Our pain tolerance:

Living with chronic pain means pain patients develop a much higher tolerance for pain.

We tough it out day & night, every single day.

Certainly with EDS, we are born with it. We don't know anything else but being in constant agonizing pain. We suffer from intense pain ALL the time. We don't get a break from the pain. We can't get a break from it, EDS is a genetic mutation that were born with. This means we ALWAYS have pain. We adjust to ever changing levels of pain, every day of our lives.

I can function on days with excrutiating levels of pain, that would leave most people screaming.

Due to this fact, we mostly appear normal. When we say were at a pain level off the usual 1-10 (used by Paramedics) scale, yet we appear mostly normal, it'd be hard for others to believe us.

I wouldn't wish EDS on anybody. But sometimes your in a situation where you wish others could experience just the pain part, for a short time. Just so they'd actually believe you & understand a bit more.

Daily meds take the edge off a smidge. Help us function a bit more during the day. But when they've worn off, it's ABSOLUTE HELL. For me, as an EDS3 sufferer: From about 6:30pm-9:30am when my meds have worn off or not yet kicking in, the pain is TRULY unbearable. It's like this for me EVERY NIGHT. Just turning onto my right side at night (for example), drains me, get's me out of breath for several minutes at least, is AGONY on the legs & shoulder etc... It often feels like I have an adult Elephant standing on my chest, making it hard & painful to breathe. My entire right leg is AGONY, every tiny movement is absolute torture. But as I live alone, through choice, no one else sees that side of it. All this results in more anxiety, depression etc...

Pain changes a person in so many ways. When that pain is ALL THE TIME, NO break, it can truly destroy us mentally etc...