The thing with chronic pain is that it's very difficult to quantify. I have small fibre neuropathy (nerve damage) in my arms and legs, and when it first starte

The thing with chronic pain is that it's very difficult to quantify. I have small fibre neuropathy (nerve damage) in my arms and legs, and when it first started I thought I was going to go crazy - I just couldn't stand that amount of pain, constantly. I cried a lot, I begged doctors to make it go away, I went to the ER. The fact is you can't stay like that forever - you either kill yourself, or you somehow learn to live with it. You don't get used to chronic pain, but you adjust to a new "normal" level of pain. You develop coping mechanisms and learn to "bury it", get on with it as best you can. If you're lucky, you find some medication that actually helps somewhat. You research your condition and possible remedies, a lot. All of this isn't to say it gets easy, believe me it fecking well does not. A lot of people (doctors included) don't seem to believe that you can be in severe pain, while sitting and conversing with them - "he seems fine to me!". I'll add as well that I'm one of the "lucky" ones for whom a diagnostic test (skin biopsy) has shown concrete evidence that doctors believe in - without that, you'll get nothing but platitudes and shown the door. You'll probably also get told you have fibromyalgia, even if you don't remotely fit the criteria. I know this firsthand, because I have had to research and guide clueless doctors and insist on tests, and insist on re-tests when they've messed up.