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Abstract
In the United States, more than 50 million adults experience chronic pain (Nahin et al., 2023). Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability, and it is estimated that chronic pain costs the United States more than $300 billion per year in lost productivity and medical expenditures (Darnall, 2019). With the national interest in finding nonpharmacological interventions to help people with chronic pain, psychological interventions are increasingly viewed as critical components of integrated, interdisciplinary chronic pain interventions (Darnall, 2019). Research on the concept of self-compassion has increased during the last two decades as interest has increased in understanding its influence on overall psychological well-being and a variety of physical and mental health concerns, including chronic pain (Edwards et al., 2019). Neff (2003a) developed a model that describes the components that influence self-compassion, including self-kindness, self-judgement, isolation, common humanity, mindfulness, and overidentification. This study examined the self-compassion component of isolation and how this component is understood and may be experienced by people with chronic pain. Isolation is one’s perception that they are abnormal, imperfect, and flawed due to their suffering and that they are alone in their suffering (Neff, 2003a). Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, a grounded conceptualization was developed by examining perceptions of isolation experienced by ten adults experiencing chronic pain. Participants were recruited from a primary care clinic in Georgia that provides free medical, dental, pharmacy, and health education to the low-income uninsured in a six-county area. The conceptualization that emerged includes five themes that help us understand isolation as experienced by people with chronic pain, including: 1) Incomplete understanding of my own pain, 2) Others misunderstanding and invalidating my pain, 3) Hesitancy to talk about my pain with others due to fear of minimization of or dismissing pain, 4) Severe pain experiences, and 5) Perceiving I am violating social norms due to pain impairments. Training and clinical implications of this conceptualization and recommendations for future research are offered.