I had to chose a topic for my Health and Society unit research paper. I thought about the whole shabang of health related issues (okay, I didn't think about all of them because that would take FOREVER), and I ended up settling on what I know best, Chronic Pain. I started off wanting to focus on the young adult population, but there is far more research on the adolescent population. And lets face it people, there is no point making an assignment harder than it should be, sometimes you just have to start writing and go where the sea of journal articles takes you.
It is interesting writing on a topic focused on a population that only two short years ago I belonged to. I didn't have chronic pain until my last year of high school, and it was brutal. As I wind my way through the research articles, there is one idea that keeps on coming up, adaptation to pain. People who have lower perceived quality of life and higher scores on depression scales are focusing their lives around ending the pain, rather than living with it. I can attest that focusing completely on the pain and finding new ways to get rid of it consumes your every thought. The pain starts to literally rule your life, and that's how it was when it first started for me. For the first two months, I avoided wearing shoes (I wore flips flops in December and January, and yes, I live in Canada) I rarely went out for our team group rides and I was less involved with my school life. Then one day I woke up and decided that enough was enough, that no matter how much it hurt I wasn't going to stop doing something. Even though my pain levels increased, I was happier.
They call this adaptive behavior. Rather than avoiding the pain, you adapt your life and actions to include the pain. Its like your annoying little brother that follows you around all day, you can't get rid of him, so you have to do things that also include him.
I always wondered why the pain doesn't seem to get under my skin (that often), and it's because I somehow learned to adapt to the pain. I will probably never give up on new ways to try and get rid of the pain, but in the mean time, I know how to live with it.
It is interesting writing on a topic focused on a population that only two short years ago I belonged to. I didn't have chronic pain until my last year of high school, and it was brutal. As I wind my way through the research articles, there is one idea that keeps on coming up, adaptation to pain. People who have lower perceived quality of life and higher scores on depression scales are focusing their lives around ending the pain, rather than living with it. I can attest that focusing completely on the pain and finding new ways to get rid of it consumes your every thought. The pain starts to literally rule your life, and that's how it was when it first started for me. For the first two months, I avoided wearing shoes (I wore flips flops in December and January, and yes, I live in Canada) I rarely went out for our team group rides and I was less involved with my school life. Then one day I woke up and decided that enough was enough, that no matter how much it hurt I wasn't going to stop doing something. Even though my pain levels increased, I was happier.
They call this adaptive behavior. Rather than avoiding the pain, you adapt your life and actions to include the pain. Its like your annoying little brother that follows you around all day, you can't get rid of him, so you have to do things that also include him.
I always wondered why the pain doesn't seem to get under my skin (that often), and it's because I somehow learned to adapt to the pain. I will probably never give up on new ways to try and get rid of the pain, but in the mean time, I know how to live with it.
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| I found this book conveniently on display in the library today, so naturally I signed it out. Its odd holding a textbook about yourself... |
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