Why is chronic Pain, a medical issue, relegated to the mental?
I, and my chronic pain brethren, have a disease of the body. We may, and usually do, become psychologically distressed as a result of the constant or near constant severe bodily pain. As my neuroopthalmologist put it, "She is becoming psychologically victimized by her pain."

Yes, some people do have physical pain as a symptom of their psychological/psychiatric distress. And having a physical chronic pain disorder does not negate a concomitant mental illness or symptoms and problems. They are not the ones I write about now.

Doctors and people in our lives don't believe us. Or maybe they just don't want to believe a loved one could have such pain. "Oh, your pain isn't that bad. It's all in your head anyway."

As someone with trigeminal neuralgia, a debilitating facial pain disorder (Mitchell Reiff has nicely described it elsewhere on this site) I spent years being told it was psychological, even after the birth defect that caused it was seen during brain surgeries.

It took me a very long time before I realized my pain "was all in my head." It was. It was in my brain.

Chronic pain is NOT a psychological disorder or mental health issue.

It may be invisible but to those of us who suffer from it, our mental pain is increased when we see it named as such.

Learn more about this author, Carol Levy.
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