Why the Stigma of Chronic Pain Remains
Attempts to challenge the stigma of chronic pain often fail. Despite arguments from providers and patients alike, stigma remains a persistent problem.
How Stigma Prevents Self-Management
We tend to stigmatize pain because we misunderstand its nature. Specifically, we fail to acknowledge the role that the nervous system plays in producing the experience of pain. If we more fully appreciated this role, we would understand that chronic pain is similar to other health conditions that we don’t stigmatize much, such as high hypertension (i.e., high blood pressure) or type II diabetes.
Overcome Social Stigma of Chronic Pain
The Institute for Chronic Pain website has a new article on the social stigma of chronic pain. It explains the nature of social stigma and challenges both providers and patients to take the difficult steps to overcome it.
If it challenges and inspires you, please share it with your network.
Click here to read it.
Author: Murray J. McAllister, PsyD
Date of last modification: 10-26-2013
On the Stigma of Living with Chronic Pain
Let’s talk about something that is hard to talk about. It’s the issue of stigma. It’s a sensitive topic.