It can be incredibly difficult living with chronic pain, complicated by the fact that there is no single course of treatment that you can follow to resolve your symptoms.
Over time, dealing with physical pain and feeling restricted in mobility and movement can start to cause other issues, affecting your mental and emotional health and wellbeing – so it’s essential to identify the appropriate pain management strategies to help you cope.
Staying active
It’s not uncommon to purposefully avoid physical activity when you’re in pain, amid fears that this could make the situation worse.
However, it’s likely that the opposite could happen and the more inactive you are over time, the worse your pain could become. Equally, being too active can cause flare-ups, so it’s about finding a solid middle ground between the two.
One strategy to consider is pacing, where you gradually increase the amount of exercise you do, either by increasing the amount of time you’re active, increasing the number of times you repeat an action, increasing the hold of an exercise, increasing the weight or resistance, or reducing rest times.
Make sure that you don’t overdo it and push yourself past your target for each day, or you run the risk of sparking a flare-up, and make sure that you schedule plenty of rest periods so you can recover.
Managing sleep
One common issue that people in chronic pain experience is sleep disturbances, either finding it hard to fall asleep or waking up in the night because of pain and discomfort.
When poor-quality sleep starts to build up over time, this can increase your stress levels which, in turn, makes it harder for you to manage your condition and symptoms.
Sleep deprivation is a big concern for people in chronic pain and up to 88 per cent of those affected experience disruption and insomnia… which makes them more likely to experience depression, anxiety, catastrophising and suicide ideation.
The Sleep Foundation suggests that you might be able to learn how to sleep while in pain by retraining your brain with healthy behaviours and thoughts, using techniques like mindfulness, guided imagery and deep breathing to help you relax and not focus on your pain.
Before you get to this point, however, try to practice basic sleep hygiene practices, such as getting enough sunlight, being active early in the day, maintaining a healthy well-balanced diet and avoiding screens, alcohol and caffeine (all stimulants) a few hours before bedtime.
Also consider making sure that your bedroom is suitably set up to promote good sleep. Keep it as dark as possible at night, declutter wherever and whenever possible and maintain a temperature of between 16 and 19 degrees C.
Establishing a good bedtime routine can help you signal to your body that it’s time for sleep. If you’re struggling with this, have a chat with your private nurse and they’ll be able to help you devise some winning strategies.
