Throwaway for obvious reasons. I'm not in the US but I can relate. I am 27 and was recently diagnosed with spondyloarthritis, an autoimmune disease which attacks your articulations. It has changed my pain scale tenfold or worse. I have a variat where I suffer everyday and in most articulations, some days are worse.

It feels unfair because everything was fine for me before and I'm young. I hide it : I'm a founder of a (somewhat) rising startup and have to just deal with it. Of course some days you can't hide it.

My empathy has decreased towards people suffering. Sometimes I feel like I suffer more than most sufferers. I know it's not true and pain is very personal and comes in many ways. I just feel this and I try to fight those feelings.

But when I here "pain normies" complain all the time about little back pains and tiny health issues I need to take a break ;)

I might write a piece about this soon. I need it. The only upside is that I'm laser focused on my work & mission now, and I work very hard but it's very hard to suffer all the time.

So my point is... don't be too quick to dismiss people's pain. But don't be too quick to acknowledge it either. Some people hide pain very well. You can't see 90% of disabilities.