How patience helps when dealing with chronic pain

Good things come to those who wait. And if you are dealing with chronic pain, you may well feel you have been waiting rather too long. Chronic pain is defined as pain that has gone on for more than three months. Most tissue damage heals within this time frame. Which is no consolation if you are one of the 30 per cent of people worldwide dealing with chronic pain right now.?

Some people in chronic pain have a diagnosis – such as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis. Some people have pain from a previous tissue or nerve injury, one which has continued to hurt beyond the normal healing time. And some pain seems to come from nowhere, although recent research suggests the pain may be caused by your nervous system becoming over-reactive. And there could well be overlap between these different categories.?

Wherever you are in your journey with chronic pain, the way you relate to your experience, the way you talk to yourself, and the actions you take as a result, can all contribute to reducing your pain, or making it worse.?

For more on how patience when dealing with chronic pain, and five ways to practice patience even when you have pain, click here.