the color orange, and other things twisted by chronic illness

why i have beef with the phrase "it's all in your head"

dear doctors,

allow me

to explain

why it's so dangerous

to tell patients

their pain 

is 

"all in their head."

one,

if you're wrong

about your theory,

you will 

teach people

to ignore

their bodies

to push past

warning signs

of injury

of need for rest.

with one

vastly oversimplified phrase

you will untether 

their minds

from their bodies.

a connection

that can take years

to reestablish.

but the second reason -

and arguably  

the more important one -

is that,

even if you are right,

when you tell

people

that it's "all in their head"

without

also explaining

that the brain experiencing pain

is still something 

to pay attention to

to take care of

and that they aren't alone

that they're not crazy

that they're not a liar,

you risk the person 

disconnecting

from their mind

as well as their body.

trapped

in this false notion

that their pain

is not valid

just because

your narrow tests

or your narrower parameters for "real pain" 

showed nothing.

all pain is valid

and deserves to be heard.

it doesn't take

a medical degree

to at least

be human about it.