I came across Jennifer Martin’s article, The 7 Psychological Stages of Chronic Pain, on a particularly bad day. After a couple promising streaks of good days this summer, I have fallen into a solid three weeks string of bad migraine days. I haven’t seen any of my friends, I canceled a freelance job, I canceled my vacation plans; in short, I’ve become a migraine hermit in my dark cave glued to my ice packs.
Anyone with chronic pain knows that pain has cumulative effects on your body and soul. Day after day of pain can wears you down physically and emotionally. The emotional roller coaster that chronic pain patients experience can be just as difficult to manage and just as exhausting as the pain itself.
My personal roller coaster brings me to Stage 4: Depression and Anxiety every time I have a migraine for longer than 72 hours. A point in Jennifer Martin’s article really resonates with me, and I want to shout it from the rooftops for all of my fellow chronic pain sufferers to hear:
“It is important to understand that this depression is not a sign of mental illness. It is the appropriate response to a loss or a life-altering situation.”
– Jennifer Martin, PsyD
Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with experiencing depression as a mental illness. I have struggled with it as have many others with chronic illness. BUT experiencing depression with chronic pain is a completely normal and healthy part of the grieving process. Chronic pain transforms our lives so completely and takes so much from us – careers, relationships, hobbies, vibrancy – that it is only natural that we grieve what we have lost.
Today, my grief is taking the form of tears. On most days I look to audiobooks or Netflix to distract me from my grief, but not today. Thinking positively is not going to make this migraine go away, so I am giving myself permission to cry and cry and cry. I’ve earned it.