Part 1: Receiving the diagnosis Working with people who are living with cancer and beyond can be a huge challenge both physiologically and psychologically. I will be writing a collection of 3 blogs from a psychological perspective, that discusses the stages people go through, diagnosis, going through treatment and lastly life after cancer treatment. The first of these blogs will look at the psychological impact of receiving a diagnosis and offer some suggestions to help move through this part of your cancer journey. Nothing can strike fear, anxiety, depression, grief, or overwhelm you, more quickly than a cancer diagnosis. Your life has been chucked up in the air and come down in a different order. Often what’s worse is your life is…
Archives
A Brief History of Using Hypnosis for Pain Management
Back in May 2018, I had the pleasure of presenting a talk within a workshop about hypnosis and pain management at The British Pain Society ASM. As some of you know I have a keen interest in the history of medicine, so was delighted to talk about the history of hypnosis in pain management. Of course, with time pressures of a presentation, I can only offer my interpretation of who I think the key influencers were and are, so no doubt I have omitted some, but perhaps that’s for another blog. So here is a summary of my presentation…. Many people have the misconception that hypnosis is the stuff of entertainers and magic shows, perhaps having seen them on TV or on stage whilst…
Pain is not a vital sign, so it can be controlled
As a consultant psychologist in chronic pain management, I spend a lot of my time exploring and refining my ideas about what pain is. The reason I do this is because what we think pain is, has important consequences for how we all view pain and how as a society we treat it. Over the past few months, I have been very interested to read an articles tracing some of the factors which have led to the explosion in the use of opioid medication. This is at its most serious in the US, but certainly has echoes in the UK as well. You may know the old saying‚ the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. It came to my mind when I was…
Living with chronic / persistent pain: Managing change
Living with chronic /persistent pain can be difficult as often it requires us to change. There is an expression used to describe the reality of living with chronic / persistent pain, it is the ‘new normal’. Life may change, it may be more limited in many ways, but it is still life and a ‘normal’ can be established. New routines, new choices, new challenges and opportunities will be there. There will still be a richness. Choices are like clearings in a forest. We cannot determine when we will come across a clearing, we cannot determine what it will be, but we can determine whether or not to enter the clearing and experience what it has to offer. We often cannot change what has happened…
Coping with chronic pain in the summer. Dr Sue’s top tips
Most of us feel better in the summer, warmth often seems to ease chronic pain and the sunshine lightens us all up, doesn’t it? A better mood makes it easier to cope with chronic pain in many circumstances, so get out and enjoy it. You will enjoy the sun even more if you watch out for some pitfalls which can come when you get out and about in the nicer weather. Heat and joint swelling Watch out for heat and especially humidity if you suffer from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis as changes in temperature can cause swelling in your joints, which of course can increase your pain. Many of you may already notice that changes in barometric pressure can lead to a spike in pain….
Sleep Talk
It’s been a busy few weeks, I have had the pleasure of talking to the ladies of Sandy WI about 5 steps to successful sleep. To give you a little flavour of the talk, I outlined the 5 steps to successful sleep based on: S – the science of sleep L – let it go! E – environment E – excuses, no more! P – your own personal sleep programme. The science of sleep – I started the talk by explaining briefly about the different stages of sleep in non REM and REM sleep, and what happened to our bodies during each stage. I talked about how the circadian rhythms and sleep wake homeostasis mechanisms worked together to remind us to sleep. This…
Endometriosis: so common, so painful and so ignored
Endometriosis: so common, so painful and so ignored. As it is International Women’s Day I thought I would focus on a medical condition which is often ignored or at least not taken seriously enough. This is endometriosis. It’s astounding we do not hear more about it when as many as one in 10 women in the UK are suffering from the condition. Many doctors are still woefully ignorant of the condition and it is very hard to diagnose as the symptoms can be very different from woman to woman. Endometriosis happens when cells from the womb enter the pelvic cavity, or other parts of the body, yet still behave like the cells in the womb. Like the cells in the womb they break down and…
Chronic Pain and depression: let’s tackle them together
I know many of my clients say they are depressed when they come to see me. Chronic pain, and how it seems to take over a life and crowd everything else out, can make life seem very bleak indeed. So, depression has been a professional concern of mine for a long time, and I am now embarking on a new venture with the well-known hypnotherapist Steve Miller, Hypno Antidepressant. This will be available soon. It seems a good time, therefore to look at the links between chronic pain and depression. We know that chronic pain and depression are linked, either one can worsen the other. According to figures from the United States more than half of people who go to the doctor with chronic pain…
Focus On Pain News
An inspirational story of a lady who manages her chronic pain If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know some of the things I recommend as part of my pain management regime. I know these work for the clients I see in my pain management clinics in Bedford and Milton Keynes. While I was looking around the web I found this lovely story from a lady call Beth Thorp about how she manages her pain. She has a coping plan, she exercises even when she is in pain, she gets out in the fresh air even if she does not really feel up to it as a change of scenery, she belongs to a support group saying ‘until I joined this…
My latest publication: Break the Pain Cycle in 28 Days
I bang on all the time about the need for a routine if you are going to manage your chronic pain well. But for a lot of people it is difficult to get into a routine. I know from clients who come to me for psychological techniques for pain management, that it is very easy to start off well and then something intervenes and you lose track. It can be a family situation, or work pressures, or you can have a bad day when your pain gets worse and you just give up. I decided to produce something which is do-able, easy to use and feels like a help rather than another mountain to climb. My answer is a simple diary which you can keep…