Many people with chronic pain (or persistent pain, a term some prefer) feel misunderstood and offended when their GP or pain specialist suggest that they need ‘psychological treatment’: “The pain is real, it’s not in my head”. But psychological methods of treating chronic pain or, rather, treating the problems associated with chronic pain have been used for over 50 years. They are based on understanding the importance of the individual’s beliefs about what is causing the pain, fears about pain worsening over time, conflicting advice from clinicians, friends and family, and disappointment with successive failures of medical attempts to resolve the pain.
Psychological methods are not about ‘thinking positive’ or ‘mind over matter’, but about achieving a deeper understanding of pain and what affects it, about changing habits of thinking and of lifestyle: becoming (ideally) a person who, despite pain, lives a full life with confidence in managing that pain.
