Living Well with Chronic Pain

Resources to accompany your Living Well with Chronic Pain class.

What we learned

About Chronic Pain

Everyone's experience of pain is individual, and there are many factors at play both physical and emotional, so we hope you've found this workshop helpful towards finding ways to live well with your chronic pain.

We introduced some facts and figures about chronic pain, and talked about the different ways chronic pain may develop and continue.

• 1 in 3 people in the UK have lived with some level of chronic pain for 6 years or more
• Chronic pain affects people of all ages, but is more common later in life. 18% of people aged 16-34 report chronic pain, and 53% of people over 75.
• 67 - 88% of people living with chronic pain also have a sleep disorder
• 85% of people living with chronic pain also experience depression

Studies into 'adverse childhood experiences' (ACEs), find that children who have experienced 4 or more ACEs are nearly four times as likely to go on to develop chronic pain, than children who experienced none.

We also looked at how past difficult experiences can also affect the way we make sense of and respond to pain.

The Vicious Flower

We used an example to explore how past and current life experiences can influence our understanding and responses to pain.

And we introduced the Vicious Flower model, which helps us to look at what affects our overall experience of pan - including our thoughts, memories, physical symptoms, feelings and emotions, and actions. 

You can use the Vicious Flower info sheet below to explore your own experience of chronic pain. 

Further Support

Before the end of the session, we talked about further opportunities for support. 

If you would like to access further support, and haven't already discussed that with us, simply contact us. 

 

Useful Websites and Resources

• My Live Well with Pain, a website with self-help resources
• Action on Pain, a charity providing support and advice for people affected by chronic pain
• The Pain Toolkit, a resource for managing pain
• Living with Chronic Pain, Self Help, a website with self-help resources by a local NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
• Overcoming Chronic Pain: A self-help guide using CBT techniques, available from your local library through the 'books on prescription' programme. 

 

Videos

 

 

Downloads