Because it is National Pain Week in Australia, I want to share my reflections as a professional living with chronic pain for more than two decades. My experience is shaped by multiple conditions including autoimmune diseases, migraines and cluster headaches. Together, these conditions weave a continuous, intricate web of pain that I must navigate while managing the everyday responsibilities of a modern, working adult.
I am always in some form of musculoskeletal pain. It is an all-encompassing ache that runs deep within my bones and sinew, impossible to silence. It comes paired with a fatigue that no amount of rest can ever satisfy. Simple daily tasks like brushing my teeth or getting out of bed can trigger a significant escalation in this pain. Yet, like millions of Australians living with chronic pain, I must grin and bear this agony in order to fulfill my everyday responsibilities. Medications, mobility aids, and exercise help me manage my conditions, but they offer only limited relief. They’re a mere hum when my musculoskeletal pain exists as an endless roar.
I also experience severe head pain through migraines and cluster headaches. Cluster headaches offer a distinct challenge from my other forms of chronic pain. Despite their innocuous-sounding name, these headaches induce some of the worst pain that it is possible for humans to experience. When cluster periods strike, the attacks can last for hours while the “clusters” can extend for days, weeks, months or even years, with minimal respite in between. There is little medical treatment available for those living with cluster headaches. Clusters often require hospital visits for oxygen therapy and other interventions that aren’t accessible to everyone at home. Cluster headaches also have minimal treatment options available via PBS and in recent years we have lost access to several medications in forms uniquely suited to cluster treatment (such as nasal sprays and injectables). The small number of us living with the condition in Australia find support in close-knit social media groups where we support one another, offering ideas and understanding that simply isn’t available elsewhere.
My conditions and experiences are uniquely my own, they aren’t better or worse than anyone else’s. However, the toll of these conditions on me is profound—physically, emotionally, and economically. Chronic pain steals basic functions and the freedom to live without constant suffering. The exhaustion from simply existing on a daily basis while being in pain is overwhelming. That’s why I’m grateful to work for a purpose-driven organisation that fulfills me as a person and provides the flexibility I need to complete my duties while managing chronic pain. Sadly, not everyone is this fortunate.
So, as a nation, we must do more. We need better financial support for pain management, greater access to holistic care—especially for those in regional areas, the LGBTQIA+ community and those from culturally diverse backgrounds—and stronger platforms for people living with chronic pain to share their stories. It’s vital that society continues its journey to fully reckoning with the fact that chronic pain is not a myth, but a real, tangible reality affecting millions of lives. We must listen to those who live with this constant companion and honour those we have lost.
Sharing my personal journey with multiple chronic pain conditions isn’t easy for me, even as a professional communicator. Yet, by opening up on this platform, I hope to contribute, in my own small way, to a deeper understanding of the challenges and complexities that come with living a fully realised life alongside chronic pain.
Originally published on LinkedIn, 25/07/2025