Primary Suffering and Secondary Suffering

Personally, I extend these two well-known concepts even further: Tertiary suffering is the the interpersonal pain from how we interact with doctors, family and friends. Quaternary suffering is big picture forces and trends, like ablism in society, less research being conducted for women’s bodies, or disability benefits being hard to access.

The pain we feel (eg hopelessness) as a result of how we feel (eg homebound)

Often we can do something about our secondary suffering, even if our primary suffering is out of our control; this can feel wonderful and give us a sense of control. Look up meditations and online talks about secondary suffering.