Chronic pain - forget the pity party and get on with life

In last week’s column I began a discussion of how chronic pain can affect individuals. Negative thoughts and feelings often develop after weeks and months of enduring pain that produces a mindset that can reduce an individual’s coping skills. Thus, chronic pain can often undermine healthy attitudes, those which allow a person to function in spite of pain and physical limitations.

Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s own ability to function despite the persistence of pain. Individuals with a high degree of self-efficacy are able to independently manage pain, cope and function well eventhough their pain is constant.

Increasing an individual’s self-efficacy is often enhanced by switching from negative to positive thoughts, beliefs and self-statements.

Let’s take some examples:

• Instead of thinking “I’ll never be able to work again because of my pain” a healthier self-statement would be “I’ll learn some new ways to do my work, or if absolutely necessary, I will change the kind of work that I do.”

• As an alternative to thinking “My pain is all of the fault of my “employer, doctor, family, etc.” one might instead consider “Unexpected things sometimes happen in life but I am confident that that I can learn to deal effectively with unexpected events.”

• A negative self-statement would be “I’ve never had pain like this before and I will probably never get better” versus the positive view “I have been able to solve difficult problems in the past and I will get all the information and help that I can to deal with this one.”

• The pity partier would say “I am headed for a lifetime of pain which much be a sign that I am getting old.” The high self-efficacy chronic pain patient would assume instead a “take charge” attitude and decide to maximize psychological control over pain symptoms by engaging in positive self-talk.

• The defeatist might say “If I’m not free from pain pretty soon then I will probably never get much better”, whereas the active coper would say “Sometimes improvement is not obvious at first so I will be patient and not become a helpless victim. I will seek out skills, resources and friends to help me.”

Chronic pain patients who accept their illness as a challenge, rather than a threat, have significantly better mental health than those who become psychological invalids and assume a passive role in managing their lives.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 2003