Why Still Pain?

My struggles with chronic pain and illness started at a young age. Early childhood in fact.

Back then, there was no internet, no support outside family members and the family’s doctor. And if you were unlucky to have an unsupportive family or doctor, you were very much alone.

As a kid, that was very hard.

You couldn’t easily find out about your illnesses, treatment options were not readily explained.

Usually, you were given an antibiotic, or told it’s “in your head” and to “just deal with it”, and sent away from the doctors.

I had to learn how to get myself through each day, manage my own chronic pain through my school life, and eventually stand up for my rights as both a patient and a person, deserving of treatment.

The age of easy information

These days, it’s so easy to find information about illnesses and diseases.

Too easy perhaps.

It’s too easy to catastrophize and believe you have the worst possible case.

This is componded with the rise of AI tools and AI search, which often hallucinates and agrees with its users, cementing wrong beliefs. The misinformation on the web and in LLM tools like ChatGPT, Claude, etc. may be useless or it may be very dangerous.

There is far too much misinformation around poor health, websites and influences hawking dodgy treatments and medications, promising miracle cures and diets that just cost money and don’t work. In the worst case, the medications are fatal.

Unfortunately, thinking critically and scientifically is not common, and becoming less so with the popularity of AI tools and social media, so these dodgy information sellers can make their fortunes.

I want to help

Although I do not have a medical degree, I hope to provide others with a sensible, researched and experienced viewpoint.

I’ve been through (and am going through) these illnesses, treatments and therapies.

I’m still trying different things, learning more about my conditions.

And I hope I can help and support you!

This site will contain information about the illnesses and chronic problems I face, treatments and therapies I have tried (whether they worked or failed), and current research findings.

I’ll share my own daily struggles and triumphs, and you can know you aren’t alone.

Sometimes I will link to products I have used and love. I hope you also find them useful.

Still - an appropriate word

Still can mean quiet, peaceful, as well as ongoing and not finished yet.

It’s the perfect word to describe people who are learning to live with chronic illness and chronic pain.

That’s why I bought the stillpain.com domain, and hosted the original blog there. It’s now becoming integrated in my main site at learnedwords.com. There is no point separating my ill health from my work life as it has such an impact on how and when I work and in which fields I specialise in writing, editing and translation.