I am Hazel. I experience chronic pain. I have conducted research to extend our understanding of chronic pain. I live a full life. Most hours I am in pain. Sometimes I suffer, most of the time I don’t. I am a wife, a daughter, a friend.

Pinches of pain is starting out as a place for me to share my thoughts about my chronic pain, about our scientific understanding of chronic pain, and about how I and other people with chronic pain live in this world.

Some of the pinches will be short, some long. Sometimes they will be released weekly, sometimes irregularly.

I’m also going to share resources I have both found helpful in my pain management and that are consistent with our current understanding of what pain is.

For a long time I found it easier to never talk about my pain, to not share that part of my life. I ended up completely unable to manage my pain. A lot of things happened, that I’ll share in some of my pinches. I learnt that sharing my pain experience didn’t make me weak, it made my relationships richer and managing my pain a hell of a lot easier.

Pinches of pain is the next step in me sharing my pain. I am now comfortable sharing my pain with my family, old friends, new friends, and colleagues. I hope sharing my pain and linking my experiences to the science of pain could be useful to other people experiencing pain and the people supporting them. I hope sharing my life and science will make chronic pain a little less invisible.