Coping

How do you handle pain?

By Annette Beach

Have you ever had days when your pain is so intense it brings you to tears?

Over time, living with a chronic illness can leave a person feeling isolated and lonely. The pain associated with an ongoing disease is both physical and emotional and is often at a level that healthy people cannot comprehend.

Those of us who live with pain daily have tolerances and can go through the motions, hiding our true feelings. But there are days when it hurts to literally move or we have to change our plans because we cannot function, exposing our real pain. On those days, in addition to the physical pain, we experience the feelings of doubt or letting others down, which causes us emotional pain.

I have dealt with both and I think they are both monsters! Physical pain hurts! It wears me down because it’s constant. Emotional pain has a tendency to sneak up on me then linger, causing guilt. The physical pain caused by my arthritis is tough enough, but when I factor in the emotional side, at times it can be unbearable.  

Depending on the type of pain I’m experiencing, I have several ways of coping; but there is one technique I use more than others. Years ago I created a method in my head to avoid using pain medicine and narcotics. Basically, I process the pain. I dissect it and view every angle: where it hurts, why it’s hurting, what it will take to make it stop, and so on. It is a very involved and time-consuming method, but it works for me. It has a lot to do with my faith and acceptance of my illness.   

When you experience pain, how do you cope? Do you think one pain is worse than the other (physical vs. emotional)?