Chronic illness & Chronic pain
In studies, they stress out animals by pinning them down. They get even more stressed out when they then get hurt.
Welcome to how most people experience the doctor or dentist.
When talking to a client about going to the dentist, they told me that a previous dentist had slammed their head against the chair when they wouldn’t hold still. No shit that they don’t like going to the dentist now.
my clients with chronic illness and/or chronic pain tell me stories like that all the time.
I wish I could pretend stories like that are rare.
Unfortunately, medical care often causes vicarious trauma to the providers. Handling it may involve completely disconnecting from the pain that they constantly witness. Which then means that they act like they don’t give a shit about your pain. Or they don’t care about causing you pain.
Feeling like your provider doesn’t care about your suffering sucks as the patient! Research shows that compassionate providers reduce pain, increase the speed of physical healing, lower blood pressure, and improve immune function.
People going through chronic pain counseling talk about how they wish they could just forget traumatic things that happened in the course of their care. Amnesia drugs have even been created and tested to see if they help prevent PTSD.
The problem with this is that your body remembers whether or not you do. Heel sticks are the most common way to draw blood from infants. Infants who had a stay in the NICU often go on to hate having their ankles and feet touched.
Surgeries- your body is not thrilled with being cut open or penetrated even if you don’t consciously remember the experience.
Stress impacts the body in a lot of ways. It shuts down unnecessary systems, such as digestion and reproduction. Which can also cause long-term issues in these systems if the stress goes on too long. If you are running from a tiger, your body doesn’t need to be making babies (code for having sex) or wasting energy on making poop. Your body heals when you relax and sleep. If you never relax, your body never heals properly. And you have no libido.
People with past trauma are more likely to have extended stress, which means they are more likely to have more medical issues. Especially autoimmune issues if they had interpersonal trauma. Two of the largest causes of inflammation in the body are shame and social rejection.
And it’s super easy to feel rejected when you have chronic illnesses. People don’t get what you are going through. You feel like you don’t have anything in common with them anymore.
They get annoyed that you have to cancel frequently. Or they can’t handle watching you suffer. They slowly drift away.
Chronic Pain is the worst.
Nobody thinks clearly or is thrilled about their existence when they are in pain.
If the pain is bad enough for long enough and your quality of life has suffered enough, suicide starts to feel like your best option. If we can’t talk openly about this, I can’t help you decide why continued living might be your best option.
It’s even worse when the medical system makes you feel like nobody is listening to you. You have to repeat yourself to every provider and they don’t remember anything you told them last time.
It can feel like nobody can help with chronic pain management as they refer you to different specialists. They focus solely on prolonging your life without considering the quality of your life.
They may even start to hint that it’s all in your head if they can’t find anything physically wrong. But I’ll give you one of my tips, it’s not all in your head. They just don’t know what to look for.
“The courage it took to get out of bed each morning to face the same things over and over was enormous.”
–Charles Bukowski
Medical appointments are weird because they cross bizarre consent lines. You have no choice but to consent to things that you actually don’t want. But you can’t say no when it’s your health. It’s not really consent because there are absolutely negative consequences if you don’t consent to the procedure or surgery or exam.
Especially in a society that doesn’t teach you that the medical provider works for you, you can say no, and you can request a different provider. But it’s exhausting to search for good providers, including a chronic illness therapist, who can actually help.
Even the ones who say they get it, don’t really get it. Or will make ableist comments about how you need to try harder.
Online chronic pain counseling in Colorado can help you feel less alone in these experiences. And give you a chance to share what it’s like for you, with someone who will listen and remember. We can identify ways to help make your medical care better. Including figuring out ways for you to advocate for yourself through the process.
Online Chronic Pain Counseling in Colorado
Online chronic illness therapy is just as effective as in person chronic pain therapy.
As a spoonie, you probably have to be careful where you spend your energy. Online therapy allows you to attend even on days you feel awful. You don’t have to worry about being in the car or stuck in traffic. You’ll have easy access to the things you use at home to manage your pain or illness. And no worrying about catching some illness at my office.
We can still use CBT and somatic therapy to help you. All you have to do is roll over and grab your phone or laptop.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation with Tia Young if you feel ready to start chronic illness therapy in Denver, CO.
read more about how I help people heal with trauma treatment.
Serving the Denver Metro Area, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Boulder, Grand Junction, Greeley, Pueblo and the entire state with online therapy in Colorado. I do not see clients at my home-based office located in Bailey, CO.
Online therapy Colorado • Therapist Denver • Somatic therapy • Traumatic childhood or ACES
Treatment post-traumatic stress disorder • Complex PTSD • Trauma therapist • Trauma therapy
Depression • Anxiety • Low self-esteem • Stages of grief • Domestic violence
Rape • Chronically ill • Chronic pain • Sound therapy • Attachment styles • CBT