Forging Ahead

Pain Awareness Month may be over but my Pain Activism & Education work continues —and I hope you will join me.I believe that catalyzing change is up to us, beginning with cultivating compassion and consideration for ourselves and our own pain. Without us coming together to "speak truth to power" discrimination and marginalization of people in pain and people with "invisible" disabilities will undoubtedly persist.As Zora Neale Hurston said, “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”New research supporting the genetic components of chronic pain continues to be released, as are studies widely documenting prejudices about people in pain (especially women, the poor, and black people). Yet, no matter how reputable and persuasive the research, it is only as powerful as what is done with it to affect outcomes.By increasing confidence through our individual understanding of pain we can begin to counter the rampant assumptions, negative biases and stigmas about people in pain and advocate for just treatment. Whether you experience chronic pain or not, we all need to "check" our assumptions and prejudices.Further your impact by:– Sharing this blog series via email, Facebook, and other social media. Print it out for a friend. Click here to access the whole series: Resources– Writing me with your feedback and/or posting a comment. I welcome your thoughts and input! Contact MeMy mission is to make accurate information accessible and provide tools to Unshame & Reclaim Pain.I look forward to sharing more resources to change the prejudices, pathologizing, and discrimination of people in pain.In community,Ma’ayan