N.S. woman with fibromyalgia hopes to educate others about living with chronic pain

LIving well with chronic pain We get the details on an upcoming virtual workshop series for those living with chronic pain.

Many people in Atlantic Canada live with chronic pain. In Nova Scotia alone, approximately 185,000 people are affected, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Amber Chinn, a 24-year-old university student in Halifax, was diagnosed with fibromyalgia -- a widespread pain condition -- three years ago.

“When I was diagnosed, there was some relief because at least I knew a little bit about what was happening to me, but then that relief quickly went away because I was looking at a lifetime of pain because there’s no cure for fibromyalgia,” she said during an interview with CTV Morning Live Atlantic.

Chinn adds there’s “not a lot” of support in Nova Scotia for the condition. She’s currently on a two-year waitlist for a Halifax pain clinic.

In the meantime, she’s co-facilitating an upcoming free virtual workshop series called “Living Well with Chronic Pain.”

“A lot of my navigation of my experience has been on my own, which has been really isolating,” she says. “That’s inspired me to create these workshops and this peer support group that we have going on, to hopefully reach out to other people and let them know that they’re not alone in this experience. It’s very common in Nova Scotia.”

Chinn says some people aren’t even aware of the differences between chronic and regular pain.

“Regular pain is usually temporary, it’s short-term, it goes away usually with some treatment. But chronic pain lasts normally longer than six months and it may or may not go away with treatment,” she says. “So some people are looking at a lifetime of dealing with chronic pain. And a lot of us think of like fibromyalgia or a workplace injury, but it also includes things like endometritis or arthritis or multiple sclerosis – all of these are different examples of chronic pain that people are living with.”

And chronic pain is more than just physical. Chinn says it affects “every aspect” of peoples’ lives and identity.

“It causes big shifts in your physical, in your social, emotional, mental, spiritual life and all of these changes are huge and filled with uncertainty. They change your whole trajectory. And this impact between the mental health and the physical health can make the pain worse, so having stress or worrying can make your pain a lot worse than it is.”

She adds that not everyone knows of that connection between mental health and chronic pain.

“And so being aware of that connection can really help people, so getting more information, finding some supports in the community and learning to advocate yourself – these are all really important to this experience of chronic pain,” she says. “And that’s what we’ll be talking about in the workshops that we have coming up.”

The “Living Well with Chronic Pain” workshop is a four-part series that will be held once a week from Feb. 15 until March 8.

While people can register for individual workshops, Chinn encourages people to attend them all.

“To get the full benefits and all the information … we have a session on general information, one on advocacy and resources, one on how to understand this new experience of chronic pain and then we have one about revaluing and the importance of identity and reformation of identity at the end.”

People can register for the workshops online.