You
may be experiencing chronic pain if you are answering
yes to the following questions:
1) I have aches
or pains in my body
2) The pain
I experience is there more often than not
3) The pain
I feel distracts or distresses me
4) I have experienced
this pain for a significant amount of time
.
What are Common Psychological
Problems Associated with Chronic Pain?
Feeling
sad or blue may be associated with chronic pain. A person
may have an external locus of control which means that
they feel they do not have control over their lives. Additionally,
a person may feel hopeless, paranoid, or nervous if they
are in pain chronically.
What Should I do
if I Have Chronic Pain?
1) If you are
not already under the care of a doctor or team of doctors,
you should seek medical attention first.
2) Educate
yourself about how different experiences/factors impact
the pain you experience. If you look at the image above,
you will see that pain may be related with other aspects
such as mood, locus of control, and distress. The "pain"
variable is the physical feeling you are experiencing.
The "mood" variable relates to the emotions
that you are experiencing (e.g., happy, sad, afraid, angry,
hurt, etc.). The "locus of control" variable
has to do with whether you feel that YOU have control
over your life or whether control feels like it is external
to you. The last dimension, "distress" has to
do with how much the situation is disturbing you. Symptoms
of distress may include feelings of worry or difficulty
concentrating. Learning how these variables all influence
each other may increase your awareness and help you to
develop coping strategies for dealing with your pain.
3) If you are under the care
of a medical doctor, you can add a mental health component
to your treatment. If you look at the above graph, you
will see that pain may be interrelated with other aspects
such as mood, locus of control, and distress. Seeking
psychological care may help you to improve on these
three aspects that influence your pain (Sternbach, 1986).
References:
Hardy, P. (1997).Chronic
Pain Management: The Essentials. Oxford University
Press: London
Rucker, K. S. (2001) Chronic Pain Evaluation: A Valid, Standardized Assessment
Instrument. Butterworth Heinmann: Boston, MA
Sternberg, R. A. (1986) The Psychology of Pain. Raven Press Books Ltd.:
New York
American
Academy of Pain Management
About.com - Back and Neck Injury
Randall
Chronic Pain Scale
American
Chronic Pain Association
The
National Chronic Pain Outreach Association
This site was
developed by Larina Kase
