Arthritis

Chronic pain and anxiety often intertwine, creating a complex web of physical and emotional distress. You may experience muscle tension, body soreness, and headaches or migraines as common symptoms of anxiety. Beyond everyday discomfort, some people also grapple with diagnosed chronic pain conditions like arthritis or fibromyalgia, which can exacerbate anxiety symptoms.

Chronic migraines are frequently associated with anxiety and depression. More and more people these days suffer from headaches, migraines, and other physiological issues such as IBS, arthritis and more. Any of these issues can lead to decreased mobility and difficulty performing daily tasks, potentially intensifying feelings of anxiety and helplessness the more severe their symptoms become.

Connection Between Chronic Pain and Anxiety

Chronic pain and anxiety often form a vicious cycle, each exacerbating the other. This intricate relationship can significantly impact your overall wellbeing. Persistent pain can lead to heightened stress and worry about its duration and effects on daily life. In turn, this anxiety may amplify your perception of pain, creating a negative feedback loop.

Anxiety doesn’t just affect your mind; it can also influence your body’s pain response. It may increase inflammation, potentially causing pain that wouldn’t otherwise exist. This physical manifestation of anxiety can further intensify chronic pain symptoms, making them feel more severe and persistent.

By addressing both chronic pain and anxiety simultaneously, you can work towards breaking this cycle and improving your quality of life.

Does Chronic Pain Cause Anxiety?

Chronic pain and anxiety often go hand in hand, creating a complex interplay between physical discomfort and mental distress. Research has shown that people suffering from chronic pain are more likely to develop symptoms of anxiety compared to those without persistent pain. This heightened risk often stems from the ongoing stress and uncertainty that accompanies living with a long-term health condition.

The daily demands of managing chronic pain can continue to fuel anxiety. You may find yourself constantly worrying about pain flare-ups, treatment effectiveness, or the impact on your work and relationships. This persistent state of alertness can gradually wear down your mental resilience, potentially leading to the development of anxiety, depression, and other issues over time.

Does Anxiety Cause Chronic Pain?

Anxiety and its associated stress can indeed be significant contributors to chronic pain. When you experience anxiety, your body triggers a stress response, releasing hormones like adrenaline and cortisol into your bloodstream. This hormonal surge leads to inflammation, a common source of persistent pain throughout the body.

Muscle tension is a natural reaction to stress. This tension can result in various physical discomforts, including tension headaches, migraines, digestive issues, and pain in the neck, back, and shoulders. Moreover, prolonged stress can negatively impact your nervous system’s functionality, disrupting the normal communication between your brain and body.

Consistently elevated stress levels can adversely affect multiple body systems. For example, skin, muscles, nerves, joints, and bones can all develop issues from consistently heightened stress and anxiety. This widespread impact underscores the importance of managing anxiety to mitigate its potential role in chronic pain development.

Next Steps

As you navigate the complex relationship between chronic pain and anxiety, remember that these conditions often intertwine and exacerbate one another. By working closely with a therapist, exploring various physical treatment options, and developing coping mechanisms, you can help reduce and bring the cycle of pain and anxiety back within your own control.

#Anxiety #ChronicPain #Headache #Migraine #MentalHealth #Depression #IrritableBowelSyndromeIBS #Arthritis

I definitely need to work on how often I vent frustration with the body I have been given. Every so often I have to stop and readjust my thoughts for the better, thanking my body for all it does to try to do what I want.
It does the best it can and I need to appreciate what it can offer.

#AmplifiedMusculoskeletalPainSyndrome #Arthritis #Asthma #Anxiety #AmplifiedMusculoskeletalPainSyndrome #bedbound #BoneSplints #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #CheckInWithMe #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #ComplexRegionalPainSyndrome #Depression #Disability #DistractMe #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #Endometriosis #Fibromyalgia #GastroesophagealRefluxDisease #gallstones #HypothyroidismUnderactiveThyroidDisease #Eczema #Grief #Hypersomnia #HighBloodPressure #JuvenileRheumatoidArthritis #Insomnia #Lymphedema #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome #PTSD #Psoriasis #PsoriaticArthritis #Psychosis #PanicAttack #PanicAttacks #plantarfasciitis #MentalHealth #MightyTogether #MajorDepressiveDisorder #MemoryLoss #Migraine #musclespasms #MultipleAutoimmuneSyndrome #RareDisease #RheumatoidArthritis #SuicidalThoughts #Scoliosis #ShinSplints

In the next few days, I will complete this quilt. It’s all pinned together and ready to sew.

There is More talk about Self-Care than the Most Critical Key to Happiness and Great Relationships of all types——-“SELF-LOVE”.

With this in-depth look at what Self-Love looks like-for your own personal growth, I would like you to take an honest look inwards and determine if you Practice Self-Love.
If you’re not, or if you’re not doing all of the bullet points given below, don’t worry— “Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”

As always, let’s have a great conversation about this topic below 👇 in the comments where you can use this space for your own place in your mental wellness journey. Not your mental illness journey— I am here as a friend to guide you through to the other side as much as possible—yes, that is where I stand, and the magic only happens if you let me—so how about more group members join in for your sake.

The Mighty friends that have opened themselves up to this opportunity are telling me and showing me that they are really starting to get it, and they are taking bigger, new, determined steps in their lives.

"Self-Love" refers to a deeper internal state of accepting and valuing yourself unconditionally, while "self-care" focuses on taking practical actions to maintain your physical and mental wellbeing, like getting enough sleep, eating healthy, and engaging in activities you enjoy; essentially, self-love is the mindset that drives you to practice self-care. Self-Love is the mindset too that heals the pain and keeps you in the light, Determined to keep pushing away any darkness and to stop doubting yourself.

Key points to remember:
* Self-love:
* A feeling of intrinsic worth and acceptance, regardless of circumstances
* Becoming your own best friend - treating yourself with the same respect and understanding you would give a close friend.
* Be the love you never received.
* Includes embracing your flaws
* Foundation for setting healthy boundaries and prioritizing your needs
* learn to say no when needed and clearly explain why
* Don’t seek Anyone’s validation
* Positive self-talk: Use encouraging language to speak to yourself, focusing on your strengths and accomplishments.
* Pay attention to your thoughts and feelings, recognizing negative self-talk and actively replacing it with positive affirmations/relabel upsetting thoughts
* Say something nice to yourself in the mirror — looking into your eyes & smile at yourself & say “I love you”and your name. (Yes, I actually stop myself to do this & it’s Wonderful)
* cultivate self-compassion
* Encourage Yourself
* Talk to someone you trust who *Has The Capacity To Listen*-and, Another Big Key Here is that ***Being vulnerable - completely honest and thorough- about what you’re going through with someone else is a major form of self-love because you’re taking the time to dig deep, regardless of how uncomfortable it is, And, on top of that, you’re showing yourself that you want to work out whatever’s going on with you***
* avoid comparing yourself to others
* practice gratitude
* Seek out opportunities for growth
* Creating a safe zone all your own is an act of self-love because it gives you a designated area where you can focus on your needs and emotions instead of other people’s. The key here is creating a space that feels good and peaceful when life is neither of those things.
#MentalHealth #Mindfulness #Selflove #Selfcare #Selfharm #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #Suicide #Trauma #MajorDepressiveDisorder #PersistentDepressiveDisorder #Depression #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Agoraphobia #BingeEatingDisorder #EatingDisorders #EatingDisorder #ChronicIllness #ChronicFatigue #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #LymeDisease #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #PostTraumaticStressDisorder #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #PTSD #BipolarDisorder #BipolarDepression #AutonomicDysfunction #AuditoryProcessingDisorder #Deafness #ADHDInGirls #ADHD #AspergersSyndrome #AutismSpectrumDisorder #Addiction #CerebralPalsy #IntellectualDisability #Disability #Blindness #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorderBPD #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #Migraine #IfYouFeelHopeless #BrainInjury #MotorDisorders #MultipleSclerosis #RheumatoidArthritis #Arthritis #Grief #Loneliness #AnorexiaNervosa #Relationships #SocialAnxiety #FamilyAndFriends #Caregiving #CrohnsDisease #CysticFibrosis #AlopeciaAreata #Cancers #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #ParkinsonsDisease #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome #POTS #Stroke #Diabetes #SelfharmRecovery #RareDisease #DownSyndrome #AddisonsDisease #IrritableBowelSyndromeIBS #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #ObsessiveCompulsiveandRelatedDisorders #ObsessiveCompulsivePersonalityDisorder #DissociativeIdentityDisorder

We're into the New Year a few weeks now. How are you? A brand new year ahead full of new possibilities, hopes and dreams.✨️ Here are a few reminders to help heading into the new year. 💜
#PTSD
#ChronicFatigue
#DistractMe
#AnkylosingSpondylitis
#MentalHealth
#Caregiving
#Arthritis
#PsoriaticArthritis
#Migraine
#ChronicPain
#Anxiety

And then, we will all Keep Doing This VITAL, easy, short practice.

One of the many things I learned from the “Resilience Skills” University online course I took that I keep teaching you about here only in this group is that Resilience Needs Mindfulness.

And, 1 of the first things to learn about Mindfulness is how to practice conscious breathing and why.

Mindfulness conscious breathing exercise to practice daily 3 or 4 times—
In/Out: This is the first practice on Conscious Breathing:

breathe in (a good, deep inhale), and say or think “I know that I am breathing in”,
breathe out (a longer, full exhale), and say or think “I know that I am breathing out”

After a while of practicing this, you can shorten the cue words to saying or thinking simply “In” on the Inhale, and “Out” on the Exhale.

“When we continue to practice like this, something wonderful happens—-we stop the thinking.
This is already a miracle happening because when we think too much, we are not truly ourselves. But this way, our mind and our body becomes aligned/in the same place; instead of our body here but our mind is elsewhere— in the past or in the future.

If we practice breathing in and out with some concentration, we attain what is called the oneness of body and mind.
The body and mind are unified and you begin to be there truly yourself.

When you are not really there, you cannot see things clearly and deeply. You miss everything, everything seems to you not clear, vague.”

Running to the future or going back to the past- you miss life, that is only here in the present moment.

Breathing in and out consciously is how to get back to the present moment.

What you are looking for —joy, inner peace, freedom …is all in the present moment.

If you feel agitated and not solid, vulnerable, breakable — then you practice this in order to get solid again:

Practice sitting in a stable position and practice breathing in and out. Saying “breathing in, I see myself as a mountain, breathing out I feel solid.

From time to time, a very strong emotion overwhelms us. That emotion could be anger or despair or fear. And when we are overwhelmed by a strong emotion we feel very vulnerable, like we may die, But we are more than our emotions. We are more solid than we think. And therefore, practicing being solid like a mountain is very helpful.

Source: Thich Nhat Hahn’s The Art of Mindful Living (read by the great man himself on YouTube — I am always so calmed by his voice even.)

#Mindfulness #MentalHealth #Selfcare #Depression #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #MajorDepressiveDisorder #PersistentDepressiveDisorder #MoodDisorders #PTSD #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #Agoraphobia #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #Trauma #BipolarDisorder #BipolarDepression #AnorexiaNervosa #Addiction #EatingDisorders #Selfharm #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #Grief #Suicide #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #CerebralPalsy #Cancer #MultipleSclerosis #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #ADHD #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #PanicAttacks #PanicAttack #ChronicFatigue #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #MyCondition #Relationships #FamilyAndFriends #RareDisease #RheumatoidArthritis #Arthritis #CrohnsDisease #NarcissisticPersonalityDisorder #Caregiving #SocialAnxiety