{"quotes":[{"text":"Deepening awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of one’s thoughts fosters a new relationship with them, creating the space to purposefully shift mental focus away from the ruminative thought patterns that pave the road to suffering.","author":"Dan Mager","tags":["addiction-recovery","chronic-pain","mindfulness-practice","spiritual-development"],"id":52284,"author_id":"Dan+Mager"},{"text":"I will be living with chronic pain for the rest of my life. I don’t have the mobility, energy or life options I used to have. I work hard to manage the pain, and I want the medical system to be a respectful and effective partner, not a jailer. The opioid crisis is not my doing.","author":"Sonya Huber","tags":["addiction","chronic-illness","chronic-pain","chronic-pain-stigma","judgemental-people","opioid-use","opioids","pain-killer-pills","pain-management","painkillers","stigmatization","stigmatized"],"id":60988,"author_id":"Sonya+Huber"},{"text":"The video was still playing, although I didn't know why. It seemed as if the able-bodied dancers were mocking me.","author":"Sarah Todd Hammer","tags":["chronic-illness","chronic-pain","dance","disability","fatigue","inspirational","invisible-illness","motivational","myelitis","neuropathy","paralysis","rare-disease","run","sci","spinal-cord-injury","tm","transverse-myelitis"],"id":65805,"author_id":"Sarah+Todd+Hammer"},{"text":"Too much profit is being made at the expense of unsuspecting patients.","author":"Melissa Cady","tags":["business","chronic-pain","medicine","patients","profit"],"id":75798,"author_id":"Melissa+Cady"},{"text":"If I only could explain How much I miss that precious moment when I was free from the shackles of chronic pain.","author":"Jenni Johanna Toivonen","tags":["chronic-illness","chronic-pain","crps","life-philosophy","thoughts-on-life","words-to-ponder"],"id":76242,"author_id":"Jenni+Johanna+Toivonen"},{"text":"Mental illness People assume you aren’t sick unless they see the sickness on your skin like scars forming a map of all the ways you’re hurting. My heart is a prison of Have you tried?S Have you tried exercising? Have you tried eating better? Have you tried not being sad, not being sick? Have you tried being more like me? Have you tried shutting up? Yes, I have tried. Yes, I am still trying, and yes, I am still sick. Sometimes monsters are invisible, and sometimes demons attack you from the inside. Just because you cannot see the claws and the teeth does not mean they aren’t ripping through me. Pain does not need to be seen to be felt. Telling me there is no problem won’t solve the problem. This is not how miracles are born. This is not how sickness works.","author":"Emm Roy","tags":["chronic-illness","chronic-pain","emotional-pain","invisible-illness","mental-disorder","mental-health","mental-illness","misunderstood","pain","poem","prejudice","stigma"],"id":113408,"author_id":"Emm+Roy"},{"text":"Healing severe or chronic pain, I believe, includes transforming our relationship to the pain, and, ultimately, it is about transforming our relationship to who we are and to life.","author":"Sarah Anne Shockley","tags":["chronic-pain","disability","healing","pain","pain-management"],"id":118472,"author_id":"Sarah+Anne+Shockley"},{"text":"My name is CRPS, or so they say But I actually go by; a few different names. I was once called causalgia, nearly 150 years ago And then I had a new name It was RSD, apparently so. I went by that name because the burn lived inside of me.Now I am called CRPS, because I have so much to say I struggle to be free. I don't have one symptom and this is where I change, I attack the home of where I live; with shooting/burning pains. Depression fills the mind of the body I belong, it starts to speak harsh to self, negativity growing strong.Then I start to annoy them; with the issues with sensitivity, You'd think the pain enough; but no, it wants to make you aware of its trembling disability. I silently make my move; but the screams are loud and clear, Because I enter your physical reality and you can't disappear. I confuse your thoughts; I contain apart of your memory, I cover your perspective, the fog makes it sometimes unbearable to see. I play with your temperature levels, I make you nervous all the time - I take away your independance and take away your pride.I stay with you by the day \u0026 I remind you by the night, I am an awful journey and you will struggle with this fight. Then there's a side to me; not many understand, I have the ability to heal and you can be my friend. Help yourself find the strength to fight me with all you have, because eventually I'll get tired of making you grow mad. It will take some time; remember I mainly live inside your brain,Curing me is hard work but I promise you, You can beat me if you feed love to my pain. Find the strength to carry on and feed the fears with light; hold on to the seat because, like I said, it's going to be a fight. But I hope to meet you, when your healthy and healed, \u0026 you will silenty say to me - I did this, I am cured is this real? That day could possibly come; closer than I want- After all I am a disease and I'm fighting for my spot. I won't deny from my medical angle, I am close to losing the ' incurable ' battle.","author":"Nikki Rowe","tags":["awareness","chronic-illness","chronic-pain","chronically-fabulous","complex-regional-pain-syndrome","courage","crps","crps-awareness","crps-poem","cure-crps","depression","find-a-cure","heal-yourself","healer","hope","invisible-illness-powerful","light-worker","never-give-up","positivity","powerful","prom","rsd","spiritual","strength"],"id":118646,"author_id":"Nikki+Rowe"},{"text":"Few things a doctor does are more important than relieving pain. . . Pain is soul destroying. No patient should have to endure intense pain unnecessarily. The quality of mercy is essential to the practice of medicine; here, of all places, it should not be strained.","author":"Marcia Angell","tags":["chronic-pain","mercy","wisdom"],"id":142867,"author_id":"Marcia+Angell"},{"text":"A common misconception is that some people are only in pain because they are weak, anxious, depressed, or do not deal well with stress. This is not correct.Every experience you have — touch, warmth, itch, pain — is created by the brain and thus is all in your head, but it does not mean they are not real.Things like fear, anxiety, or depression can increase pain levels and can increase the chance of persistent pain. But often, these feelings only develop after a person already has chronic pain.","author":"Tasha Stanton","tags":["all-in-your-head","chronic-pain","chronic-pain-stigma","pain"],"id":146264,"author_id":"Tasha+Stanton"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":25,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}