Routinely encountering these kinds of pain changes our relationships, our goals in life, our bodies and our brains. It compromises our ability to love being alive, to enjoy sex, to make and keep friends, to live up to our fullest potential. We try to make the best of things, only to have our resilience held against us by the people around us. If things are as bad as you say they are, then how can you possibly work, go to school, travel, make art? But when we complain, we are dramatic attention-seekers or self-absorbed narcissists. For so many people and for so many reasons, chronic pain
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