But have you tried ____?

• Jul 10, 2018 • by Paul Ingraham
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Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.

Twitter user “Waluigi Simulator” (no, I don’t know what that means either) has chronic pain and gets a little tired of being asked “But have you tried ____?”. Like everyone with chronic pain or illness …

ME: ha ha sucks living with chronic pain sometimes

RANDOM STRANGERS: but have you tried--

ME, suddenly holding like 6 knives: i have fucking tried the underwater horse yoga yes

Funny. 😜 Follow-up Tweets:

i have taken pain management classes so. i know about yoga, and ergonomics, and proper lifting and bending positions and arch support and (deep sigh) meditation

it’s just that “managed” doesn’t always mean “painless” and sometimes i need To Yell

i think people that approach you with But Have You Tried ______ are usually coming from a good place but it’s super exhausting to get the same advice that i already know repeatedly when i’m not explicitly asking for it lmao

The struggle is real. Thinking of asking someone with chronic pain or illness “but have you tried ___?” THEY HAVE. (Or they’ve already decided it’s silly, will never try it, and would rather not try to explain that to you.)