The Six Components of Chronic Pain

By Barry K Hughes

The 6 Components of Chronic Pain
When you think of your pain, you probably think of it as one uniform entity. You may think "My pain is worse today "or "I wish it would go away." In reality, what we call pain can be broken down into several different aspects. By looking at these aspect one at a time, you can better understand your unique situation.

The Pain Experience - refers to your personal and subjective experience of pain sensations. The experience is unique to each person, and can't be measured or confirmed by someone else. It is entirely what you feel.

Physical Injury and Damage is related to actual damage to tissue. In acute pain, this relationship is usually pretty clear (e.g., with a broken arm). With chronic pain, there is often less connection to physical injury, since the body may just be sending signals that have outlived their usefulness.

Medical Test Findings - refers to the results of medical tests like x-rays or MRI scans. This component is different than physical injury, since a lack of medical test findings does not necessarily mean there is not some undetected physical injury.

Suffering - includes not only pain, but all the negative emotional complications that can go along with it: depression, fear, anxiety, and anger. These do not always go hand in hand; it is possible to decrease your suffering even in the face of chronic pain.

Disability - refers to the interference of pain with things that you've liked to do in the past, such as work, play with your kids or grandkids, or engage in recreational activities. Level of disability is related to your actual pain level, as well as to complicating emotional factors.

Pain Behavior - includes the part that can be seen by others. Pain behavior may be a verbal expression of discomfort, limping because of back or leg pain, or just a grimace or wince when in pain. Pain behavior can effect how other people interact with you; for example, when a person exhibits little pain behavior, other people may not understand the degree of your pain.

Alternatively, some people find being around someone with a lot of behavior frustrating.

I strongly encourage you to think about where you're at with each of these components. Analyze the areas in which you feel you are having the most difficulty. Try to find areas where you can make changes that will improve the quality of your life.

As an example, you may find that while you can't change the fact that you're not able to work at this time (disability), you may, through exercise or hypnosis or yoga, improve your perception of the severity of your pain (experience).

You may not be able to have an impact on your experience, but by altering your activities and engaging in more things you find pleasurable, you may be able to reduce the level of suffering you experience in your day to day life.

Rather than being overwhelmed by your experience try breaking it down into these smaller pieces, and looking for ways you can make small changes that can add up to a big improvement in your quality of life.

Barry Hughes, Ph.D. is a psychologist and publisher of Chronic Pain Alternatives which provides "Resources and Information for People with Chronic Pain." He has built this site using Site Build It the easiest way to translate your passion onto the Web.

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