Severe Lower Back Pain and Getting Out of Stress Related to Back Pain
Can Stress Cause Back Pain?
The answer as to whether stress can cause back pain requires us to take a look at our nature. Our brains are hardwired to respond to stimuli, both physical and mental. In the past, these stimuli helped us respond to threats in the wild and avoid existential dangers. Hormones like adrenalin played a crucial role in this process, helping us to understand fear and take action to prevent harm.
During an episode of severe pain, our brains become "hijacked" by a rush of hormones that accompany our emotional states. For patients with chronic pain, this can be especially problematic. The brain experiences painful stimuli along with the emotional distress caused by the pain, and the central nervous system can't focus on anything else. Our worry about the pain takes over. Over time, this whole process can become exhausting and leave us feeling frustrated and hopeless about where the severe back pain is coming from. Understanding the impact of pain on our mental and emotional states is crucial for managing back pain and avoiding the secondary effects of pain-related stress.
How to Decrease Pain Levels and Avoid Severe Back Pain
1. Understand Your Back Pain and Do Things You Enjoy
If you experience severe back pain often, it’s best to understand the warning signs to prevent future episodes. When you start to see warning signs of impending worry or stress, try to casually engage in activities that you enjoy. It’s best to engage in activities in a casual, more subtle manner. Overfocusing on getting rid of the stimuli may make you more anxious. It’s best to do activities you enjoy doing in your routine or treat yourself to something special.
If you’re suffering from chronic pain, understand that you’ve been here before and that you have gotten yourself out of it as before as well. It will give you the confidence you need to manage your situation more consciously and will help help you gain more control over your emotions.
2. Get Into an Environment Of Comfort
When you sense an impending stress episode caused by chronic pain, get into a comfortable position or environment. This can help you relax and build up pain endurance. Being in a calm environment will also make you more aware of your emotional state and give you the emotional intelligence needed to tackle incoming pain-related stress.
Use breathing techniques to help you relax further. The Riseflo app offers numerous techniques that can help your mind focus on calming down instead of being anxious. When you take control of your breathing, it affects your mood and helps you take your mind off of your painful condition, eventually making you more relaxed and comfortable.
3. Focus On The Present to Reduce the Impact of Pain
Although it’s tough, focusing on the here and now can help you assess your severe pain from an objective point of view. Understand that even if you’re currently experiencing anxiety caused by your chronic pain, it’s not going to last forever. Telling yourself that you’re going to be alright, maybe even out loud, can boost your confidence and give you the mental strength to deal with your situation better.
Try focusing on the smells, your physical presence, or the visuals and sounds in your environment. When you consciously focus on the stimuli being received by your other senses, your mind will automatically divert away from your painful condition and help you gain back control. A technique that often helps people focus on the present moment is the body scan. A body scan has you scan through your body for areas of pain and discomfort, and conversely areas of comfort and relief. This objective view of where your body is can be relaxing and prevent the “all is bad” type of thinking. Here is one that we enjoy doing every day.
4. Identify that Increases in Pain are not the Only Cause
For pain patients, it's important to understand that chronic pain is often not the only source of mental panic and anxiety. Factors such as work, family, and overall health can contribute to the development of worrying about back pain, which can make you experience painful bursts of anxiety and anguish. Even though a serious pain episode may be the trigger point for worrying, it may not be the only factor at play. You could be worried about what the pain means, be upset about the things in life that you’re missing, or just your system over-focusing on the pain.
By recognizing that it's not just the physical pain causing your worry, you can approach your condition from a position of power and regain control of the situation. This can help you calm down and manage your chronic pain more effectively.
4. Take Action to Reduce Stress
Shift your focus toward positive thoughts. Practice gratitude regularly and be thankful for all the good in your life. Think of happy memories and all the good that’s going on in your life. If you’re stuck in worry caused by back pain, you can use guided imagery to help you focus on good memories from the past.
The Power to Decrease Pain Levels
In summary, it’s important to understand that worrying about your severe back pain will only worsen it. Let go of catastrophic thinking. Challenge your negative thinking by not beating yourself over your anxious and intrusive thoughts.
In psychology, Socratic questioning is an effective method to question one’s thoughts. When you start to question your irrational thoughts, maybe even by repeating them out loud, your mind automatically starts to seek logical reasoning behind those thoughts making it realize their irrationality. Socratic questioning is a practice used by therapists to help patients with anxiety and depression but you can use it on yourself as well. It’s conducted through disciplined questioning we can have with ourselves to help us see a situation in an objective way and take the edge off of negative emotions we're experiencing from the situation. A few examples of questions we can ask ourselves:
1) Is what I’m thinking 100% true?
2) Is there a different (less negative) way to look at this issue?
3) What would I tell a close friend if they had this thought or emotion?
4) Is this thought or emotion helpful to me?
5) Is there evidence that I am not taking into account?
6) What is the evidence for and against this thought?
7) Is the thought based on facts or feelings?
8) Am I making any assumptions or could I be misinterpreting the evidence?
9) Am I just looking for confirming evidence for a negative self-belief?
10) Am I thinking about the worst-case scenario? How likely is this negative belief?
Dealing with severe low back pain and pain-related stress can be difficult. If you regularly experience severe pain, it may be time to tackle your chronic pain with a positive mindset and join a systematic program like Riseflo. By consistently taking action and measuring your progress over time, you can effectively manage your severe pain symptoms and build up the mental resilience to avoid panic and reduce pain.
