Dead or pretending?

In most cases, one chronic pain patient asking another “what works for you?” is largely futile, like someone with an infection asking for tips from someone with cancer. There are many types of pain, and minimal overlap in what helps different cases.

To make this basic point in a fun way today, I thought I’d finally do my own version of the “dead or pretending” meme, fine-tuned for chronic pain.

The original “dead or pretending” comic is by Spaceboy Can’t LOL (Facebook, Instagram). It has become a popular meme & there are a few versions of it floating around about chronic pain/illness, I wanted my own just-right version for this post. It’s so funny-because-it’s-true that I will get plenty of usage out of it around [PainScience.com](https://www.painscience.com/).

Unfortunately, there are so many more than just four reflexive, dubious recommendations that people constantly make for chronic pain. Indeed, there are dozens!