Help: How to best support a friend with chronic pain? (Feedback will be very appreciated!)
Alright so... I know nothing about chronic pain. I honestly don't know how move here since it's not solid ground for me, but I do have a friend who's struggling with it and from what I've read from you it is almost exactly the same thing. Her family is not being supportive, no one believes her when she says she's doing badly. She describes her pain as daggers in most cases, and she also says it get worse when she tries to hide it for a very long time. Simple things are too demanding and she often needs to rest a lot before she can go on, even answering some messages can be challenging since the pain rises as her anxiety appears.
She lives very far away from me so I can't help her do stuff, but she sent me a message yesterday in which she mentioned she didn't know how to continue and that she was starting to think about some other "options" to feel "released" ...and I'm tremendously scared.
So, maybe someone here could help me with this. Just please tell me how to approach to her, how should I talk to her in these cases when the pain is simply too much to bear. What can I do? How can I best support my friend here? You guys know this better than anyone so please, please help me with it. I want to get informed about it. I'd like some feedback. I truly care about this because I can't understand it completely since I'm not experiencing it. Just please tell me how to be a better friend for her.