Living With Chronic Pain – Spiritual Fitness – Q&A – How To Develop Socially With Pain?
Q: I guess one question I have is how did you go about rebuilding your social life when you lost
friends because of chronic pain?
A: Regarding the development of new friendships, I never imposed my physical/emotional hardships upon the people in which I engaged. It seemed as if most people already knew of my story, so it was pointless to dwell on my own personal challenges. Basically, I always focused the attention on things that were uplifting for others, regardless of how I felt.
I think part of the equation for starting new friendships involves just that, starting…Most people will not understand your chronic pain scenario nor do they really want to get involved with your additional hardships. Personally, I recommend that you look at social networking differently, probably less religiously since I found the religious more discriminatory against those who live with pain as compared with others.
In your quest to begin some newfound friendships, start out slowly, but courageously…It’s going to take faith and huge risks of being rejected. And since you have a history of abuse and painful affliction already, additional pain like rejection might seem like too much to handle. But the truth is; you can. Start out by talking with people, in general. Then develop commonality. I think you’ll be surprised that you’ll see other interests develop within yourself which are separate from the drama of chronic pain…
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