| The battle to keep yourself focused and motivated shouldn't be fought alone. When you are in pain your mind thinks of one thing only, MAKE THIS PAIN STOP. This one track thinking often makes seeing the little things, the details, almost impossible at times and seemingly unimportant at other times. I can say for certain that as a chronic pain sufferer, the effects of your medication, lack of good sleep, lack of consistent sleep and the constant barrage of pain spikes affects your ability to remember many little things. It's not to say that they aren't important, it's just that your mind is preoccupied while using all of your synapses to power your minds fight to help your body stop the pain. Ever accidently brush up against a hot pot or pan? What's your first thought? I bet it's not about adding eggs to your grocery list. You couldn't care any less about that grocery list for a split second. Now imagine having that kind of preoccupying pain occur in parts of your body. Ah, now you understand what makes it hard to remember the little details that are coming at you. Keeping your mind strong and available to fight off the flareups but to also keep you in mainstream society, be that your family life, your job or whatever it is that's a part of your life, is just one of the challenges facing pain sufferers. Having the right tools to help keep your mind strong is a necessity. What kind of things can help keep your mind strong? Well, let's examine a few and you will see how and why you shouldn't be fighting your pain alone. Conversation can be very helpful in dealing with pains. Being able to be distracted with lively, enjoyable conversation can be just as effective in getting thru a pain flareup as the medical remedies you might be employing. Being able to talk to somebody who understands and is supportive of you during these times also helps to fight off depression. As many people know depression alone is a terrible, terrible thing to have to deal with. Add in severe and chronic pains and you getting thru the next couple of minutes seems almost impossible. There are even some medications for depression that also have pain relief tendencies. Check with your doctor or pain management facilitator to see what might work for you. Supportive conversation helps to keep you connected to the "real" world. You can vicariously enjoy the baseball game or your daughters cheerleading competition, your sons basketball game, the latest skateboarder's escapades or who did what at your spouses job today. Not being able to physically be at an event could add to your depression but having a supportive, spouse, relative, friend or co-worker stop in or call and talk to you about the latest happenings can lift that veil of depression and give you a since of belonging and being a part of the action. Conversation alone isn't always enough. When your support group knows and understands what you are living with they can be proactive and do things like video tape events so you can watch them later or call you once in awhile to check to see how you are doing. They can offer to go to the grocery store for you or to drive you there if not ride with you on your errands. On those days when you're not able to do for yourself they could get your mail or maybe cook breakfast, lunch or dinner for you. Having somebody do things for you and show you that they actually thought about you and that you were worth them making the effort to stop by or call goes a long way in fighting off depression when you're in pain. Sometimes, though, you're gonna be in pain and nobody's going to be available or around because life really does go on. When times like that occur, you need to have the ability to meditate in your little "tool" bag. Meditation has been around for centuries. There are various methods for meditating and I would suggest that you find the one that works for you. Some people meditate to chants. Some meditate to spoken word. Others meditate to music. However you choose to meditate just be sure that you really are comfortable with that form of meditation. Don't let somebody talk you into a form of meditation that you don't like. That will only add to your frustration and make your pain flareups more severe than they normally could be. Try different meditation techniques until you find the one that gives you the greatest "mental" escape from the pain and your surroundings. Getting to that deep meditative state will give your mind a chance to recoup it's energy while your body gets a chance to relax as much as it can. Getting the tension out of your muscles helps greatly when it comes to bringing down the pain levels. When you meditate it also helps to set the mood. Some people like dark rooms, some like bright. Low lights with music and maybe some scent from a candle or incense can also be used. Whatever gets you into that meditative state, legally, then do it. |