I have often posted about how eating the right foods can help with chronic pain. So I will start with a quick recap. If you know the science behind your food choices it is much easier to make good choices. It is all about inflammation, which lies behind or worsens much chronic pain. Your immune system works largely through your digestive system. The microbiome, in your large intestine, contains beneficial organisms which control inflammation. If you eat the wrong foods you can become inflamed. This can send pain messages to your central nervous system and you feel awful. Later I will share with you a list of some of the foods you should eat and some you should avoid. You may already know this, and...
We know that anxiety can increase pain and our perception of pain. At the moment we are living in a world situation that feels very unstable, uncertain and indeed dangerous in places, and it makes most of us more anxious than we would usually be. For some of you, this may be leading to a spike in chronic pain. It seems a good time then to go through some ABCs about anxiety. If you can control your anxiety, then you may find it is easier to work to lessen your pain. There are some very basic things you can do which might just get that anxiety down a little bit. There are some common triggers to anxiety. You will not have all of these but...
In my last blog, we saw last week how we can improve our mental attitude and how this can help us live with chronic pain. In this blog, we are going to look at some more direct help. How we can use our minds directly to lessen our pain. So here we go. Understanding chronic pain This is not simple; it is not just how the signals go from the site of the pain to your brain. It is also about how you process these signals. If these signals are provoking strong negative reactions, such as fear, then the pain will feel worse. If you learn how you can decrease the pain you will feel less afraid before you even do anything. How to decrease...
Do you recognise these scenarios? You have pain and you are in; you are tired. A thought comes into your head and will not leave. You begin saying to yourself, I am always tired, there must be something else wrong perhaps the doctor has missed something important. You begin to think you will not be able to do your regular activities if this carries on. You might have to spend all your time in bed and no one will come to see you. You will get worse and be alone., How does your pain feel now? You have a pain and you are worried as you have an important work meeting. You are not sure how you are going to get through it, you can...
If you are going to get the most out of your social life, even if you suffer with chronic pain, you need to learn how to ask for what you need. Watchwords here are: ask clearly, ask kindly, ask firmly. You need to be able to tell people your feelings and your needs in terms they can easily understand. Your family or friends deserve to know how you feel and what they can do to help you manage your chronic pain. In this blog, we are going to look at some communication skills to do this. Make communication a habit Practice makes perfect and there is nowherethis is truer than in communication. If you have been quiet about what you need for years, then you...
This month I am very happy to post this guest blog post by Thana, who has been affected by Long Covid. He details the interactions he has had on a local level to try to get more help. It is a perspective which most therapists will be very familiar with: the time is takes to get anything done and the lack of understanding and which is still out there are particular problems. If you have any stories to tell, or any advice to give, then I would love you to contact me. The more information we can exchange the quicker we will get things moving. Impact of long-Covid 19 as an invisible disability Thana Narashiman The Covid-19 virus pandemic has left some with the legacy...
We are now well over halfway through the summer. And it is a strange time for most of us. Confusion and uncertainty for us all We have to put up with a lot of confusion and uncertainty about so many things: • where we can go on holiday • if we should go back to the office • if we want to go out to a restaurant or a pub • how often we want to see relatives. Some of us have loved this opening up of our choice and are thoroughly enjoying things at the moment and their increased freedoms. They love being able to get out and about again. Others are finding things harder. They feel anxious and confused about what...
How are you coping with the thought of restrictions being lifted soon? I’m seeing quite a few clients who are finding the change difficult. This blog will look at why. First things to say, if you are worried about the change, we are going through you are not alone. Many people find change difficult. It can be uncomfortable. And this is normal! I will tell you why. How we stayed safe It is a natural part of our human nature to want to stay safe. It is part of our theory that the is part of our human nature. And there is a good reason. For most of our existence as a species, we lived close to the natural world. And it could be a...
As I see more and more clients with Long Covid I am noticing how many are saying they have terrible insomnia and are being made even more miserable because they cannot sleep properly. As far as I know, the experts have not yet found evidence that Long Covid is a direct physical cause of insomnia and disrupted sleep patterns, but it is early days and other facts may emerge over the next few months. But I do know that for many people who have symptoms of Long Covid and report that they are not sleeping well it is seriously adding to their problems. I hope I can do something about this. A good starting point is to look at what is happening on the ground. ...
Practical and psychological strategies for self-help I’m delighted to let you know that I have teamed up with Sheila Granger to write this book. All being well, it should be out next week! For more details, keep checking my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/apaininthemind/ Who would have thought, looking back just over a year, that we would be writing a book about self-managing the condition that has been dubbed Long COVID? It’s almost difficult to comprehend now, given how the world has changed in the intervening period, but, back in February and March 2020, we had not even heard of Long COVID and were still in the early stages of getting to grips with the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for our daily lives. Nobody anticipated, back...
