Injustice and pain

[pain_researcher]

Hi everyone, I'm an NHS based Trainee Clinical Psychologist with an interest in chronic pain.

I am running an online study as part of my training targeted at those living with chronic pain following an accident or injury.

My study aims to better understand how injustice and unfair treatment may increase a person's risk of experiencing pain more intensely.

In my experience, people living with chronic pain often feel that professionals have not fully understood them. I am a firm believer that getting the right help firstly involves working with someone who is highly compassionate and fully invested in getting to know you better. Do you agree?

The results from the study will be published in a major pain management journal that will help better inform pain management treatment. All your responses will be fully anonymous and you will not be asked to provide any personally identifiable information.

If you want to participate you can access the study via the link below, it should only take around 10-15 minutes of your time:

teesside.onlinesurveys.ac.u...

Regardless of whether you would like to participate or not, I would love to open up a discussion here about whether injustice and unfair treatment has been a common experience throughout your journey so far?

It would be nice to hear your experiences and we can all offer some support!

Warm wishes,

Craig

[Cloughy71]

Hi there. By "Injustice" do you mean, for example, the belittling and humiliation as experienced by many chronic pain sufferers when encountering a GP or other health professional?

[pain_researcher in reply to Cloughy71]

Injustice in the context of pain is often referred to as i) believing that someone else is to blame for their condition ii) experiencing unfair treatment and iii) experiencing irreparable or irreversible loss.

If someone feels that they have been unfairly treated by a health professional then that would likely contribute to them believing that they have been the victim of 'injustice'.

It also cover many other things though, here are some examples:

1) someone experiencing severe pain may have lost their job because they are no longer able to perform their role. They may believe that injustice has occurred on part of their employer if they did not support or help them.

2) Someone might have experienced an injury that was caused by another person or organisation; this might lead to feeling that another person is to blame and that they have been unfairly treated.

3) An individual might experience a lack of empathy or appreciation of their condition not only from a professional, but from their family, partner or friends.

4) Someone might feel it is unfair that they are now no longer able to do the things they could previously do; this may be particularly strong if there is little chance of ever being able to do these things again.

The important thing is that injustice is a very individual experience, some people might experience an injury that could be someone else's fault, but may or may not believe that it is 'unfair'. For example, maybe they believe that it is simply unfortunate or that they were 'unlucky'.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks for engaging in this post and let me know if you have anymore questions.

Best wishes,

Craig