Pain, Pain, Pain

[Brittany Gonord]

Pain! It is real, not just in my head. Physical pain - throughout the body - anytime, anywhere. Does anxiety increase pain? How many of you have physiological pains with zero explanations? Do medications help you (ibuprofen, aleve)?

 

[EveHarrington]

Hi,
Yes, I've had physical pain. Depending on the type of pain, OTC medications can help.

 

[ladee]

I have chronic pain due to Arthritis and work injuries. OTC meds do not help. I take a very serious pain med. It is worse when I am super stressed or have a lot of anxiety going on...for those occasions, I do not add pain meds, I do meditations, walking, distractions... things to calm the anxiety... I know the difference, thank goodness, so am not prone to keep taking RX drugs that could cause serious problems with my over all health....
Since paying attention to my body is not usually priority, this has taught me to pay more attention to symptoms of anxiety....
Some topical analgesics help also... but I have not had a day pain free in many years... have just learned to live with it.

 

[RobH]

Back aches , stress headache and general muscle tension made me more susceptible to pain medication addiction. OTC meds did help though. My therapist and pcd tried to avoid pain meds unless I absolutely have to have them but they have worked on reducing my overall anxiety level which helped a lot.

 

[Kallisti]

Anxiety makes it more difficult to live with pain, and it definately increases muscular tension, which in turn, increases muscular pain.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Yes I have chronic pain, I have an internal pain pump (also known as morphine pump) implanted inside of me delivering pain meds directly into my spine in order to be able to walk but still in a great deal of pain. Stress and anxiety absolutly increases the pain. Muscles tense up and make it a lot worse. My body shuts down where i can barley hold my body weight on my legs.

What i do is imagery/metaphors/thinking patterns, breathing exercises to lower the anxiety and DBT practices. It helps my muscles to not tighten up as bad overall.

Im also on seriquel xr which helps anxiety overall from being overall as high.

Id do stress managment and things to lower stress and anxiety.