If you are "New" to Chronic Pain, then this page could help you.
If you have any ideas for this page, let us know.

We must accept the following:

• Our pain is real, it’s not in our heads.



• It will probably never go away completely.



• We have to help ourselves to cope with our pain.



• Chasing a cure is a waste of our time and energy.



• Pain can destroy us, if we let it.



• The Medical profession is there to help us, whether we believe it or not.

Ways to help your chronic pain.

Unremitting pain can become the central focus of a persons life. We are all unique individuals and so our experiences and pain tolerances are different. However, there are some common elements that we have to try and adopt as part of our lifestyle:

• Regular walking or any other form of gentle exercise.



• Take care with your diet.



• Adequate rest.



• Remembering to smile.



• Learn to listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs.



• Never, over do things.

Adopting these simple lifestyle modifications will result in less pain, less stress and less problems. Your self-esteem will also increase.

Never be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help from anyone at Pain World, remember, we have all experienced the same things at some stage. We all understand how hard some of these things can be but it lessens the load if you can share it with someone else.

Anger is a healthy and natural part of adjusting to change that may have been caused by disruption to your lifestyle, due to your pain. It's natural to feel upset at times when your experiencing chronic pain.

Try not to isolate yourself if you feel this way but ring someone that you can talk to.

Here are some chronic pain truths.

• People with chronic pain don’t mean to be unreliable.



• When feeling better we promise things and mean it, when in serious pain, we may not even show up.



• An action or situation may result in pain several hours later, or even the next day. Delayed pain is confusing to people who have never experienced it.



• Pain can inhibit listening and other communication skills. It's like having someone shouting at you, or trying to talk with a fire alarm going off in the room.



• The effect of pain on the mind can seem like attention deficit disorder (ADD or ADHD). So you may have to repeat a request, or write things down for a person with chronic pain.



• Don't take it personally, or think they are stupid.



• The senses can overload while in pain. For example, noises that wouldn't normally bother you, seem too much. Patience may seem short. We can't wait in a long line, we can't wait for a long drawn out conversation.



• It's normal to be depressed occasionally when you hurt.



• Knowing where a refuge is, such as a couch, a bed, or comfortable chair, is as important as knowing where the bathroom is. A visit is much more enjoyable if the chronic pain person knows there is a refuge nearby, if needed.



• Pain can sometimes trigger psychological disabilities (usually very temporary). When in pain, a small task, like hanging out the washing, can seem like a huge wall, too high to climb over. An hour later the same job may be quite OK.



• Pain can come on fairly quickly and unexpectedly. Pain sometimes lessens after a short rest.



• Small acts of kindness can seem like huge acts of mercy to a person in pain. Your offer of a pillow or a cup of tea can be a really big thing to a person who is feeling temporarily helpless in the face of encroaching pain.



• Not all pain is easy to locate or describe. Sometimes there is a body-wide feeling of discomfort, with hard to describe pains in the entire back, or in both legs, but not in one particular spot you can point to.



• Our vocabulary for pain is very limited, compared to the body's ability to feel varieties of discomfort.



• We may not have a good "reason" for the pain. Medical science is still limited in its understanding of pain. Many people have pain that is not yet classified by doctors as an officially recognised "disease". That does not reduce the pain, it only reduces our ability to give it a label and to have you believe us.

Understanding your pain.

The experience of pain, broadly speaking, is a product of chemical messengers, emotions and thoughts involving pain. Pain messages travel along the spinal cord to the brain. Chronic pain reaches the hypothalamus which instructs the pituitary gland to release certain stress hormones. This is where our emotions are processed which explains why our feelings can influence pain.

The pain gate theory was discovered in 1965 by Dr’s Melzack & Walls, it works on the theory that nerve gates in the spinal cord, open to allow pain through or close to block it’s passage. Tens machines, acupuncture, deep muscle massage & many alternative treatments may be able to block the pain gates.

Fear is a very big negative motivator in increasing pain. It is a good idea to make a personal list of coping statements that will enable you to reduce your fear by relaxing your muscles and consequently your pain.

Being angry is a natural by-product of having chronic pain. Negative thoughts increase pain & anxiety.

Pain Chart 1. - Pain Chart 2. - Weekly Pain Dairy

Let me know how these print out on your system and what you think of them. If you think anything should be changed or you find is wrong, let me know as well.