how does Pain affect your mental health

[lost rolex]

Morning all how does pain affect your mental decision making, can we make an informed choice when we experience pain or do we tend to go with the flow, or try to get our point across and be strong and battle it, do we make the wrong choices which frustrate us even more, can we separate mentally the pain for a wee while but with so many decisions to make on a day this could be wearing. and we could end up back at square one.



how do we cope.



LR  

[Zaf]

Ive learned the hard way not to battle pain, continuous pain  makes my depression worse then it becomes a vicious circle.

[Lol]

Interesting. I believe pain causes many complex pathways from complete retreat and abstainance to the most clarity we've ever had. Short term, sudden pain for example, a broken arm/leg can suddenly bring about a sense of clarity in how to deal with it and access stores of memories on first aid we thought long forgotten. there is evidence that able people in pain during major natural disasters such as earth quakes are more likely to be able to formulate a clear, sensible plan out, and execute it, than able people who are not in pain who are more likely to panic emotionally. Survival instinct kicks in more strongly for those who are in sudden moderate acute pain.

Longevity of pain is key and I think this is very wearing possibly causing us to make decisions based on the easiest life rather than the most beneficial. I think it does skew judgement as prolonged pain pales everything else into insignificance and enhances our attention to anything that might be relieving. I think chronic pain hinders mental decision making and is more likely to lead to wrong choices in the long run out of sheer exhaustion.

I think if that is true we cope by examining why we might be making a choice and learning to consciously consider all other options rather than trust our first instincts??

I don't know? what do you think?

[Zaf]

I think sudden acute pain must activate something like our adrenal gland as we often hear about people with horrifying injuries getting to safety etc (thinking about a farmer that carried his severed arm many miles to get help).

However I find continous chronic pain very wearing and it definitely makes me feel both physically and mentally ill

[lost rolex]

I agree with the short term pain survival instincts it tends to focus the mind, when we experience long term pain we tend to go with the flow, torture was for the soul purpose extruding what the people needed/wanted to know.

Long term pain can extrude feelings from deep with in us, feelings of insecurity, uncertainty, but also an inner strength strong mental pathways could be forged to reducing the effects pain has on us, plans etched in our minds to overcome the chains of pain. I believe strong urges to be ones self again keep coming to the surface and sometimes the medication suffocates that feeling, if we can channel long term pain into a series of short blasts then maybe it's not so insurmountable, just a sniff of freedom for me sets my brain into overdrive, one slight good day shifts my emotions into fight.

Freedom to be who i was and not what i am, freedom for choice, peoples perceptions of ill/disabled people are at the least suspicious at the most nosy they see what they want to see, it's what they don't see, that's where the strength with in us has to hide, and that's where we fail able-bodied people can not cope with people who try it's far to confusing and just a snap shot of there life, you try to get better and be interdependent after shifting a lot of mental energy around, but at the end of the day can we sustain this for ever ??.

Desperation makes us do things we regret, i have never regretted anything i have done in my life, but i may come to regret one thing in this god dame cage i live in and regret my dogged determination and selfishness coupled with a strength of mental presence which is unequaled in anyone i have met, everyone i meet  describes me as a dog with a bone,  and letting go is not an option,


at what stage in my life should i be able to lie down and let this all wash over me, i am resisting more medication for mental help because i want the reality to be real and the pain to drive me forward into a better world for me and my family.


LR      

[Lol]

I can see that you are very strong. You are a survivor.

I'm going to take a little time to digest this post, it needs thinking about.

[cornish]

i suffer with virtually constant pain and its just a reminder of what this all started with.

but short term pain from my self harm is a huge help for me

[Raindrops]

i suffer with virtually constant pain and its just a reminder of what this all started with.

but short term pain from my self harm is a huge help for me

I second the self harm part.