Pain is greedy. It hogs your attention, robbing you of sleep, time, energy and joy. When you live with a chronic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, pain can take the spotlight, clamouring for your attention.
You end up focusing on the pain, rather than the things you want and need to do. You may feel like you can't get a break; that no matter how hard you try to get out of that cycle, pain reaches up, grabs hold and pulls you right back in.
I'm no stranger to pain. Whether it be the flare-up that never seemed to end, the bone-on-bone grind pre-hip replacement, two hip dislocations (you don't want to do this!), dislocated fingers and toes, numerous surgeries, various broken bones and most recently, a lower-back injury.
How do you send pain to the back-seat?
- Seek medical attention.
- Exercise, within moderation. Your physiotherapist is able to provide you with some joint-friendly and joint-preserving exercises.
- Distraction.
- Ice. Heat.
- Massage therapy.
- Undress your stress.
There are a number of other strategies that you can employ. What do you do?
This is a great list of ideas! May I suggest adding meditation to this list? Meditation Oasis on itunes has a free meditation called meditation for pain that can be helpful for taking the edge off of pain (particularly stress-related or stress-induced pain).
Meditation is a great addition to the list. Thanks!