A couple of months ago I recognised that living with constant pain had made me depressed. I spoke to my GP about it and put he me on some anti-depressants and recommended I try some Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to help me come to terms with the fact of the chronic pain.
I was a little sceptical but on the whole the experience has been positive. During the course of it I was introduced to the concept of mindfulness as a means of controlling pain. It get's one brief mention on the NRAS site. It's a technique for focusing on the pain in a way that challenges our usual approach and can actually reduce the degree of pain we suffer. In the first chapter of a book on the topic the author says (and I paraphrase), 'The pain is always worst at night, you have taken the maximum dose of painkillers and yet the pain persists." Sound familiar?
Anyway, I have ordered the book from Amazon so that I can dig a bit deeper. I wondered whether any of you had tried mindfulness? If so I'd love to hear your experiences, good or bad.
I think I have been using a form of mindfulness in the past to treat my migraines. I used to find that if I tried to centre my thoughts on the physical pain point in my head, it would reduce the level of pain. Let's see if I can extend this principle to my RA pains.
This is the book I have bought "
Mindfulness for Health: a practical guide to relieving pain...." by Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman.
Paul Barrett
Hexham - Northumberland - Loads of spectacular walks - all I need now are the joints to go with them! :)
Enthesitis (2012)
Ulcerative Colitis (1990)
