We all have to put up with pain from time to time. However, pain can be particularly daunting if it is associated with a chronic condition, such as arthritis or fibromyalgia, a gruelling cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy, an injury or a surgical procedure. It is in situations such as these that an optimistic attitude is invaluable, helping you to treat your hardship as a challenge and to find a means of gaining control over it. By actively seeking ways to combat your pain, you will reduce the feelings of anxiety that it is likely to engender. This will help your body to fight back: anxiety disrupts your sleep – deep sleep is required to support your immune system and to enable your body to produce GH, a hormone that helps wounds to heal.
The most useful thing you can do to gain control over your pain experience and reduce your anxiety toward it is to understand what is causing it. This will demystify your situation, making it less frightening and more bearable. For example, in a study by health psychologists R.P. Pinto and J.G. Hollandsworth, children who watched a video explaining the surgery they were about to undergo reported feeling less pain and recovered sooner than children undergoing the same procedure who did not see the video.
Understand your condition by researching it in books and magazines and via the Internet, and write down questions to ask your doctor as they occur to you. Record the specific details of your own pain experience by keeping a health diary (see p.83). This may help you to identify factors, such as diet, exercise, stress or sleep, that exacerbate or alleviate your symptoms.
Another way to reduce your anxiety is to create guided imagery (see p.93) specifically to control your perception of pain. For example, you might write a script in which you lock your pain away. Picture yourself lifting your pain out of your body and shutting it in a chest or a vault that no one can ever open. As you walk away, notice how light and unburdened you feel. Keep these feelings with you to inspire you when the going is tough.