Traversing the Interior Land of Chronic Pain

Creative Nonfiction is narrative nonfiction, literary journalism. The genre mines truth beyond traditional journalism’s limitations, using the descriptive literary tools of fiction such as timing, mood, and setting. This project is an undergraduate work-in-progress of Creative Nonfiction, intended for publication. While pain can warn us of dangerous temperatures or injuries, chronic pain is “ongoing or recurrent pain, lasting beyond the usual course of acute illness or injury or more than three to six months” (American Chronic Pain Association). A 2011 congressionally mandated report said 100 million American adults are chronic pain sufferers, with medical care and lost productivity costs estimated at $635 billion annually (“Relieving Pain”). The Decade of Pain Control and Research (2000 -2010) ended with unresolved questions not only about the nature of pain, but also the mental and emotional response (Boswell) to assaults upon the human body, from muscles and bones, to nervous and immune systems. There are increasing calls for a paradigm shift, to view this debilitating condition not as a secondary problem, a symptom related to disease or injury, but as a primary diagnosis requiring its own treatment approach (Pain Research Forum). This focus is essential for “physical, psychological, and social well -being” (Clark). As the medical community examines pain and effective strategies, the vast territory of the sufferer’s personal chronic pain journey remains unexplored in a meaningful contextual framework; the missing voice in the pursuit for answers. This multi -disciplinary narrative traverses subjective interpretations of inner landscapes (important components to pain management): emotions, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts