A life ruled by pain
Daily burden for sufferers
BRETT Parker was a gifted athlete and personal trainer before he was struck down by his “invisible illness”.
The 42-year-old has lived with chronic pain for almost 20 years, after a game of social tennis left him bedridden for two weeks.
Chronic Pain Australia will hold National Pain Week this week, aiming to bring together those living with chronic pain and health care professionals.
Brett is one of roughly five million Australians with chronic pain, which forced him to give up his work as a personal trainer and massage therapist and rely on others for day-to-day activities like grocery shopping.
“I get a lot of judgment from people, as I still look fit and healthy,” Brett said.
“When I’m at the shops with my mum and she’s carrying all the shopping … people shoot me some filthy looks.
“Having an invisible illness like mine can be very isolating. People can’t see my pain, and just assume that there’s nothing wrong with me, or that I’m just lazy.”
A Chronic Pain Australia survey — following a 2009 survey — found people with chronic pain faced increasing financial burden, decreasing access to medication and lim- ited options for alternative relief. The average medication spend in 2017 was $152 per month, the survey found.
In both surveys, the top three words used to describe living with chronic pain were “debilitating”, “frustrating” and “exhausting”.
“One in five Australians lives with chronic pain, and this figure increases sharply with age, to around one in three people over 65 years,” of Chronic Pain Australia president Dr Coralie Wales said.
“People living with chronic pain are often unable to work, meaning they are already at a financial disadvantage, and when you add in the financial cost of actually trying to live with chronic pain, people are really struggling.”
For more information on the issue visit nationalpain week.org.au