Getting Help with Your Chronic Pain

Chronic pain refers to any pain that is not directly related to muscular and skeletal injuries and lasts longer than 6 months. Chronic pain is also a major issue in Canada and according to the reports by the Canadian Community Health Survey 2007/2008, one in 10 Canadians aged 12 to 44 (9% males and 12% females) experienced chronic pain. The main common chronic pains between the age of 12 to 44 were migraine headaches and back problems.

Many of us think that pain is only related to the physical experience but it also concerns psychological and emotional issues. What we think about the pain, how we react towards pain, what is our behavior towards pain, how pain impacts our life, how pain plays roles in relationships, work, sleep, and other areas of life. Chronic pain can lead to anxiety, depression, an increase in anger, hopelessness, and frustration. Chronic pain can also affect and slow down your recovery process.

So, dealing with chronic pain with the help of a therapist will be easy as he will provide you with counselling sessions that treat physical, emotional, behavioral, and psychological aspects.

At Evergreen Rehab and Wellness Clinical Counselling can help you in coping up with your chronic pain.

Causes of Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is usually caused by initial injuries. Chronic pain occurs due to damage to nerves. Such as when you perform the hard exercise without a trainer you are at risk to get a back sprain or pulled muscle. The damaged nerves create intense pain and are long-lasting. Sometimes chronic pain also occurs without injury but their exact cause is not learned yet. There may be many reasons for pain and the following are some of them.

  • Chronic fatigue syndrome: it occurs due to extreme tiredness and causes severe pain.
  • Endometriosis: it is a disorder in which uterine lines grow outside of the uterus and cause severe pain.
  • Fibromyalgia: it is the pain of bones and muscles
  • Interstitial cystitis: it is a chronic disorder caused due to bladder pressure and severe pain
  • Inflammatory bowel disease: many factors trigger this chronic inflammation in the digestive tract and causes severe pain
  • Vulvodynia: it is a chronic vulva pain and has no obvious reason for the occurrence.
  • Temporomandibular joint dysfunction: TMJ is the pain of joints that causes painful clicking, popping, and locking of the jaw.

Chronic pain can affect anyone without referring age, but it is common in older adults due to age factors. There are many other factors except age to trigger chronic pain in a person such as having an injury, being female, having surgery, being obese or overweight.

How Chronic Pain Counselling works?

The period of chronic pain starts after the acute pain period ends. If your pain lasts longer than six months or longer than the time expected for healing tissues then you should get the benefits of counselling.

Some people think that chronic pain is purely concerned with physical conditions and has no effects on mental health. But the body and mind are connected to each other. Counselling helps you to strengthen your mental health that boosts the recovery process.

Different types of therapies such as CBT or talk therapy are very effective for chronic pain. Counselling work by creating a pain management plan, increasing support level, exploring your thoughts and emotions, and last, relieving the pain and tension by talking and opening the mind. Counselling helps to develop self-esteem and confidence to overcome the problems and difficulties associated with chronic pain. Counselling helps to identify things that create feelings of anger and frustration and add pain and illness to the physical condition of the body. Your counsellor will work on your emotional aspects that have a negative impact on your chronic condition and make you capable of facing these challenges.

How Can Counselling Help You Cope With Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is usually not visible and people around you can’t understand the pain you are living with. It is also difficult to talk about chronic pain with others because people don’t know about chronic pain and think that it’s normal in the injury process.

Living in pain without explaining pain to others will create feelings of loneliness. The first thing a person needs to cope with chronic pain is to be able to talk about it. By attending counselling and therapy sessions you can talk about chronic pain and how much the lain impacts your physical and mental health. You can know further information about chronic pain and learn how to prevent yourself from further loss.

Understanding how your emotions and feelings are related to pain will help you to handle chronic pain impacts more effectively and efficiently. It will also help you to reduce the intensity of pain. With the help of counselling, you will explore thoughts and emotions which are controlling and managing the pain.

Counselling provides us with relaxation training because when we are in pain we feel irritated from everything and experience stress. The irritation and stress can add pain and lead it to intense conditions. With the help of relaxation techniques that are part of your counselling sessions, you will learn how to reduce the stress and tension level of the body and also reduce anxiety and depression by activating a parasympathetic nervous system. These relaxation techniques will be helpful for both your physicals and mental health. The common relaxation techniques are progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing, and mindfulness tasks.

Chronic pain impacts your sleep and wake cycle, relationships, daily functioning, and obviously mental health. During your counselling sessions, you will discuss different strategies with your therapist to manage these issues. Every person experiences different types of problems, so therapists have different strategies that are unique for each condition and help to cope effectively. When you will visit your therapist you will discuss the strategy which will best be suited for you.

Chronic pain is long-lasting and experiencing pain for the long term will change your way of thinking about the world as you think before pain. Things will not be the same as before the line but it doesn’t end, you can enjoy your life once again with the help of counselling.

Book an Appointment with our Clinical Counsellors Today!

Embrace mental wellness with Evergreen Rehab & Wellness Clinics! Schedule your session with our compassionate Clinical Counsellors today and embark on a journey to inner harmony. Book your appointment now!

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