A Pained Life: It Never Hurts to Ask
/By Carol Levy, Columnist
Recently a documentary was released on Netflix about Lady Gaga. A part of her story is that she has fibromyalgia.
I have not seen the film, but understand she devotes a little time to detailing and showing how she deals with chronic pain, both physicially and emotionally. Articles and posts abound in chronic pain social media about the film and Lady Gaga's pain.
The odd thing is many of the writers start by complaining that people don’t understand their pain, why they have to take drugs, and why they can't do many things that seem so easy to everyone else.
Then, strangely, they do exactly what they complain happens to them. They express doubts about Lady Gaga’s diagnosis, wonder if she is malingering, and say she can't really have fibro because her level of suffering and disability is not the same as theirs.
It seems we in the chronic pain community want to have our cake and eat it, too. We want to have the discussion about chronic pain made public. We want awareness. But the awareness has to be exactly the way we want it or we don't want it at all
SCENE FROM "GAGA: FIVE FOOT TWO"
Many in the pain community express feelings that anything in the public eye that even hints of chronic pain should be about the person's struggles and life interruptions caused by pain. Lady Gaga is a case in point.
“She didn’t talk enough about fibro,” writes one person, others echoing the sentiment. “I thought from all the hype I heard it was going to be about that.”
It would have been terrific if Lady Gaga had devoted more time to her disease and its effects on her life, but then that really was not the point of the documentary.
“Some of the film may actually be hurtful to some of us, as it shows her being able to do very physical things that are often beyond many of us as we struggle with the pain. If you have watched her perform she is not a sedentary singer,” wrote one poster on social media.
Maybe it is worth asking her. Could you do something more, maybe another film or even just a commercial, that would bring needed attention to chronic pain and its effects on our lives?
Last month was Pain Awareness Month, and it went by with almost no awareness or notice at all. Lady Gaga might be the awareness hook that we need.
But we need to stop lamenting, hoping and complaining that no one is doing enough. It is past time to take the bull by the horns. We have to do it ourselves. As they say, if not now, when? If not us, who?
And who knows? If someone or a bunch of someones ask Lady Gaga or another celebrity to be our voice, they might actually respond. If we don't ask, we’ll never know if they want to help the pain community.
The worst they can say is no. And maybe, just maybe, we can get a “Yes.”
Carol Jay Levy has lived with trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic facial pain disorder, for over 30 years. She is the author of “A Pained Life, A Chronic Pain Journey.”
Carol is the moderator of the Facebook support group “Women in Pain Awareness.” Her blog “The Pained Life” can be found here.
The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represent the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.
