We may experience aches and pain in our body from time to time when we overwork or overtax ourselves. We may also experience pain due to an injury or a medical condition. And as caregivers we may also experience pain when we overstrain ourselves while helping our loved ones.
Managing pain is important. Pain can be physically and mentally draining, contributing to becoming burnt out from caregiving. Pain can also affect our attention and concentration, and consequently our ability to care for our loved ones.
Our first response to pain is to try to eliminate it. We rest or seek medical treatment for it. However, at times, the aches and pain returns. And unfortunately for some of us, the pain may be consistently there.
You probably have tried different ways to manage the pain e.g., Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Physiotherapy etc. Did you know that psychological methods can be added to your bag of tools to manage pain? While psychological methods do not help to cure or eliminate pain, they can help you to cope better with pain, improve your quality of life and functioning.
When we have pain, we naturally avoid certain action and activities that aggravate the pain. We may find ourselves limiting other actions outside of caregiving, e.g., avoiding bending over if we have back pain. At times, we may even have negative thoughts about how the pain will worsen and how our health and life will turn out. These behavioural and cognitive impacts of pain on us, can be better managed through behavioural strategies from psychology.
Here are some behavioural strategies from psychology to help you cope with pain.
Please continue to seek medical help for your pain, especially if it is acute pain.
1. Reframe Pain
Reframe pain as an experience that can benefit from self-management. Pain is frequently seen as debilitating and this will only make us more helpless. Pain can be effectively managed and this has been backed by research. While it may take a while for you to manage your pain effectively, it is within reach.
2. Pace Your Activities for the Long Run
It is perfectly normal for you to avoid certain activities to not aggravate your pain. However, in the long run, avoiding activities may lead to muscle wastages and contribute to further inactivity. Build your activities up gradually rather than rush into them or push yourself beyond your limits. For example, if you can only stand for 10 minutes to cook now without aggravating the pain, slowly build it up, and take brief breaks, rather than forcing yourself to stand for 30 minutes.
3. Plan Small Personal Projects
We often experience a conflict within us when we have pain. We struggle between pursuing activities and reducing engagement in them. Such conflicts can be overcome when we break down the activities into small personal projects that can be realistically executed. For example, instead of cleaning the whole room in a day, it may be more realistic to just clean the cabinet. Instead of showering your loved ones all by yourself, you could ask others to help.
4. Pair Your New Activity With An Existing Activity
The chances and willingness of you doing something is higher if it is incorporated into your routine and part of your caregiving. For example, if you like to build up your capacity to perform the activity of taking a walk and have some hesitation to do so, you may want to plan to do it after an existing activity. I will go for a walk with my loved one who is wheelchair bound, after I have fed my loved one dinner.
5. Overcome Pain-Related Fear Through Evaluation
Our fear of pain frequently limits us from engaging in activities. One way to manage this fear is to evaluate our thoughts after we try out these activities. Most of the time, we will find that the thoughts may not be that true.
Caregiving is challenging. Managing pain is not easy either. You are not alone and the journey can definitely be better. I hope these behavioural strategies from psychology can help you in one way or another.
Lew Yuen Foong, Henry
Counselling Psychologist
M A (Applied Psychology)
Registered Psychologist and Clinical Supervisor of Singapore Psychological Society
References:
de Moraisa, D., Terassia, M., Inouyea, K., Luchesia, B. M., & Pavarinia, S. C. I. (2016). Chronic pain in elderly caregivers at different levels of frailty. Rev Gaúcha Enferm, 37(4), e60700.
Sharpe, L., Jones, E., Ashton‐James, C. E., Nicholas, M. K., & Refshauge, K. (2020). Necessary components of psychological treatment in pain management programs: A Delphi study. European Journal of Pain, 24(6), 1160-1168.
Terassi, M., Montoya, P., Pavarini, S. C. I., & Hortense, P. (2021). Influence of chronic pain on cognitive performance in elderly caregivers: a longitudinal study. Revista brasileira de enfermagem, 74(suppl 2), e20200412.
Terassi, M., Ottaviani, A. C., SOUZA, É. N. D., Fraga, F. J., Montoya, P., Pavarini, S. C. I., & Hortense, P. (2021). Cognition and chronic pain: an analysis on community-dwelling elderly caregivers and non-caregivers. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria, 79, 201-208.
Vlaeyen, J. W., & Crombez, G. (2020). Behavioral conceptualization and treatment of chronic pain. Annual review of clinical psychology, 16, 187-212.
All information is accurate at the time of publishing.