Chronic Pain

To better manage chronic pain, choose 1 attainable goal to work on at a time.

As you create goals, consider the following:

• Do you want to increase your daily functioning?
• Do you want to resume an activity you once enjoyed?
• Do you want to decrease your daily pain rating?
• Are you trying to better cope with your pain?

Next, identify a "SMART" goal that you think you can achieve. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

For example, if you want to get back to walking your dog, set a goal to walk your dog for 5 minutes if your pain is below a 5 on a 0 to 10 scale (where 0 is no pain, and 10 is excruciating pain). After you walk, congratulate yourself on meeting your goal! Then, reassess how you feel using the pain scale.

Breathing exercises and mindfulness can shift your focus away from pain. Breathing exercises also help to lower stress in the body by sending a message to the brain to slow down.

Learn about:

• ‍Calming breathing exercises to add to your day‍
• Practicing mindfulness

Try to pace yourself to increase how much you can do. Do an activity to a specific pain threshold, and then take a break until your pain reduces.

For example, to clean with the pacing technique:

• Plan to clean for 20 minutes.
• If your pain rating goes above 7, stop cleaning.
• Take a break until your pain decreases back to 5, then resume.
• If the pain rating remains high even with a break, stop cleaning for the day, and assess how you feel the next day.

It's common to push through pain, which can make it worse the next day. Pacing encourages listening to your body's signals and can help reduce overall pain.

Therapy can be a useful tool to help cope with the challenges of living with pain.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is one option that encourages people to think about their pain in a different way and understand how they can find contentment.

Acceptance can be a powerful coping tool. Individuals with chronic pain often focus on negative thoughts, like:

• “I can't do this”
• “This is the worst pain imaginable”
• “I'm broken if I can't do a specific activity”

Using ACT can help you:

• Have more balanced thoughts
• Work toward your goals, despite the obstacle
• Decrease the intesnity of your pain, by meeting it with acceptance