The lived and living experiences of having chronic pain and mental illness among Canadian veterans: A qualitative descriptive study.

Military Veterans are disproportionately affected by both chronic pain and mental illness, yet these conditions are often treated and understood in isolation. Existing clinical and policy frameworks rarely reflect the lived and living realities of Veterans who experience these forms of suffering as deeply interconnected. Understanding how Veterans themselves make sense of the relationship between chronic pain and mental illness is critical for developing more responsive, integrated care. This study asked Veterans how they understood the connection between their chronic pain and mental illness, and how this has enduring impacts on their everyday lives as Veterans in a civilian world. The objective of this study was to explore how Canadian Veterans perceive and navigate the connections between their chronic pain and mental illness in everyday life. Drawing upon interviews with 20 Canadian Veterans, they described chronic pain and mental illness as cyclical, dynamic, and shaped by personal and contextual factors. Chronic pain was seen to intensify mental illness, while mental illness amplified the experience of pain, producing a self-reinforcing loop of suffering. This cycle led to social withdrawal, loss of identity, diminished coping capacity, and reluctance to seek help. Many Veterans linked their pain to unresolved psychological trauma, interpreting it as a bodily expression of their military past. Conversely, a mental health diagnosis sometimes offered explanatory value and validation for their pain. Veterans described a constant negotiation between these conditions, mediated by the challenges of civilian reintegration and shifts in identity. Findings are discussed in relation to existing literature and theoretical frameworks to deepen our understanding of the entangled nature of chronic pain and mental illness in Veteran's lives.