How can stigma affect your individual pain experience? How do you deal with stigma? This video will provide you with some insight into the relationship between stigma and pain.
If you have experienced pain, you are not alone- 8 million people in Canada live with chronic pain.
Here is a link to the Resource Map if you would like to connect to pain societies and groups for support.
If you have experienced pain, you may have also experienced stigma and judgement from those around you. Stigma can impact your mental health by causing you to feel hurt, angry, misunderstood and isolated. You may feel like others cannot see your pain on the outside, as if it is invisible, making it hard for them to support you.
Recommendations and Words of Encouragement
- Get the pain treatment that you need
- Don’t believe the stigmatizing words or actions of others. Take yourself seriously
- Don’t hide away or isolate yourself
- Connect with others and build a support system
- You are not your illness
- It’s not personal. What others say about you is not an accurate reflection of who you are.
Watch this video to hear more about a physician’s perspective on stigma regarding chronic pain and against people who request opioids for pain.