Why insignificant tasks are monumental when you deal with chronic pain

A few weeks ago I was re-reading an old post of mine about loneliness with chronic illness when I read this line and it reminded me of how everything is consequential when you deal with chronic pain:

And you, your life depends on how bad the weather is that day, or how long it takes you to recover from standing in line at the DMV, or whether or not the doctor screwed up your prescription.

Even little things are a big deal when you deal with chronic pain

Reading this line was a reminder to me that things that are completely insignificant in the life of a healthy person can be a huge deal for someone living with chronic pain or chronic illness. These small things can be really annoying and inconvenient to deal with as a healthy person, but they aren’t devastating and they generally don’t have the potential to destroy a whole day.

Take the DMV for example. The DMV is literally hell on earth for most people. Everyone dreads it and it’s a huge inconvenience. When all our licenses come up for renewal we all send a silent prayer to whomever we believe in that we can just renew it online. But for people in pain, there’s a whole new element to the situation.

When I had to renew my license a few years ago I had to get up at the crack of dawn to avoid the lines. This left me exhausted for the rest of the day. I got there 30 minutes early (7:30 am) because I’d heard I’d spend the whole day in line if I didn’t. When I got there I realized that the line was OUTSIDE, in TEXAS, in AUGUST. I feel this qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment, but the state doesn’t agree.

This is torture for any healthy person, but for me it had extra complications. Not only was I tired from having to stand in line for an hour, my entire body was shaking from standing in the blinding sun. Not to mention that I was on antibiotics at the time and was supposed to avoid direct sunlight. How was I supposed to know going tot he DMV required sunscreen?

To a healthy person this would have been a huge inconvenience. To me, the person with chronic pain it was catastrophic.

Tasks healthy people take for granted

1. Cleaning, cooking, and having to deal with chronic pain

I wrote a whole post dedicated to cleaning with chronic illness for a reason. When your body isn’t functioning well cleaning is exhausting. I have a huge living room floor that I almost never mop because it’s drains me completely. It takes me a good 45 minutes to clean and then I’m pretty much done for the rest of the day. This is why people with chronic pain can sometimes have messy houses.

Cooking is an energy sucking task. Sometimes at the end of a long day, spending half an hour on my feet cooking for my family seems impossible. Click To Tweet

Cooking is another energy sucking task. As someone with chronic illness, eating healthy is very important. But since I do not have a chef all the cooking is on me. Sometimes at the end of a long day, spending half an hour on my feet cooking for my family seems impossible.

2. Weather changes how you deal with chronic pain

Where I live the weather yo-yos back and forth so fast you practically get whiplash. In the winter it can go from 80 to 30 degrees in one day, and then the next day go back up to 80 again. While this is inconvenient for healthy people (it wreaks havoc on allergies), it’s even harder when you live with pain. My pain levels are always higher when the weather does this. Heat and humidity also raise my pain levels significantly and many people with chronic pain struggle with winter and lower temperatures.

3. Showering and getting ready for the day

I often tell my husband that getting ready to go somewhere is worse than actually going somewhere. Although I’ve loosened up on my perfectionist standards of appearance since I got sick, there are still lots of social rules I feel obligated to follow. Just a few examples of the basic tasks that can be daunting to someone with chronic illness: showering, blow drying hair, putting on makeup, and wearing socially acceptable clothes that don’t make the pain worse. I know for a fact that people judge me for my appearance, but I don’t really have the energy to care.

4. Regular sickness

For healthy people getting a cold is miserable, for people with chronic illness it takes over your life for months. When you’re barely functioning as it is additional sickness can knock you out completely. When my kids get a cold they are a little sniffly for a few days, but when they’re nice enough to give it to me I’m out for weeks.

5. Driving or public transportation when you deal with chronic pain

Driving is a normal every day task that most people take for granted. When you have a chronic illness driving can be agonizing. If you are forced into an uncomfortable position it can cause vertigo if you suffer from it.

Public transportation can be a complete nightmare for someone with limited mobility. From wheelchair bays being filled by able bodied people, to a complete lack of elevators on the subway, public transportation actively puts up barriers for anyone with chronic illness or disability.

6. Going shopping

Very few people like going to the store, but for someone with chronic illness it’s exhausting. Not only does it involve getting ready it involves:

• parking and walking to the store
• walking around the store
• dealing with the bright lights
• bending over to get things from shelves
• carrying heavy groceries etc.

There are so many everyday things that present large obstacles to people in pain. Because of this those in pain are in need of understanding and support. Click To Tweet

There are so many everyday things that present large obstacles to people in pain. Because of this those in pain are in need of understanding and support. No one wants go cancel an event because they are too tired to get ready, but sometimes they have to.