Any suggestions for dealing with assholes who don't believ you when you say you have chronic pain. A few years ago I broke my ankle and due to not being able to afford a doctor it healed wrong, and your ankle being fucked up is the kinda thing that then fucks up your knee and then fucks up your hip. So now I'm basically a pirate with a peg leg but its my real one it just don't fucking work. But I'm 18 so of course its impossible for me to have joint pain that hurts that bad! I could rant forever
Oh fam, if I had a nickel or dime for everyone who told me I was too young to have chronic pain, I wouldnāt have any medical debt ever again for the rest of my life. Unfortunately some folk are just always going to be assholes, and hereās the thing, you donāt have to wear yourself out justifying yourself to them.
You can try, you can inform them āI had an accident that caused some bones to heal wrong and now it causes chronic painā and if they say āoh but youāre too youngā, you can just reply āno, Iām notā and leave it at that. If they persist, you can either decide if you want to engage with them, or just tell them āthis is not an opinion up for debateā and remove yourself from the conversation.
It can be really hard with family, especially if youāre stuck living with them, but Iām at a point in my life where I wish I had spent less time when I was younger trying to justify myself to people who were trying to gaslight me, and instead cultivating friendships and found family among people who do respect me, and who do not try to negate my lived experiences based on their own narrow minded perception of the universe and how things ought to be.
You can also, if youād like, direct them to my blog, where I will state for the record right here right now: No One Is Too Young To Experience Chronic Pain. End of Discussion.
