Health anxiety & chronic pain
Yesterday’s post about ‘hypochondria’ and chronic pain created a bit of a storm. Emotions run high when you have chronic pain and someone somewhere suggests (a) that it’s ‘all in your head’ or (b) you’re just being a ‘hypochondriac’. There are loads of reasons why both of those comments are inaccurate and unhelpful, but as … Read more
“You’re just being a hypochondriac” – health anxiety & chronic pain
I think that label has to be one of the most feared amongst the people I see with chronic pain. To be judged as being obsessed about nonexistant illnesses when actually having pain every day must be incredibly difficult to cope with. At the same time, being anxious about health and having mistaken beliefs about … Read more
Fear of pain, not always fear of harm
I know it’s actually Friday Funnies day, but before I go there I want to explore something I’ve been observing for a while. Over the past four or five years, the TSK (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia) has been a really popular instrument for identifying and monitoring pain-related anxiety and avoidance. It has been found to … Read more
Wondering: Does targeting specific outcomes have an effect?
I’ve recently read a couple of studies of group-based CBT for chronic pain showing that outcomes are both durable and cost effective – and I started to ponder a little, as I do. So far, it seems that no-one can identify the vital ingredients in a CBT approach that ‘do the work’ or create the … Read more
Efficiency & pain management
I can’t remember a time when people working in health were told ‘Go and spend as much as you like to help people get well’ – in fact, in over 20 years I can only recall being told ‘there is less money in the kitty, we need to look for efficiencies, tighten your belts’! So … Read more
Accepting chronic pain
How willing are you to have persistent pain? Can you accept pain without fighting against it? If you were told your pain was going to be there forever, would you avoid important activities or would you start to get back into life again? Recently I reviewed about 200 questionnaires completed by people attending the Pain … Read more
Friday funnies
Preparing for the weekend is serious business IMHO. After a busy week full of challenges, the last thing we need is to go into a weekend without forethought. Friday funnies is, therefore, a service brought to you in the interests of effective outcomes and an adequate systems view. A procedure manual is under development, but … Read more
Sometimes it’s not the therapy that doesn’t work
A couple of people commented on my post about setbacks saying that they wished the people they saw were like Allan – instead of quickly going back to ‘old habits’, Allan chose to stay with self management even when he enountered a painful flare-up and it was suggested that he have another scan and go … Read more
Setbacks
A couple of days ago I mentioned the satisfaction I feel when a person I’ve been working with faces a setback and manages it successfully on their own for the first time. Someone replied saying that we all face pain setbacks alone, so what did I mean really – and I thought today I’d … Read more
Maintaining change
I’m sure we’ve all seen it. The person comes into a pain management programme, gets excited, does really well during each session, enjoys the company and makes huge gains – then the programme ends and — FIZZLE! It all stops. Some critics suggest that any change obtained during a short-term programme (such as a three-week … Read more
