The Crisis of Pain

• In Event: Policies and Health

Abstract

Rising reports of chronic pain across the United States have coincided with increased stigma around use of painkiller medication. This has created a crisis of pain; individuals in chronic pain are increasingly tasked with demonstrating their pain is legitimate and worthy of relief. We explore how individuals in chronic pain resolve this crisis by drawing on 96 interviews with disability recipients and community leaders in a region where the crisis of pain is particularly acute: Central Appalachia. We argue that, in places like Central Appalachia, disability assistance functions as a pain credential that legitimates pain to both the individual suffering and the broader community. Being deemed “disabled” by a government entity, which involves multiple stages of stringent certification, allows recipients to distance themselves from more stigmatized groups (“addicts”) even if it confines them to a liminal status in the community. The results demonstrate how normally stigmatized identities can become desirable, and in doing so they highlight the local-level factors driving disability enrollment.

Authors

• Daniel Bolger, Southern Methodist University

• Kathryn J. Edin, Princeton University

• Timothy J Nelson, Princeton University

• Christine Jang-Trettien, CUNY