Chronic Pain Management
Chronic pain lasts months or years, happens in all partsinterfereserferes with ,daily life and can lead to depression and anxiety. The first step in treatment is to find and treat the cause. When that isn’t possible, the most effective approach is a combination of medications, therapies and lifestyle changes.
Chronic or persistenpainn carries on for longer than 12 weeks despite medication or treatment.
Most people get back to normal after pain following an injury o,r operation. But sometimes the pain carries on for longer or comes on without any history of an injury or operation.
Chronic pain can also affect people living with:
diabetes
arthritis
fibromyalgia
irritable bowel
back pain
What is pain?
The brain and the nerves inside the spine (the spinal nerves) make up the central nervous system. The spinal nerves carry messages from the body to the brain to tell it what's going on.
The brain acts like a control centre working out from these messages if it needs to do anything. It's sometimes easier to think of how the messages and the brain combine together to form an alarm system. It's the brain’s interpretation of this information from the alarm system that results in the feeling of pain. Sometimes the brain’s interpretation of these signals isn't accurate.
We usually expect pain to settle down with time but sometimes the brain continues to send out pain signals. These signals can be hard to stop, are often intense and at times seem to come for no obvious reason. This fact isn't always easy to understand but it important to understand that this pain is still “real”.
Pain is very real and can be complex.
How common is chronic pain?
Chronic pain affects 1 in 5 people in Scotland. It can affect all ages and all parts of the body.
It isn't possible to tell in advance whose pain will become chronic. But we know that people are more likely to develop chronic pain during or after times of stress or unhappiness. People can also experience chronic pain even after usual medical tests don’t provide an answer.
What can I do for myself?
There’s a lot you can do to help yourself and have a better life even with chronic pain. Simple changes can often make a big difference to the amount of disability and suffering you can experience. This is called pain management.
To help manage your pain, you might consider:
Planning your day - Make a plan of things to do and places to be to help you keep on top of your pain.
Pacing yourself - Don’t push through the pain, stop before it gets worse then go back to whatever you were doing later.
Learning to relax - Relaxing can be hard when you have pain but finding something which relaxes you will reduce the stress of pain.
Taking regular enjoyable exercise - Even a small amount will make you feel better and ease your pain. It will also keep your muscles and joints strong.
Taking pain medicine - Pain medicines work better alongside a plan. Patients often say their pain medicines don’t seem to work very well.
Talking to others - Tell your friends and family about chronic pain and why you need to do things differently at the moment.
Enjoyment - Doing things you enjoy boosts your own natural painkillers. Think about what you enjoyed before the pain and introduce it back into your routine
Activity and exercise
Being active and taking exercise is a good prescription for managing pain. Knowing where to start can be daunting for some people with chronic pain as they often find it hard to do things on some days more than others. Don’t be put off by the word ‘exercise’ - any type of movement is exercise.
To begin with your muscles might hurt so it's important that you choose a level of exercise that suits you. Learning how to ‘pace’ your activity and exercise can help. Most of all it should be enjoyable.
Walking
This might start off with walk up and down your path or a walk to the end of the street and back. A local park is also a good option, especially if it has benches for you to rest on along the way.
If you feel able to walk further, joining a local walking group is a good way to keep active and motivated. Some of these groups are run by local councils and offer different levels of difficulty for beginners and upwards.
Dancing or moving to music
Dancing or moving to music, either sitting down or standing up (or a mixture of both), is a great way to exercise.
Exercising in the pool
You don’t need to know how to swim to be able to exercise in a swimming pool. The buoyancy of the water makes us feel lighter. This can make movement and exercise easier than on dry land.
Spend 10 to 15 minutes in the water to begin with. Slow movements are best. If you don’t swim take someone with you and stay close to the side.
Exercise classes
If you'd prefer to exercise with others, you can find out about exercises classes from your local sports centre. Classes range in difficulty so remember to ask what level of exercise each class offers.
