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Being social with friends and family can brighten your mood and help you manage your pain.


spiral; that you didn’t do anything to deserve the pain; and that if you banish words like “always” or “never” from your pain vocabulary, you’ll make your circum- stances easier to deal with. Research from the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Disease and the University of Bath, in the U.K., found that “psycho- logical flexibility,” which includes acceptance, mind- fulness, focusing on personal values and cognitive defusion (learning to separate yourself from anxious thoughts), plays a significant role in how well people with chronic pain function physically. Simply put, revamping a defeated attitude is re- ally about establishing a new normal for yourself, rather than bemoaning what you’ve lost. Barbara Beasley, 55, discovered this after chronic back pain, a fractured foot, sciatica and neck and shoulder pain sidelined her from three of her favorite activities— running, yoga and horseback riding—in 2008. After going from one healthcare practitioner to another and receiving inadequate advice, she became de- pressed. “I realized I had to adjust my mindset to be more positive and take charge,” recalls Beasley, a change strategist for a healthcare distribution com-


54 PAIN RESOURCE FALL 2012


pany in San Francisco. She signed up for a program designed to help her change how she holds her body while walking, sitting, standing and so on. “Once I started doing the body work, I felt more in control and that gave me hope that I could get through this,” she recalls. “Getting that sense of power back helped me move away from depression and frustration.”


Get better snooze control. Sleep disturbances are common consequences of chronic pain and depression—which can be espe- cially unfortunate since sleep is vital to improving both. “Doctors are often a bit unimpressed by the importance of getting people to sleep, but sleep prob- lems can be both a cause and a result of both a chronic pain disorder and depression,” says Portenoy. “In some cases, targeting the sleep problem may have positive effects on the other conditions.” After all, getting good shut-eye has powerful restorative effects on your body and mind, whereas insufficient or poor- quality sleep can lower your pain threshold and leave you cranky the next day. “Sleep loss keeps a vicious cycle going: It leads to irritability and a decrease in


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