Different ways to see pain, even when your condition is invisible
Can you see pain?
It’s a tricky question! Pain is such a complex and subjective experience, and the word “pain” covers a whole host of very different experiences. It gets even more complicated when you’re talking about chronic pain or illness. It’s not like a bruise or a broken bone that you can easily point to and say, “Yep, that’s where and why it hurts!”
That doesn’t make the pain any less real, though.
Pain doesn’t always present itself visibly, and some individuals may mask their discomfort due to social expectations or personal stoicism. This is where other perspectives become crucial in developing a fuller understanding of how to see pain.
Let’s look at the different ways to see not just acute pain but chronic pain, invisible disabilities or even mental health struggles. You can see pain through a person’s actions and affect, by representing that pain in art, or by using technology to visualize what’s happening to a body in pain.
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