Pain is a useful and natural inborn response that we all experience as a result of a physical injury. The pain serves as a signal to our brain to refrain from engaging in further specific movement that will hinder the healing process. This we can refer to as normal pain that is suffered as a result of a physical condition, as in there is a physical reason that is causing the pain. This type of pain will decrease and disappear once the physical problem is resolved or healed. If this pain is strong then it may initially require treatment with medication.
Chronic pain is the term given to a pain that seems to persist ongoing after the normal healing time of an injury. Sometimes, this is due to issues of inflammation or possible nerve damage, but very often there is more to this pain. Persistent pain can cause ongoing issues with lack of sleep and negative mood. It may also hinder our work or leisure. All of this leads to a decrease in the quality of our life.
The other type of pain is psychogenic (psychological related). This can be related to an initial trauma or if a physical injury occurred whilst in a stressed or anxious state, then the nervous system can sometimes accidentally remain in a stressed state, resulting in a lingering pain long after the physical injury has actually healed. The sufferer usually has no conscious relation to this as they feel that the stressful event has passed and/or understand that the physical injury itself has indeed healed.
Furthermore, the problem can be made worse by those around the person adopting the view that the pain is fake, as doctors and other medical professionals may have stated that there is absolutely no physical reason for the pain to exist. However regardless of this, for the sufferer – the pain experienced is very real. Moreover, there is further risk if the person becomes dependent upon or misuses prescribed medication and/or resorts to self-medication via other substances.
Psychological pain is often the result of a manifestation of almost any underlying suppressed emotion. If feelings of sadness, anger, guilt and shame etc. are bottled up for any prolonged period of time, these can manifest themselves to be expressed via negative behaviours or via psychogenic pain.
Help is Here
I can actually work with all types of pain. I can help clients with longer term conditions like severe accidents and long term illnesses to learn pain management skills to ease their pain through the period of healing. I can also work with psychological pain. Often pain can be a message that there is some underlying emotional issue that needs to be resolved. We explore the underlying issue that is responsible for the symptoms of pain and then work with this to help resolve and thus allowing the pain to become redundant.
I approach pain management with a range of strategies that I blend together from the different applications that I carry in my coaching toolbox. Some common pains that are worked with include back pain, headaches, joint pain, specific muscle pain, stomach ache, toothache etc. However help is not limited to these.
Whatever type of pain you are suffering from, please connect with me to find out more about how I may be able to help you.