Everyone knows that pain hurts, but few people know how much pain affects their mental attitude. Pain will wreck your mental attitude. It can even ruin all of life. Pain can turn you into a pathetic coward, a slave to others, a workaholic, or a drug addict who behaves recklessly to numb the pain. Once ‘the pain’ has you in its clutches, it doesn’t much matter what the pain is—physical pain from an injury or illness, or emotional pain from a breakup or divorce or failure—although physical pain is easier to assess accurately.
Effects of Pain On Mental Faculties
An attitude is a way of thinking about yourself and how you deal with the world. Your attitude affects your physical well-being; it can give you a sense of control over challenges and setbacks. But an attitude of pain and suffering can adversely affect your mental and physical state.
1. Can Cause Pain-Induced Depression
The leading cause of depression is pain. Pain can induce depressive thoughts, feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, and pessimism. As early as 1965, studies showed that people with chronic pain were distraught and suffered from irrational pessimism.
Think your attitude affects your back pain? A new study suggests that the opposite is equally valid. That is, chronic back pain can affect your mental attitude or outlook on life, causing depression. You are not alone. The majority of people suffering from back pain feel intermittently depressed, seeking out every treatment for back pain. They may also feel anxious, indecisive, irritable, hopeless, and helpless—among other negative attitudes.
When pain is so intense, you will have a hard time thinking about anything except your pain. It’s depressing to think about how much time you spend in pain and its impact on all aspects of your life. You may feel a lot of anger, but it’s aimed at yourself for being in the situation. Sometimes these feelings turn into guilt, regret, and low self-esteem.
2. Pain Affects Your Mood
Pain affects your mood in several ways, through physiological changes caused or worsened by the pain. And another is through the behavioral changes brought about directly by the pain. Both can affect your mental attitude in turn.
If you suffer from chronic pain, it can cause significant mood swings and irritability, motivation, sleep, work, and relationships. Declining or fluctuating moods reduce the quality of life for the person experiencing them and those who care about them. Reducing these mood fluctuations can significantly improve overall.
3. Pain Can Cause Emotional Instability
Pain is your body’s way of communicating with you that something is wrong. The brain sends out significant pain signals to let you know that something is wrong. The brain also causes emotional instability, which is the second reaction you have to pain. Your emotions go into a danger mode because of all the pain signals it receives.
Chronic pain can cause your emotions to be unstable and prone to change. You may fluctuate from one behavior to another over a short period, laughing one minute and crying the next minute without any external influence.
Chronic and relentless pain like fibromyalgia produces widespread pain, often accompanied by multiple tender points, making it difficult to maintain normal activity levels. When you are in pain, it can cause emotional instability that may not only affect the lives of those around you but could threaten your relationships. When pain causes emotional instability, it can interfere with your ability to feel pleasure and the way you react to your surroundings. It’s therefore essential to seek professional help in managing your pain if you have fibromyalgia.