Maintaining a healthy perspective

For folks with chronic pain, it is easy to get discouraged.  Some people suffer daily over extensive periods of time without relief. They become exhausted fighting their pain. Other parts of their life break down as they try to cope and find some semblance of normalcy. 

When someone says take things one day at a time, they are offering good advice.  When you have one day of pain, focus on getting through that one day. Don't look back and don't look forward. How we think effects how we feel. The one thing we need to avoid is anticipating pain before it has a chance to develop. If we are already convinced tomorrow is going to be a painful day, we stand a great chance of that being the case.

It might be a good idea to create a journal and a time line. If we are going to track various aspects of our life and our condition, be sure to include a timeline that will enable you to view your condition over a large period of time. What you will gain is an opportunity to see your condition in a big picture. When you see a series of painful days over a course of a few weeks, you may see patterns and an overall steady state rather than a decline which may be how you feel you are doing. An overall average will include very good days and very bad days. You will see the average rather than every up and down pattern. This can help you regain hope and comfort that you are coping better than you think you were.