Writing Activities to Help You Write About Pain

Hello, everyone. I recently realized that, even though I encourage others to write about their pain, I have not previously discussed ideas or activities to help with these endeavors. Below, you will find some resources with ideas to get you started.

1.Five Tips to Help People Achieve Better Results While Writing with Pain.

Link: http://www.writetosellyourbook.com/writing-advice/how-to-write-the-pain

This useful website provides tips to help people achieve better results while writing about their pain. Actually, these tips may prove useful for many different types of writing, but I find them especially useful when I write about my pain. Personally, I think the most valuable tip is to take breaks when the I feel overcome with emotion--I find it important for me to write about my pain, but I also know that it does not work well if I push myself to write about something I'm not ready to address. Beaks help

The Problem of Guilt and Chronic Pain

Dear Readers,

I’m sure most, if not all, people in chronic pain have experienced the subtle comments, looks, and societal beliefs that can make a person feel like he or she has chronic pain because of some personal failing. For instance, just a few of the many responses I have encountered include the disbelief when I say I am in pain all the time (What do you mean, there is pain that doesn’t shut off?), the constant suggestions which imply I could “fix” myself if I only did the right thing (Have you tried acupuncture, over the counter meds, more exercise, a better diet?), or the insistence that I did something to cause my pain in the first place (This is your body trying to send you a message. Or Maybe you are making everything worse by thinking about it too much).

The Waiting Game

Dear Readers,

Hello. I don't know about you, but I've never been  a huge fan of waiting. I'm not good at waiting in line, waiting for holidays, or even waiting for dinner. Unfortunately, being a chronic pain patient is a waiting game. Chronic pain patients wait to switch medications, wait for the next doctor appointment, and wait for medications to be adjusted (it can take several weeks to adjust to the side effects of the new dosage in order to move up to the next one).

Right now, I am waiting to switch doctors. For several months, I waited to be put on the wait list for a prestigious hospital, and, now,  I am waiting to receive an appointment, after which I will wait for the appointment time to arrive. You get the picture. The same could probably be said for most other chronic illnesses, not just chronic pain.