Chronic pain and grief

Today yet another patient told me that I was the first person in their journey through chronic pain that talked about the necessary grieving process.

What the hell is wrong with our culture?

We can't admit to ourselves that we LOST something. When a person becomes chronically ill or in chronic pain they lose a lot. They lose the life they had, they lose the life they thought they were going to have. And that's just the minimum of what they lose. Often they lose their job, their identity, their means of stress relief, their partnership and often their self respect.

Grieving these things is necessary in order to move on and forward. In Chinese medicine unprocessed grief can lead to a deficiency of the lungs and large intestine. You could see skin problems, lowered immune system, fatigue with little exertion and more.

If you have someone in your life that has lost something that maybe intangible, make sure you let them know it's ok to grieve, hold space for them to do that, don't make it about you or trying to help them get back on their feet, just listen and be with it. There's nothing to fix, nothing to do. It only takes awareness, a breath and some space