chronically-aware

[chronically-aware]

People often ask, "On a scale from 0 to 10, how bad is the pain? 0 is no pain, 10 is the worst pain you've ever felt."

But when you have chronic pain, your "0", your base line, it's usually around 3 or 4. Personally, my base line is 5.

The thing with numbers is everyone has a diffent thought process on how they decide what number they are, because everyone has experienced diffrent levels of pain, so I made this scale to show people how mine works.

If 10 is the worst pain I've ever felt, well then, it will change every time I feel new pains that are the worst, so I put a set in place description for each number instead. If I'm at a 10, I'm in the emergency room.

I don't say 10, though. Even when I'm in the emergency room, I won't say 10, because I've been conditioned not to, because there will always be worse pain, and if I can tell someone I'm at a 10 then is it really a 10?

It's an ableist way of thinking. I know that, and I discourage others from thinking that way, but it's hard when it's yourself.

So here I am, encouraging you to be kind to yourself and use the pain scale above to show others who won't listen. Your pain is valid, and you should have a way to describe how much pain you're in, so here you go.

[chronically-aware]

Hello! I'm Jade, and this is my page dedicated to awareness about Ehlers-Danlos-Syndrome, Vocal-Cord-Dysfunction, Migraines, and Postural-Orthostatic-Tachycardia-Syndrome. These are all conditions I have, hence why the page is called 'Personal-Awareness'. I hope this page ends up being helpful to others with the same conditions. I'll be do a deep dive into these conditions, both to inform myself about what's going on with these conditions and how they work and to inform others.