Psychological therapy
When you are in pain, you might feel sad, angry, hopeless, and despair. Chronic pain can alter your personality, disrupt your sleep, and interfere with your work and relationships. Psychological treatment can help your pain directly by reducing high levels of physiological stress that often aggravate pain.
For example, depression and anxiety make pain worse, yet pain causes depression and anxiety. Stress makes pain worse, yet pain causes stress. Lack of sleep makes pain worse, yet it is very difficult to sleep when you have pain.
Much of psychological treatment for pain is about education, helping patients acquire skills to manage their problems. Common psychological treatments are:
Talk therapy allows you to receive the support and counselling of a psychiatrist or psychologist.
Relaxation training teaches you how to relax. This has been associated with healing and pain reduction.
Stress management teaches you how your thoughts affect your stress level and how to manage difficult situations.
With pain coping skills training, you can learn how to live with pain so that you can live as normal a life as possible.
Chronic pain can alter your personality, disrupt your sleep, and interfere with your work and relationships.
