The Chronic Pain and Anxiety Connection

Written By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II Date: January 19th, 2009. Topic: Member Blogs.

Although in most cases, anxiety about pain is more likely in acute pain stage while depression prevails in the chronic pain stage many people living with chronic pain devleop serious anxiety disorders. A sub-acute stage occurs after the acute stage but before the chronic stage. It usually occurs at about the three- to six-month range. At the acute stage the person in pain generally feels a reasonable sense of hope that the pain will resolve within the near future. In the sub-acute stage and at the beginning of the chronic stage, people’s thoughts and emotions about the pain begin to change.

It is not uncommon for someone to begin to wonder if the pain will ever go away or if they’ll ever get better. These types of thoughts lead to anxiety. Although most people believe that their anxiety will subside when the pain goes away, the anxiety frequently leads to a significant increase in pain perception. This results in a vicious cycle of pain, anxiety, more pain, and more anxiety. Anxiety can occur at different intensities, all the way from mild nervousness to full blown panic attacks.

Anxiety can be characterized by the following

Muscle tension, including shakiness, jitteriness, trembling, muscle aches, fatigue, restlessness, and inability to relax.
Nervous system hyperactivity, including sweaty palms, heart racing, dry mouth, upset stomach, diarrhea, lump in throat, shortness of breath, etc.
Apprehensive expectations, including anxiety, worry, fear, anticipation of misfortune.
Trouble concentrating, including distractibility, insomnia, feelings of edginess or irritability, and impatience.

Excess anxiety and tension can cause you to experience heightened emotional upset (anxiety, depression, anger), increased pain, slower healing times, and increased side-effects to medications, among other things. An ongoing stress response causes numerous negative problems such as increasing muscle tension and pain while also decreasing the activity of your immune system and blood flow to your extremities.

This anxiety cycle can lead to what I call the anticipatory reaction. To help you deal more effectively with anticipatory pain please read my article Coping with Anticipatory Pain that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are living with chronic pain, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication problem and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing your pain and medication effectively, please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

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