Chronic pain is a huge part of a wide variety of illness conditions. It is defined as pain that is ongoing and usually lasts longer than six months. This type of pain can continue even after the injury or illness that caused it has healed or gone away. Pain signals can remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months or even years.

Some people suffer chronic pain even when there is no past injury or apparent body damage.

Chronic pain is linked to conditions including:

• Headache
• Arthritis
• Cancer
• Nerve pain
• Back pain
• Fibromyalgia pain

People who have chronic pain can have physical effects that are stressful on the body. These may include tense muscles, limited ability to move around, a lack of energy or appetite changes.

In addition to your illness being the primary cause of pain symptoms, there are several secondary factors that can add to the pain levels you are experiencing. Your medication–or more likely several medications may treat your symptoms but can also increase physical discomfort. In addition, the weeks and months spent recuperating can lead to muscle atrophy because of remaining sedentary. This often leads to physical weakness which contributes to body aches.

Intense physical pain from chronic illness can also cause psychological pain. Suffering from it can lead you to experience a reduction in life quality, as you might now be restricted from performing physical tasks you were once capable of. Emotional effects of chronic pain include depression, anger, anxiety, and fear of re-injury. Such a fear might limit a person’s ability to return to their regular work or leisure activities.

For you, this may mean that you’ve had important aspects of your life disrupted, including your career, hobbies, and social life. For many of us, this chronic pain can be soul-destroying.

We’re here to say that there is still hope. We have learnt through experience that with certain strategies that there are ways for you to circumvent chronic pain and still live a purposeful life.

6 Strategies For Managing Pain

Based upon our research –people we have worked with and what we have lived through–here are our top strategies for managing chronic pain.

1) Patient Education

Take time to empower yourself with as much knowledge and information you feel you will need to make educated judgements about your conditions.

What are the underlying causes of your pain?

What are the potential remedies?

What type of prognosis can you expect?

Posing these questions to medical professionals is essential, but you can always take this further by reading up online. Be advised to use a critical eye and reputable sources when searching medical information online. The medical professionals know best.

2) Find Support

As well as including medical practitioners, close friends, and family, joining a support group that focuses on your condition can establish close connections and lifelong friends. Most conditions have support groups that can be found on social media. They can be an empowering resource and provide a source of empathy that is rare to find elsewhere. You may even find a partner in these groups who shares your experience and can compare notes with you. Again, any medical advice should be taken cautiously.

3) Measure Pain Levels

Try documenting which hours in the day you experience the most pain.

Is there a similar pattern each day?

Are there any specific triggers and if so, is there a way to avoid them?

In addition, try assessing your pain levels using a 1 to 5 scale.

Gathering this type of information will help you to predict what’s coming and limit the risk of you being caught off guard. Even though this does not entirely reduce pain levels, it will give you a feeling of being in greater control.

4) Assess Functionality

In addition to understanding the triggers, patterns, and intensity behind pain levels, it can also help identify which physical activities you are still able to perform.

Are there any which you can still perform fully, not at all or only partially?

Does your functionality fluctuate with your pain levels?

5) Prioritise And Minimise

Once you are aware of what you are capable of still doing, consider which of those activities can and cannot be avoided. Pick a window of time during the day where you can manage the most important tasks and postpone the rest. For example, you may have assessed that your pain levels are low most afternoons. Picking up the groceries during that window of time should take top priority, while all other activities can wait.

6) Exercise

Exercise is commonly associated with increased strength, mobility, and flexibility which, in turn, have been linked to decreases in chronic pain.

Which exercises might you enjoy most and feel comfortable performing? 

Would you need to modify the duration, intensity, pace, or range of motion?

Using Keith’s recovery as an example,  he was able to increase strength and reduce joint pain, by performing partial push-ups and squats for several minutes each day. Walking, swimming, and yoga are other options to consider. Some personal trainers specialise in working with chronic pain and can customize a workout plan.

6 Helpful Positive Psychology Activities

The following activities will not cure the root causes of chronic pain, but they have been shown to induce positive emotions in those who experience it, as well as take their minds off the physical discomfort.

1) Mindfulness

Mindful meditation can be used to redirect your focus from the pain that you are experiencing to external sensations which present themselves at the moment. In addition, relaxation and deep breathing techniques have been linked to reductions in discomfort.

Consider starting with 5-10 minutes of mindful activity and assess how it makes you feel.

2) Gratitude Exercises

While it is difficult to avoid focusing heavily on intense pain, practising gratitude can help you redirect your focus and place emphasis on positive experiences which are easier to overlook. 

Examples of practising gratitude include daily writing in a journal, about the aspects of life you still feel grateful for.

Alternatively, you could try listing three good things which happen to you during the day.

3) Savouring

This activity is a fusion of mindfulness, which involves redirecting one’s mind to a momentary experience and gratitude, which revolves around focusing on the positive. Savouring is the act of immersing yourself in your positive experiences at their fullest to distract yourself from feelings of discomfort. There are many examples of this. Two of them include making the most of times spent with a loved one or fully enjoying a warm bath.

4) Nature Walk

Chronic pain could limit you in terms of how far and often you can walk. However, even if it is for a short duration this activity is worth pursuing. It can take place in a field, in the woods or local park. Nature walks carry a double benefit for those experiencing chronic pain. Firstly, it can help reduce pain by improving strength and mobility. Secondly, exposure to natural surroundings can increase optimism and takes your mind off the feelings of discomfort.

5) Best Possible Self

This exercise has been shown to boost feelings of optimism, which can reduce the perception of discomfort. It simply involves taking a few minutes to imagine what life may look like in several years if everything were to go the way you hoped. 

What could you be doing if you were able to manage your pain?

Who will you be surrounded by?

What could you accomplish?

6) Strength Identification

This exercise allows you to take stock of your positive attributes and hopefully discover new strengths. This simply involves an identification of the strengths which you still possess.

Maybe you are in regular discomfort thus restricting your daily activities, and perhaps this has a negative impact on the way you view yourself.

But does that mean you possess no aspects of who you once were?

Have you lost all your positive attributes?

Moreover, is it possible that your experience of chronic illness and pain has taught you new strengths? If so, what are they?

Take time to give further thought to this and remind yourself of it regularly. 

4 Goal-Setting Steps

Based upon our research –people we have worked with and what we have lived through–here are four goal-setting steps for managing chronic pain:

1) Goal Setting Phase (Using Smart Principles)

Alleviating intense pain from chronic illness does not usually happen overnight if at all. When a goal is too ambitious it may lead to disappointment, which can halt the momentum. Empowerment is the primary objective here and small wins are the way to achieve this.

SMART Goal principles help identify an initial small win that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Sensitive.

For example:

Specific: Wanting to reduce pain levels.

Measurable: Moving from 5/5 pain level to 4/5 energy level.

Achievable: A moderate reduction in pain as opposed to not feeling any at all.

Realistic: 15-minute nature walk as opposed to a 1-hour bootcamp class.

Time-sensitive: Aiming to achieve this improvement within three weeks.

2) Reality Phase

This phase involves being realistic about the current levels of pain that you are experiencing by identifying root causes and examining the effect it is having on your life. This will enable you to determine which obstacles may encumber your recovery.

For example, if your pain is at a 4/5 level, the causes may be your illness and remaining in a stationary position for too long. This may be making you feel weak and achy. Moderate exercise may be one option you wish to consider, however, an obstacle to this could be finding the time, energy and exercise type which does not aggravate the pain.

3) Option Phase

This phase involves you brainstorming all possible solutions and resources which are available to you.

What have you tried?

What has not worked?

What worked before?

What knowledge do you have that you could already use?

What knowledge would you still like to acquire and how would it help? 

For example, maybe you have had experience with activities like yoga, swimming, cycling or weight training. Thirty minutes of daily moderate activity may present time and energy barriers, however, ten minutes of light activity each day would be more realistic.

4) Way Forward Phase

This final phase necessitates setting a timeline for your plan of action to take place.

For example, committing to ten minutes of light yoga or walking, within seven days.

Whatever next steps you decide upon, if you are successful in seeing good results, you are more likely to feel encouraged in setting a follow-up goal. This will help you manage pain even further.

We invite you to share your feedback with us. Have you tried any of these before? Have you tried anything different? What has worked for you? What has not worked?

Is there anything else you would like for us to cover?

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Our website is www.illnesscoaching.com

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As always, if you are experiencing any severe medical or psychological symptoms, we always recommend you speak directly to a qualified professional.

Thank you for checking in with us and we’ll see you again soon.