{"id":6209,"date":"2014-10-06T06:59:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T10:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/?p=6209"},"modified":"2025-09-04T14:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:37:12","slug":"psychiatric-pain-management-making-positive-psychological-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/6209\/psychiatric-pain-management-making-positive-psychological-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychiatric Pain Management:  Grief and Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Welcome to the\u00a0series <em>Why You Should\u00a0See a Pain Management Psychiatrist<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s\u00a0look at making changes in how you see your pain condition and the\u00a0disability it causes. Both\u00a0pain itself and\u00a0the negative changes it causes in your life\u00a0are CHALLENGING to cope with. People\u00a0experience a lot of loss &#8211;\u00a0loss of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>good health<\/li>\n<li>being pain-free<\/li>\n<li>doing enjoyable activities with family and friends<\/li>\n<li>going to work<\/li>\n<li>hope or spirituality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many go through the <em>Stages of Grief<\/em>, which are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Denial &#8211; <\/strong>you can&#8217;t believe this is happening to you<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anger<\/strong> &#8211; that so many negative changes are occurring<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bargaining<\/strong>\u00a0 &#8211;\u00a0you&#8217;d do anything to get back your previous life<\/li>\n<li><strong>Depression<\/strong> &#8211;\u00a0difficulty coping, and mourning\u00a0the loss of your pain-free life<\/li>\n<li><strong>Acceptance<\/strong> &#8211;\u00a0coming to terms with pain and the changes it brings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These stages are a process, a working through, and for many, are slow.\u00a0I believe that to move forward, you often must first recognize and mourn for what you&#8217;ve lost.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let&#8217;s look more at <em>acceptance<\/em>,\u00a0<\/strong>acceptance of both pain and the changes in your life.<\/p>\n<p>Acceptance is:<br \/>\n<em>1. No longer struggling with pain.<br \/>\n<\/em>You might say, I don&#8217;t like this, but I accept that this is the situation I&#8217;m in.<\/p>\n<p><em>2. A realistic approach to pain.<br \/>\n<\/em>You might say, I&#8217;ll put realistic energy towards getting better, but not put my life on hold waiting for my pain to go to zero.<\/p>\n<p><em>3. An engagement in positive everyday activities.<br \/>\n<\/em>You might say, I&#8217;ll put my energy towards my life.<\/p>\n<p>Is this worthwhile to work towards? Yes! A pain researcher, McCracken, has shown that-\u00a0no matter what level of pain intensity &#8211;\u00a0greater acceptance of pain all by itself predicts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>lower reports of pain<\/li>\n<li>less pain-related anxiety and avoidance<\/li>\n<li>less depression and disability<\/li>\n<li>better work status<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How can you move towards acceptance? <\/strong>Again, the process is often slow. What I&#8217;ve found to be helpful is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grieve for what you&#8217;ve lost<\/li>\n<li>Mindfulness training = acceptance of what is<\/li>\n<li>Have a goal of living a full life despite pain<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to the\u00a0series Why You Should\u00a0See a Pain Management Psychiatrist. Let&#8217;s\u00a0look at making changes in how you see your pain condition and the\u00a0disability it causes. Both\u00a0pain itself and\u00a0the negative changes it causes in your life\u00a0are CHALLENGING to cope with. People\u00a0experience a lot of loss &#8211;\u00a0loss of: good health being pain-free doing enjoyable activities with family [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6209"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8060,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions\/8060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}