Pain, Stress, and Emotions
What Things Affect Pain?
How you are feeling impacts your pain. If you are feeling unhappy or stressed, you are likely to feel more pain than if you are feeling happy or relaxed.
Where you are and what you are doing impacts your pain. If you are doing something interesting or enjoyable, the pain will be less bothersome than if you are bored or doing nothing.
If you think the pain indicates something is very wrong in your body, you are likely to feel worried and feel pain more intensely than if you know what the pain means and how to manage it.
Knowing you can exert some control over the pain, and maybe reduce it, can result in feeling less intense pain. Believing you have control over your pain and pain management plan results in improved mood.
Pain, Stress, & Mood
When our body feels pain, there is a natural tendency to tighten the muscles and stop moving. This can cause muscle spasms to occur, often causing the muscles to tighten more, resulting in increased pain. The longer time spent not moving the muscles and joints, the tighter they become—eventually making all movements hard and painful. This loss of movement can lead to feelings of low mood and stress, which also increase muscle tensions. The increase in pain can also increase anxiety.
Activities such as stress management and relaxation techniques can break this cycle (or, close the gate!), reducing pain and stress, and improving mood and movement.
That’s all for today! See you tomorrow