Awareness is so important
Without awareness nobody would know about so many dreadful illnesses and conditions. We wouldn’t know about troubles throughout the world, about starving nations, about war torn countries. Trigeminal Neuralgia is only one of many things which needs awareness and help.
Living with chronic facial pain like Trigeminal Neuralgia can be extremely isolating, exhausting and even frightening. There is so much more to living with the pain, than simply living with the pain. More needs to be done to help people. More understanding from doctors. More research needs to be carried out.
Without awareness nobody would know about so many dreadful illnesses and conditions. We wouldn’t know about troubles throughout the world, about starving nations, about war torn countries. Trigeminal Neuralgia is only one of many things which needs awareness and help.
Living with chronic facial pain like Trigeminal Neuralgia can be extremely isolating, exhausting and even frightening. There is so much more to living with the pain, than simply living with the pain. More needs to be done to help people. More understanding from doctors. More research needs to be carried out.
With awareness, hopefully we can achieve that.
We hope that one day, people will hear the words “Trigeminal Neuralgia” and immediately understand how much pain this condition causes. We, the sufferers, are really the only people capable of doing this.....and it can be done. By talking about our pain, by writing about it, by trying to get as much exposure as possible, we can help people understand.
If we say nothing, people will never understand.
If we say it is a migraine or earache because that is easier than explaining, people will never understand.
If we just give it that nickname of the Suicide Disease, people will still never understand.
The only way we can expect people to at least try to understand is for us to name it and explain it.
Awareness days are an excellent way to get more exposure, but in actual fact one day in the year is only a very small part of the awareness work which goes on.
We all need to work constantly, throughout the year to get more understanding. We need to work hand in hand with the official TN organizations. We need to ensure that any information we pass on is correct, easy to understand and it needs to reach the eyes and ears of not only TN sufferers, but their families, friends, colleagues and even medical personnel if at all possible.
With the internet, we have knowledge at our fingertips. Knowledge is power. The internet has made the world much smaller. Social media can play a huge role in awareness work. The ‘share’ button must have been invented for people trying to raise awareness.
People have often asked, ‘Why bother to share posts about TN? Does it really do any good?’ The answer is yes. To another person suffering, our posts help them feel less alone with their pain. The knowledge that another person knows exactly how they feel helps. Our posts also give them a way of explaining their pain. So if one more person understands this horrible condition, then it is definitely worth sharing the posts. However, we understand that not everyone feels able to share posts about their condition, and that is fine too.
Awareness posts about Trigeminal Neuralgia help people, but more than that, they also bring hope. We know there are no magic answers, but when we have hope, life is so much better.
For more information about the research being done, please take a look at the Facial Pain Research Foundation's website. http://www.facingfacialpain.org/
Trigeminal Neuralgia can be difficult to explain. We have made posters and videos which can help do this.
- Faces Behind The Pain video
- Trigeminal Neuralgia Challenge Video
- What is Trigeminal Neuralgia (in various languages)
- Pain Attack and info cards (in various languages)
For more information and awareness material which can be shared, please visit the End TN page on Facebook. www.facebook.com/endTrigeminalNeuralgia
