Venting the Pain

When a person is injured, family and friends rally around to offer sympathy, encouragement, and help with physical tasks. Everyone, including the patient, expects that this amount of assistance will only be needed temporarily, and that when the injury is healed, life will return to normal for everyone involved. But what happens when the injury results in longstanding pain and physical impairment? Or what happens when a person is diagnosed with a pain-causing condition such as degenerative disc disease, fibromyalgia, or migraines? If there are no crutches, casts, bruises, or bleeding to indicate that something serious is going on, bystanders usually assume that all is well. One of the most difficult features of chronic pain is its invisibility.
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It’s amazing how inconsistently many people breathe considering that if we don’t breathe at all we die. People in pain especially tend to hold their breath even though held breath diminishes blood flow thereby contributing to tense muscles and intensifying muscle spasms. Some people hold the breath “empty” after releasing air from the lungs, and some hold it “full.” What this means and why we hold the breath at all is a discussion for another article. Here we will focus on breathing awareness and some specific breathing techniques to reduce pain and promote general well being.
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At least once a week I am asked some version of the following question: “My doctor says I have to learn to live with my pain. Does this mean I’m making it up?”

As reassuring as I would like to be, I cannot give a short or simple answer to this heartfelt question. A doctor’s advice to learn to live with the pain generally comes after many medication trials, physical therapy, various procedures, perhaps acupuncture, and even surgery, all of which have been unsuccessful in providing lasting pain relief. By the time a person in severe pain hears that nothing new can be tried and this is the best it can be, he or she is exhausted, discouraged, and anxious about the future. It is at this point that pain patients are referred to behavioral medicine specialists, psychotherapists who not only deal with the emotional aspects of living in pain but also teach specific pain management techniques. When they are finally referred to us, pain patients ask if the pain is all in their heads.
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