The pain of being unproductive

Chronic pain conditions cost our economy a lot in unproductive work hours but there is also a personal cost to individuals coping with chronic pain conditions. It is not surprising that many people with a chronic pain condition also suffer from depression and for many one source of this depression is down to the struggle of not being able to be productive. A feeling of letting people down as they are unable to commit to events, regularly cancelling meetings or having to take sick leave.

Many sufferers of chronic pain are visibly healthy looking on the outside and their struggles are not immediately visible. Take migraineurs. You can't see a headache and many people are very adept at managing their day with just a headache. But migraines are not just headaches. Migraines are made up of many painful symptoms including photo, audio and touch sensitivity as the nervous system becomes hypersensitive, nausea, vertigo and so forth. For a migraineur having to manage this painful onslaught, the additional pain of feeling like half a person for some sufferers can be very difficult indeed.

I'm a very driven person. I like process and routine and I love to be active and achieve in life. But when a migraine attack comes I can lose days. And I hate it. Curled up in bed in the dark with no tv or radio and wearing sunglasses with the lights off is as painful to deal with as the screaming pain wracking my body. I want to be at work contributing like everyone else, I want to go run my Brownie unit but what I don't want is to have to lie as still as possible in silence all day. For me it is the most frustrating thing in the world. I let people down as a result. Perhaps this is why on my good days I overcompensate on being productive!

I'm lucky that my family, friends, colleagues and current work understand but not everyone with a chronic pain condition is as lucky. I'd love to hear your experiences as its good to share. Good and bad we can all help and learn from each other to recognise that whilst we often have unproductive days we have good days too where we achieve so much. From as simple as making our kids smile or laugh to gaining an award or qualification or just a well done and thank you for a great piece of work.