Holding onto Hope was the title of a very powerful speech that I listened to last night. I wish I could have written down more of what she, but I can only clearly remember the part near the end: “Hope doesn’t make things easy, it makes things possible”.
If you don’t believe that you can get to the top of the mountain, if you have lost all hope of every getting to your destination, you will never fully try. Losing hope is a downfall of so many people that live with chronic pain, whether it’s Fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease, Degenerative Disc Disorder, Arthritis, Neuropathy, Central Pain Syndrome, or any of the dozens of other things that can cause chronic pain. People who have dealt with, been beaten down by, or have started surrendering to their chronic pain, slowly start to lose their hope.
I provide a lot of suggestions, information and education to people for ways to manage their chronic pain, but they are in the same boat that I was: “Forget it; it isn’t going to help anyway”. It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t experienced it, how devastating it can be each and every time you get your hopes up that some new idea will work for you only to find out that it was another false hope. When trying new therapies, there are generally four possible outcomes.
- It does nothing at all
- It helps for a little bit, then things go back to where they started
- It helps for a little bit, then things go back to worse than where they started
- It makes things worse
So many people that cope with chronic pain are tired. They are tired of spending money on things that didn’t help. They are tired of having Lucy yank away the football that they were so positive they would be able to kick this time. When you have something that you really want to be successful, and then it doesn’t work, that realization can be crushing.
People with chronic pain have been conditioned to believe that there’s nothing left worth trying. This is not a good thing. I understand tempering your expectations, but you can’t just give up. Keep trying. What works for one person might not work for the next, but somewhere there is something that will help. I believe that with every painful fiber of my being.
I think part of the reason it is so tricky, is that since chronic pain is so complex, there probably isn’t “one thing” that will fix it for anyone. A complex problem requires a complex solution. Attack the enemy from every angle.
My personal attack on pain involves going at it from a minimum of 4 different directions. And it has helped. A lot. I am much better than I was 5 months ago, when I reached my worst pain levels. I am mending. I am adjusting my battle plan. I am holding onto hope.
Hopeful that someday I won’t have to think about pain. Hopeful that someday I won’t have to plan ahead for pain. Hopeful I will find a way to get my body to listen to me, instead of the other way around.
I am getting there. Will you come with me on this journey?
Don’t let chronic pain determine your life. Decide where you want to be and how you want to feel, and never stop working towards it.
I’ll get more into what works for me later. Feel free to share what works for you.
Hold on to Hope. Don’t let it slip away. We are more than our pain.
We can do this! Don’t let go of hope. Hold my hand (gently), and don’t let go of that either. We will travel this path together. We will walk when we can, crawl when we must, and lean on each other for support when it’s needed. Hold on to Hope and let’s do this.
Fighting Chronic Pain 