What’s the link between anxiety and chronic pain?

Before we discuss the link between anxiety and chronic pain, let’s first look at the link between stress, anxiety and depression.

While they are different, they’re definitely related.

• Stress is the first sign that a life experience or situation is putting you under pressure. You may become tense and irritable or develop a headache or upset stomach.
  • You would probably cope with the situation just fine if you had more time, resources and/or support.
• Anxiety kicks in if you feel unsafe – due to, for example, physical attack, judgment, making a fool of yourself – and that there is little you can do about it. Anxiety can stem from undue worry or a sense that some part of your life is out of control.
  Anxiety is a stressed state of heightened or irrational fear.
  • Your sense of control and ability to cope is considerably less when you’re anxious than if you were stressed.
• Depression comes with the heavy weight of hopelessness. You perceive life as threatening and have given up hope that you will ever have the power to feel in control.  Consequently, your self-image will be poor.
  • Depression is a stressed state of complete disempowerment – having lost all faith and belief in yourself to cope and control your outcomes.

The link between all 3 states is your sense of safety, ability to cope and level of confidence that you’re in control of your life.

These three things are affected by:

1. Childhood trauma
2. Family patterns – lifestyle choices, learnt stress reactions, parenting styles
3. Perceived lack of control and limiting belief systems
4. Overwhelmingly stressful life events
5. Inadequate or inappropriate coping mechanisms
6. Lack of social support and connection 

Link between anxiety and chronic pain

Medical research has demonstrated links between stress, anxiety and depression and physical disorders.

Various degrees of stress lead to inflammation in the body. If the stress, and therefore inflammation, persists for extended periods of time, the body will slowly but surely start to breakdown.

For example, auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and also chronic pain.

Causes of chronic pain

Most researchers agree that the causes of chronic pain are substantially psychological and social.¹ Interestingly, the predictors of most types of chronic pain are:

1. anxiety
2. depression
3. poor coping mechanisms
4. low social support
5. the possibility of disability compensation²

Our reaction to chronic pain is largely due to our general sense of control over the situation – can we deal with the pain and its consequences in an effective and meaningful way.

Researchers found that people with a greater sense of self-mastery and control had a higher tolerance for pain than individuals with low self-efficacy.³

It is for these reasons that when you are trying to reduce stress or physical pain in your life, a multi-pronged or holistic approach works best.

Comprehensive stress & pain reduction program

The following six action steps are recommended to reduce stress, anxiety and chronic pain from your body and life:

1. Gain awareness of stress
   – the associated thoughts & physical sensations
   • This may sound obvious, but many of us minimise or deny our stress and pain as a coping mechanism. Unfortunately, it then compounds without us realising. The first step is always to acknowledge something exists and how badly it’s impacting you.
2. Practice relaxation techniques
   – guided meditation, muscle relaxation, yoga, tai chi, body breathing, stress balls, time in nature
   • I’m confident you’ve already heard about this step. What’s important is to do something you enjoy and to make it a regular habit.
     
3. Develop realistic appraisals & attitudes
   – become aware of absolute language (always, never) and negative thought patterns like the eight patterns of limited thinking
   • In this step, you’ll become more aware of your inner dialogue and thoughts. For example, if you’re someone who regularly feels anxious, you may have the limited thinking pattern of ‘catastrophising.’ Which means you tend to think about the worse thing that could possibly happen.
4. Develop healthy coping mechanisms
   – process emotions associated with stressful or traumatic events, develop time management, conduct assertiveness training
   • A healthy coping mechanism helps you to self-regulate your thoughts, feelings and actions.
     This helps you to stay present, calm and in control, able to make good decisions, and master your tasks and priorities.
     You’ll keep yourself safe by respecting your boundaries and needs, and communicating that assertively to others.
5. Modify behaviours to promote health
   – lifestyle changes, eating habits, water intake, gratitude journal, 30 minutes of exercise, ‘play time’
   • Making healthy lifestyle changes will ultimately help your body and mind to cope with stress, as well as reducing the pain-causing inflammation in your system.
     Just pick one thing to change and work on that for a month or until you’ve developed a new healthy habit.
     
6. Develop a strong sense of self or personal identity
   – self-worth, healthy personal boundaries, awareness of limits, belief in yourself, needs assessment, expression of authentic self
   • When you trust yourself to keep yourself safe, have developed healthy coping mechanisms and are confident that you’re 100 percent in control of your life, life becomes a whole lot easier!
     You’ll also develop a strong sense of self – knowing who you are and what you have to offer.

There is a clear link between stress, anxiety and chronic pain. Learning to effectively manage stress and pain will create more opportunities for you to live an enriched, playful and meaningful life.

Final comments

It’s clear that feeling a sense of control in our lives and feeling confident in our ability to cope with challenges is crucial to our psychological & physical wellbeing.

You may make improvements to your stress levels, mental health and chronic pain through better coping mechanisms, positive thought patterns, healthier lifestyle choices and social support, but is it enough…

Will that really have you full of vitality, joy and living a life of your dreams feeling passionate and fulfilled? Maybe, but maybe not…

Resolving traumatic life experiences and unhealthy family patterns, as well as a commitment to personal development is also needed.

You know that you recognise this if you’ve been saying to yourself, ‘There’s got to be more to life than this!’ Or you’re fed up with the same old patterns that keep showing up in your relationships or career. And you still don’t feel that close to your family.

Need help?

True transformation in your health and life always starts from within! 

Contact Jocelyn for a free 30-minute Discovery Call today.