So last night I was in a huge amount of pain, and I knew it was only just starting.. I came online and started chatting and realized after a while that my meds had kicked in and I could go to sleep. So I'm wondering, how much do you think that we make our pain worse by anticipating how bad it's going to get? I mean if I hadn't gotten distracted I likely would have been stressing about how much it was going to hurt, and whether I would sleep, creating a self fulfilling prophecy, by increasing my own stress and agitation and thereby increasing the pain level...
I believe that our brain controls the pain level. I've noticed that my emotions play a major role in my pain. When I am experiencing positive emotions, the pain descreases significantly. My pain gets worst when I feel anger, anxiety and depression. Laughter always helps me ease pain so I make jokes all the time and engage in activities that makes me smile and laugh. Watching funny cat videos on Youtune always helps.
I also learned to control my pain through meditation. I've read about the role of the brain interpreting pain - and realized that I could decrease pain by controlling my attention. This requires a lot of practice but it's worth it. I use a Tibetan singing bowl to help me with meditation. I've been suffering severe nerve pain from a damage on my face (from a dog attack) since 2003 and I've tried different things (acupuncture, massage, meds, etc) with no success. Meditation is the only thing that worked to ease this debilitating pain (I was bed-ridden for years).
I think fear in general would make anyone tense up so add in our little special ingredient and it could have a longer lasting effect on us making us worry more and causing us more pain. I often find that when I am in a deep deep pain, unbearable pain that that is the point when I fear what my body is going through but I am already at the height of my pain for the flare up so I don't know exactly if my fear makes it stay longer or if the pain itself brings on the fear and make it stay longer than it would if I were not in pain. the next time I am in pain and have fear I will try to make myself break the two apart to see which is at the helm. . .