Thread by @thechroniccurly

Something I’ve always struggled to try to explain to able-bodied friends is the need to “perform” pain to be taken seriously by healthcare workers.

So I thought I’d do a thread on it...

#ChronicPain #NEISVoid #ChronicIllness

Pain is relative. So my 5/10 is not the same as anyone else’s 5/10. And, when you’re in chronic pain, your pain tolerance necessarily goes up so that you are not roaring and screaming in pain 24/7.

As well as that, pain is exhausting. If you’re in pain all the time, you can’t afford the energy to be screaming in pain 24/7. Sometimes you don’t even have the energy to grind your teeth or breath harder.

But why is that a problem...?

These are some of the pain scales that medical staff are taught to use during their training. So, even when not actively using these scales with a patient, the internal biases reinforced by these scales gives them unintended judgments that you have to look in pain to be in pain

As a result, unless you are crying/moaning/grimacing, healthcare professionals will assume that your pain can’t possibly be above a 5/10.

Which is an issue for chronic pain patients who often have to live their daily lives above a 5/10

Which means, if we hit crisis unmanageable levels of pain and need assistance, we have to perform pain to be taken seriously.

Not only do these healthcare biases encourage people to overdramatise (if not fake/exaggerate) their symptoms...

They also mean that many chronic pain patients are left to suffer (or are accused of seeking drugs) when they either don’t, or physically can’t, act in the way that healthcare professionals expect to observe them acting.

This is a researched occurrence, and there are plenty of studies available about the damage that these visual pain assessment scales do in chronic pain management environments. So, why are healthcare professionals not being warned of this & taught that chronic pain is different?

#Ableism in healthcare is a huge issue, even outside of this kind of scenario, and it really needs to be talked about and prevented.

#AbleismInHealthcare #AbleistDoctors #DisabilityJustice