chronic pain support Archives - Headache and Migraine News

chronic pain support

19 April 2019

The INvisible Project (video)

If you haven’t checked out the INvisible Project from the U.S. Pain Foundation, you’ll be surprised at the resources that are available. Videos, articles, and even a free online magazine with lots of practical tips, are all a part of the project.

Those with chronic pain will immediately understand the idea of “invisible” illness. Many of us have years of experience hiding our pain. But there comes a time to talk about it. The INvisible Project is especially a place where we can talk about it with one another.

Here’s how the website itself explains the goal of the project:

We strive to make visible the internal, often hidden challenges faced by those with chronic pain. We want to show what it’s like to live with pain—to thrive in spite of it. The project includes profiles of individuals, with photos of them on their best days… and in their darkest moments. Our goal: To show the reality of life with pain, and to offer hope and inspiration to the millions like us.
What Is the INvisible Project?

It might even encourage you to remember that there are many people suffering from chronic pain that isn’t headache – because it reminds us that there is an even larger group of people with similar, though different, struggles.

You can browse the website, but a couple of tips –

If you’re especially interested in migraine, you can do a search and find specific articles on the topic. For example, check out the story of The Lineberry Family.
You can read the INvisible Project magazine online for free. There are two issues dedicated to migraine, but there is a LOT of useful information in all the magazines.
You can share your own story here. (You are invited to share a photograph – I don’t see a place to upload one, but you can link to a photograph or video.)

To give you more of an idea what the INvisible Project is all about, check out this video, with many stories, including headache stories.

4 March 2008

Headache friendly communities?

James Tips 0

When you go to church, or to a synagogue, or any place where there’s a community of people that you would expect would be supportive, do you find it to be a welcoming place, or a headache sufferer’s nightmare? Is it easy to be a part of what’s going on, or are there barriers? Recently Rest Ministries asked people with chronic illness how their churches specifically could do a better job. They got 8000+ answers, and recently posted the top 20. Many of these will apply to any kind of community of faith or support group. For example:

Send encouragement emails
Ask volunteers to call people with chronic illness just to check on them when they don’t make it to services.
Offer me ways to serve within the church that can be performed regularly, but not on a set schedule. I still want to contribute, but I need some flexibility so that I can do a job when I feel well enough to do so.
Just talk about chronic illness! Mention it in sermons as one of the challenges many people face just like unemployment.
Have Christian volunteers from church that will clean house for small fee. Some have offered to clean my house, but I cannot accept charity yet, but neither can I afford to pay a regular house cleaning service.
Help even a fraction with the cost of encouraging books and resources for the church library for the chronically ill.

What would you suggest for the community you’re involved in? How could they pull down barriers and even help you with your migraine and/or headache complicated life?

Read the full list at Chronic Illness and Pain Support.