How to Cope with Chronic Pain
Living with chronic pain, especially if it’s severe, can deeply affect your feelings and mood. Studies have found that older women experiencing pain are more likely to feel anxious, sad, or depressed. If you are dealing with the emotional side of chronic pain—or have in the past—it’s important to know that feeling this way doesn’t make you unusual, overly sensitive, or weak. It’s a common and understandable reaction to dealing with ongoing physical discomfort and the challenges it brings. Even though we know that pain can strongly impact emotional well-being, treating the patient’s physical symptoms tends to get the lion’s share of our attention, and mental health can get overlooked. But it’s crucial to recognize that stress can make chronic pain worse, and chronic pain can increase stress levels. The mind and body are connected, so taking care of emotional health can make a positive difference in managing pain.
There are several therapies that can help manage the emotional side of chronic pain, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), biofeedback, and mindfulness meditation. CBT focuses on recognizing and changing thought patterns, enabling you to approach challenges in a more constructive manner. In biofeedback, we use special sensors to keep track of things like a patient’s heart rate and breathing. This information helps us see how little changes, like relaxing one’s muscles or taking controlled breaths, can affect the body. Mindfulness meditation is a valuable tool that can positively impact your mental well-being when dealing with chronic pain. Through focused attention on the present moment, mindfulness can help you develop a healthier relationship with pain-related thoughts and emotions.
If you think your mental health is suffering as a result of dealing with chronic pain, talk to your physician about finding a therapist who can introduce you to one of the therapeutic techniques discussed here. I always remind my patients who are dealing with chronic pain that depending on their condition some degree of pain may be inevitable, but suffering is optional. I encourage anyone dealing with chronic pain to explore mindfulness meditation, biofeedback, or CBT as a complementary approach to help put some space between your pain and your emotional response to it.
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