Hi mandi! A very nice piece you wrote. So sorry that you are suffering from this beast and lack the support you should have. I am very fortunate and thankful that my husband is very supportive. He has seen the changes in me and witnesses the daily pain and struggles I have. Thankfully he sees it and doesn't turn a blind eye. Not everyone in my life is like him. I have lost friends and had to stop working at the end of 2012. My employer did not see the struggling, I tried my best to hide it and what they saw they ignored, they were pretty much jerks about it all. We all have dealt with the stigma "if you can't see it then its not there". Some of the folks in my life understood a little better when I showed them the McGill Pain Index. One of my sisters really didn't get it until I had this crying conversation with her.

I hope you can somehow get your significant other to come around and understand better. You know you will always have love and support here, because we all get it!!!

All the best,
Nanc

Most pain in life can be pushed through, can be used as motivation. There are some conditions where the pushing through doesn't have an end, we can only avoid or push in to it. Those that do not experience an unending expanse of pain will almost always have an extremely difficult time understanding. I say allow them their ignorance, for that which we are speaking is a nightmare.