How you can help yourself with your pain

Mindfulness

Awareness in the green zone means being able to stop and notice what is happening here and now.

A way to 'brain train' a skill of here and now awareness can be to get in the habit of mindfulness breath practice. There's no expectation you will relax, or clear your mind. Just pay attention to the present, and see what comes up.

Managing your thoughts, emotions and behaviours

When life is going our way and things are good, it's pretty easy to choose to do activities that make our lives richer - that gives it meaning and that makes it easier for us to behave like the person we want to be.

However, when things are tough - for instance, if you are living with persistent pain - then you may encounter lots of difficulties throughout your day and experience a range of unpleasant emotions such as anger, anxiety, or hopelessness.

It's very easy to become hooked by intense thoughts which drag you down a path you don't want to go.

This booklet has been designed to help you manage your thoughts, emotions and behaviours:

Sleep

People living with persistent pain often have difficulty sleeping.

Long-term pain has made the body's nervous system more alert and sensitive, making it harder to find a comfortable position to sleep in and 'switch off'. In order for us to fall asleep, our nervous system has to become calm and this is very difficult for people living with pain.

When you are in pain you need to work harder to calm the nervous system. Medication may help to reduce your pain levels but there are many other strategies that can help to calm the system which do not require medication.

You may have heard of 'sleep hygiene'. This is a term used to describe the environment and daily routines you can develop which will help to improve your sleeping patterns.

This booklet has been designed to help explain more about sleep and give you strategies to help you improve your sleep hygiene:

Understanding pain

Pain is normal and it is essential for our survival. Pain helps us in times of danger. If you put your hand on a hot iron, you will quickly remove it! This is a useful pain that stops you from burning yourself.

Some pain however lasts longer than it should. Pain that lasts longer than three months is called persistent or chronic pain. This pain serves no useful purpose and can put a great strain on you, your family and friends.

Graded exposure to activity

This video is a good introduction to the importance of activity to health and well-being:

24 Hour Fitness - 23 and 1/2 Hours (YouTube)

Having watched this video, do you think you need to increase your activity levels to meet the minimum guide of at least 30 minutes of moderate activity per day?

If yes, please don’t start this right away, we will discuss how to build up your activity slowly. Building up to 30 minutes of daily activity might be a good long-term goal.

If no… do you need to reduce your activities, keep them the same, or change or adapt your activities?

Planning for flare-up

A flare-up refers to a period of intense pain which is felt more severely to the day-to-day chronic pain.

Flare-ups may last hours or days and often there is no set pattern to them. They often come on quickly and without much warning, so they can be worrying and difficult to cope with.

Coping with flare-ups is a skill worth development and takes time and experience to evolve. Planning in advance for any flare-ups can really reduce your distress.

Problem solving

Try filling out a chart to help plan and set goals for your pain management techniques.

12 myths about pain

Persistent pain is complicated to understand. It is not surprising therefore, that there is a lot of information out there which tries to explain what chronic pain is. Unfortunately, not all of this information is correct or helpful.

This is why we have put together this 'myth busting' leaflet to help you differentiate between the facts and the fiction.