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Compassion, the way forward

Empathy, like pain, is a universal trait. We share feelings with the people around us who are suffering; we bear witness to their pain, and we support them in their lives.

Even the people who seem the strongest have others who support and care for them.

Silence was a dominant part of this project; around an overstrained healthcare and support system, in the workplace or at home.

Most of the sufferers interviewed for this story didn’t feel heard; they didn’t feel understood. For some, that has been their experience since the onset of their chronic pain; they had not seen anything different. Others found that people didn’t understand wherever they went.

Experts feel that the main way to defeat this silence is for more to be heard; more stories of pain, strength and triumph to come forth. “We can share the stories of a larger group of people through public media, and that will do a whole lot of good,” says NTU’s Prof Ho, a community health psychologist.

But if these stories aren’t heard, and if compassion for chronic pain isn’t there, sufferers risk being caught in yet another vicious circle — where they keep quiet once more because they are misunderstood.

Singapore is proud of its culture of self-sufficiency and independence — these values have been drilled into us since childhood.

But a need for self-sufficiency has been a major reason why people don’t feel like speaking out, and a reason why we’ve neglected the people who have suffered from chronic pain.

A lack of empathy and understanding with pain sufferers is what has built stereotypes, fears and miscommunication, something that has been terrible for sufferers’ mental health.

Compassion will be the way forward — it will be a light into the oppressive darkness of pain, so something this common will no longer be misunderstood.

The end