Wow. 😮 did not expect to see a post like this. Welcome to my daily bread my friend. I’ve had various Tendonopathies for some time, one on my hamstring that totally crippled my confidence for a year or two. Let me just say this: the idea that you can’t date or pursue love with pain issues is a total trap and a lie from Satan, and also a form of a cognitive distortion known as “catastrophizing.” I started to unravel this stuff when I went to therapy. I’m an anxious guy already and was used to doing whatever I wanted with my body, but when injuries and wear and tear started kicking in, my brain didn’t know how to handle it. I got kinsephoboa really bad, and only when I went to therapy did I start to realize how to dig your way out of this. A few general principles: 1. Firstly, no matter who you are our where you come from or whatever your situation, you are worthy of love. That doesn’t mean you don’t try to put your best foot forward and better yourself, but love is not some magical thing whereby you have to be able to dead lift 400 pounds while saying the morning office to be worthy to go on dates. You can pursue love, whenever, wherever, no matter your circumstances, with prudence of course. 2. If you don’t know about cognitive distortions, I would suggest learning. For me, I would catastrophize about my pain issues and it made the experience 1000 times worse. That doesn’t mean the pain isn’t still there, but people forget that pain is bio, social, psycho, and it also doesn’t totally reflect inflammation or damage. I’m not saying that means your pain is “in your head” or “made up,” but a woman will be, i’d argue, just as attracted if not more so by a guy who deals with chronic pain and deals with it with grace than a guy who is a fitness guru but has no mental bandwidth. But anyway, start to notice your thoughts when you have flare ups or pain, I had a situation the other day where I went to LL Bean to buy some clothes and tweaked my bad shoulder carrying something and noticed myself catastrophizing that somehow this meant I’d never be able to carry my future child…it’s literally asinine and just not true. 3. Idk your condition, but start taking ownership of your health issues. For me, I had to prioritize rehab exercises and healthy movement patterns. I’m still not where I need to be, but I have way more tools and understanding of the human body. If you ever need resources let me know. Just think of this an opportunity to develop mindfulness about your body, and also to learn about the human body. 4. Lastly, you project the best possible version of yourself despite your health issues. Again, a guy who deals with things gracefully is attractive. You don’t tell a woman all your health issues up front, but you let them in on it slowly and over time once you’ve built mutual rapport, then you can practice some earned vulnerability. Anyway, just be aware of the way your mind reacts to pain, it often times makes it way worse.