Your mind: What you think influences your behaviorsIf you tell a joke to a group of people and some laugh while others don’t, did you make some happy? The answer is no – some thought it was funny and some thought it was not.
If you go to a haunted house with a group and some say they were scared while others say it was silly, did the haunted house make people scared? Again, the answer is no – what people thought resulted in their being scared or not. When you think something is funny or silly, you laugh. When you think something is frightening, you are scared. Your knees may shake. You may even scream. But did you know that what you think about pain also influences how to you respond to it? |
Two views of chronic pain |
Observations of injured soldiers bears this out. Researchers have been surprised to find that soldiers who have suffered terrible injuries – even losing limbs – sometimes report very little pain, while people who have suffered similar injuries in automobile accidents understandably describe unbearable pain. Researchers suspect the difference is in the way the two groups think about their injuries. A soldier may think of an injury as the end of his time on the battlefield. A trip to the hospital for a lost limb is preferable to staying on the frontlines and possibly losing his life.
For a person who suffers a similar injury in an accident, however, the injury is seen as the end of a mobile pain-free life and the beginning of a painful disability and long recovery. Similar to a chronic painful disease there is very little positive one can think of this. Yet there are positives in almost every situation, and if you think about the positives, focus on the positives, you become empowered. |
Viewing pain through different lenses |
For example, let’s say knee pain makes it difficult to walk. If you think, “I’ll never make it around the block – what’s the use in trying?” you probably won’t. But what it you instead thought, “It may be difficult for me to walk around the block, but I can at least walk down the street and visit a neighbor?” You probably will.
Or what if your illness makes it possible to do some of the activities that once gave your life meaning, such as serving meals at local soup kitchen or wielding a hammer and saw for Habitat for Humanity? If you think, “I can’t help anyone anymore,” you probably won’t. But what if instead you thought “I can’t do the physical things I once did, but my pain has made me a more compassionate person. I will find other ways to help”? In that case you probably will. You -- and others – will benefit. |
Your mind and your medicine |
For another example most of have experienced: What if your medications don’t seem to be working as well as you had hoped? If you think “These medicines are useless,” you may not even take them (in which case, they can’t work). So what if instead you thought, “These medications aren’t working as quickly as I would like. If I don’t notice some improvement in the next week (or month), I will call my doctor to see if we need to increase the dose or change medicines?”
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Put your thoughts into action |
Although these are simple examples when the situations they represent are far from simple, they do demonstrate that your thoughts can influence your actions. Think about what you want – to be more active? To find volunteer activities you can do? To find better treatments for your condition? Then take steps – even if they are small ones at first – to get what you want.
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