Questioning the Validity of My Pain

Only all the time. My most common thought has become “I think I might collapse if I try to climb these stairs, but I don’t deserve to use the elevator reserved for disabled people…” I AM a disabled people!

I feel this way off and on lately. A friend told me it’s probably because I don’t have confidence in myself. I have to remind myself I am the only one who knows how I feel and I’m not exaggerating.

It’s a huge fear of mine. Whenever I bring it up around someone I am especially close to you, like a therapist or partner, they immediately tell me that I’m not exaggerating anything, and my pain is what I say it is.

for me, I think sometimes "imposter syndrome" can set in when other ppl as a group start to tell me that I'm "making it worse on myself" or like "it's not as bad as I think" -- like I could think myself out of it; and I think that my brain wishes that were true/I start to feel ashamed of myself for not "fitting in" and then I can think about myself as an imposter out of like depression/anxiety, and not because it's my experience yk? All of that is just to say that imposter syndrome can be pretty common, and it has a lot to do with ingrained ableism in our society / other ppl projecting incorrect opinions onto us. hope that helps :)

Sometimes, but rarely. The pain is very real to me. And everyone's level of pain tolerance is different. I went through birth unmedicated untill it became an emergency c section and I'd rather deal with that then what I've been feeling the last few months.