%20pain. Since the original 2016 report, the CDC has evaluated its recommendations regarding opioids as treatment measures for chronic pain: https://www.cdc.gov/injury/pdfs/bsc/ BSC_Background_Overview_Progress-GL-Update_6_28_cleared_final_D_Dowell508-fx.pdf

2 “Chronic Pain and Mental Health Often Interconnected” https://www. psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/chronic-pain-and-mental-healthinterconnected#:~:text=People%20living%20with%20chronic%20pain,with%20 chronic%20pain%20experience%20depression.

3 When I was diagnosed at 15, my younger sister was only 5. As a family, we explained to her that Big Sister could not pick her up, do handstands, or play physical games with her anymore. We told her the reason was called “arthritis.” She thought for a moment, then said, “Alli has motoritis?” The family has called it motoritis ever since.

By: Jennifer Franklyn Realty Trust Group, LLC