Emotions and self-regulation in chronic pain

I posted about the reciprocal effect of emotions on goal content and today I want to look a little further into this.
A profound statement in the paper by Hamilton, Karoly & Kitzman is this: ‘If emotional well-being influences the selection and the valuation of a particular goal, then it is likely that the relationship between [...]

‘What do I do when I’ve had enough’: The Effect of Emotions on Self-regulation & Chronic Pain

As soon as read the first paragraph of the paper I’ve used as the basis for this post, I knew I was onto something that resonated with my original occupational therapy values. It says this:
‘Living with chronic pain is a balancing act. People with chronic pain are required to make daily decisions [...]

Self regulation – what it is and what to do

So, if self regulation is about exerting control over thoughts, feelings, actions and physiology, how does it work?
When I skipped through some Google references last night (o font of all knowledge!) I found a good number of sites referring to self regulation and children – but not nearly as many relating to adults, or the [...]

I’m so tired of coping: Self regulation, executive functions and chronic pain

Changes take energy – that’s nothing new, I know, but perhaps something as clinicians we might forget when we work with people who have chronic pain. I was thinking about this as I’ve had a week away from regular blogging so I could focus on writing and some self care.  Things are busy and [...]

Feeling the pain: distraction/relaxation or exposure

It’s not the pain, it’s the judgement of the pain that makes it so distressing – or at least, that’s how the cognitive behavioural model of pain views our experience of pain. As a result, most pain management therapies working to help people manage when their pain can’t be removed involves reviewing how people [...]

Acceptance worksheets and more

Trying to help someone begin the process of accepting chronic pain is no easy task. My observation is that people need time to recognise that their pain problem is not acute pain  (so it won’t ‘heal’), and go through the process of seeking ‘the cause’ (so the ‘cure’ can be found), then begin the long [...]

Coping: what is it?

Some of you will know I’ve been striving to write my PhD proposal lately, ending up with loads more words than actually necessary! However, as part of it I’ve been reviewing some of the material I’ve collected over time on coping.
Coping is one of those difficult words – one we all know, but don’t [...]

Meaning-focused coping – looking for the good things in dark times

I’ve been reading about ways to increase resilience and help people develop strengths to cope with pain, and came across this blog post on Positive Psychology News where Kathryn Britton reviews several papers by Susan Folkman and others who look at ways of coping.  I’ve posted before on the Lazarus and Folkman model of coping [...]

More on anxiety and pain – pain-related anxiety

It seems obvious that something unpleasant is something to be avoided – and if we’re meant to avoid it, we’re likely to be just a little bit afraid of it. Yesterday I talked about health anxiety in general, and today I want to touch on a specific sub-group of health anxiety – pain-related anxiety.
Many [...]

Seeing people progress

A quick post this morning before I search for some Friday funnies!
I saw a few patients this week after having had just over a fortnight off work – and you know how sometimes working in pain management can seem unrewarding, progress can be incredibly slow, one step forward, two sideways… Well here are some progress [...]