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Depression and Chronic Pain Can Fuel Each Other
When you think of chronic pain and depression, you might assume they’re separate conditions. One manifests physically, while the other affects mental health. However, there actually is a complex interplay between these two conditions. Many people experiencing chronic pain also grapple with depression and vice versa.
Each condition can exacerbate the other. Chronic pain can lead to feelings of helplessness and isolation, potentially triggering depressive symptoms. Depression can amplify somatic responses, including migraines, IBS, back pain, and more.
The Link Between Depression and Chronic Pain
Depression and chronic pain often form a vicious cycle. Persistent pain can trigger negative emotions and depressive symptoms, while depression can manifest as unexplained physical discomfort, such as migraines and other somatic issues. This connection often creates a cycle between the two that can be difficult to break without effective treatment.
Quality of Life
Chronic pain can significantly impact one’s quality of life by depleting your energy, reducing motivation, and limiting daily activities. If you are engaging less with people, work, and life in general, it can intensify feelings of depression, further perpetuating this cycle. Depression can also make it harder to cope with pain, as it can reduce motivation and energy levels. Additionally, depressive symptoms can manifest as physical symptoms, including increased pain sensitivity and muscle tension, making it even harder to feel motivated.
Brain Pathways
When you are living with chronic pain, it can make it more likely to experience both pain and depression. This connection originates from underlying neural mechanisms involving specific brain structures, chemicals, and pathways. Increased pain intensity is often associated with a higher likelihood of developing depressive symptoms. Psychotherapy helps open new pathways in the brain that can help heal mental health and chronic pain issues.
Limiting Factors
Chronic pain can also limit physical activity, social interactions, and work productivity, leading to feelings of isolation and frustration.
Reduced physical activity and social isolation can serve to increase stress levels, which can further exacerbate both chronic pain and depression symptoms.
Treatment Strategies
Chronic pain generally includes more than just mental health treatments. However, people often underestimate the need for psychotherapy and attention to mental health when it comes to treating chronic pain, such as chronic migraines, back pain, IBS or other forms of pain. Old traumas can also cause chronic pain and lead to depressive symptoms in the present, as well.
Here are some ways people approach the confluence of depression and chronic pain together:
Pain Management: Medications, physical therapy, and other interventions to manage pain
Psychotherapy: Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and somatic-based therapy to work through depression, traumas, or other mental health struggles that may also be manifesting in the body.
Medications: Antidepressants and other medications to manage depressive symptoms, depending on severity
Lifestyle Modifications: Regular exercise, healthy diet, and adequate sleep are a few things that can help improve mood and reduce pain.
Mind-Body Techniques: Mindfulness meditation, yoga, and emotional regulation exercises can help with physiological stress and help with emotional grounding.
By understanding the connection between chronic pain and depression, you can take a more rounded approach to your wellbeing. When I work with people on the mental health side of chronic migraines (which often includes depression and anxiety), one of my specialties, I generally recommend that you have physical support as well, whether it's a neurologist, and/or alternative approaches. I find that the combination of various treatment options helps to address the depression and chronic pain cycle together.
#Depression #Migraine #ChronicPain #Anxiety #MentalHealth #IrritableBowelSyndromeIBS
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Drunk Me—Figuring Out Why God Gave Me This Pain (Back and Nerve)
So I’d stop drinking and not ruin my life by becoming an alcoholic.
I see it every day at work, especially when I facilitate Persons in Recovery group. Out of the 15 adults who attend regularly, 9 are alcoholics. Each of them has their own unique story about how alcohol and addiction destroyed their lives.
The majority have criminal records.
The majority were in so deep that they experienced alcohol withdrawal—seizures, sickness—whenever they stopped drinking.
The majority have made fools of themselves in front of their loved ones.
I always hid my drinking. Which, if I’ve learned anything as a recovery coach, is a major red flag. A sign of alcoholism.
I always downplayed how much I drank.
And I think—because I was a “fun drunk”—I managed to fool the people around me. And myself.
I’m happy I’m not an angry drunk.
I’m happy I’m not a sad drunk—though, honestly, the jury’s still out on that one.
When I drink with others, I’m fun. I’m happy. The life of the party.
The problem was when I drank alone.
The Way My Brain Works
My head is a chaotic place. Always has been.
My first memory of life goes like this:
A woman with long black hair and a blue-and-black dress shirt is spanking me. Or hitting me. I’m not sure. But I know I’m being hurt. Physically and emotionally. And I’m crying.
I don’t know who this woman is, though I have my suspicions.
This is how my brain works:
A little girl, maybe three or four years old, is being hurt by a trusted adult. How sad.
But there’s no doubt in my mind that I must have deserved it.
I must have done something to make this happen.
Because I am a bad person.
Everything bad that happens to me—I deserve.
Like being depressed and suicidal through most of my teen years.
Like being sent to psych ward after psych ward, then group home after group home.
I deserved it—for messing up my siblings’ lives, by ruining our adoption in Minnesota.
Just like I deserved being kicked out of my adoptive parents’ house at 18.
Because I chose drugs. I deserved to be homeless.
Just like I deserved the first abusive relationship.
And the second one after that.
Because I hurt my parents. By doing drugs.
Every time I think about that first memory, I go through the same thought process.
And every time, I arrive at the same conclusion.
I deserve it.
This is how my brain works.
The Pain & The Question: Why?
So when my back started hurting in September 2024, I spent months racking my brain, trying to figure out what I did to deserve this pain.
I had spent my whole life experiencing mental pain.
At least with that, I could always figure out why I hated myself.
But this—this was physical pain.
The worst I had ever experienced.
I kept asking myself:
Why? What did I do?
I had gotten clean from my drug of choice.
I had worked on myself.
I had finally reached a place where I didn’t hate myself.
I was the happiest I had ever been in my life.
So why now?
And then, ironically—while intoxicated—I think I figured it out.
The Background
I was born and raised in Nebraska.
A year and a half ago, I moved to Michigan.
Two and a half years ago, I was in full-blown addiction.
Adderall and meth—my drugs of choice.
I was using nearly every day.
The only exceptions were when I ran out of money or my plugs (plural) were waiting on their next prescription refill.
But for over a year, I never went a full week without using.
It got bad.
My mental health hit an all-time low.
Which is saying something—because I’ve always considered myself a depressed human being.
Then, one day—by the grace of God—I decided to reach out to my aunt.
I needed to escape the cycle of bad decisions.
I moved away from everything I had ever known.
I came to Michigan and quite literally turned my life around.
I got clean.
Forcibly, of course.
That was the whole point of moving.
I didn’t know anyone here. I had no connections. No access.
It was the only way I could not pick up.
Life got better.
I became happy—something I had never been before.
For 21 years, I had lived in darkness.
For the first time, I had light.
I landed an amazing job—helping others.
And, funny enough, my experience with addiction actually helped me.
I never saw that coming.
My relationship with God blossomed.
For the first time since childhood, I felt Him.
He had my back.
He gave me the courage to leave everything behind.
The blessings kept coming.
But I was lying to myself.
Or maybe, at first, I just didn’t see it.
Because alcohol was never my drug of choice.
At least, not until I stopped using amphetamines.
Alcohol Becomes My Drug of Choice
At first, I drank for fun.
With my brothers on game nights.
With my friends.
Always for fun.
But when I moved here, I started drinking more.
I now know I simply replaced one drug with another.
Alcohol for Adderall.
I don’t know how long it went on—more than two months for sure—but I drank every single day.
I even learned that Mohawk vodka costs exactly $3.67 after tax at the liquor store around the corner.
I denied my problem for a long time.
But at some point, I admitted it to myself.
And around that time, I met Brian.
My soulmate. (Cheesy, I know. But it’s true.)
We had our first argument after I asked him if I could drink that night.
That was the beginning of my wake-up call.
The Present: The Realization About My Pain
Fast-forward to now.
I have been drunk twice in the past five months.
I no longer drink every day.
But I also know why: because I am on pain meds.
Hydrocodone.
An opioid.
My new best friend.
You can’t drink on pain meds.
And I am in too much pain to risk making them ineffective.
That’s why I stopped drinking.
I moved to Michigan and got clean because I had no access.
I stopped drinking because of my back pain.
The ironic thing?
Opioids are addictive.
I used to tell myself, My drug of choice has always been uppers, not downers.
But alcohol is a downer.
And I got hooked on that.
So what’s stopping me from getting hooked on this?
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OMG my back... also coffee
Back pain is at 7. I just took a tramadol.
I got a text saying my doctor sent the script for metformin to my pharmacy. I gotta call to schedule delivery for Friday. I'm hoping this helps. My fasting BG was 198 so I'm optimistic.
I had some gingerbread coffee in the coffee maker so I added some blueberry grounds. I typically use grounds twice. I used the liquid sucralose. It's delicious! Just sweet enough. The 2 flavors are great together.
I had 2 blueberry fig bars for breakfast. They were really yummy.
I think this weekend I'm gonna make citrus pepper tilapia for dinner. Drizzle the fish with lime juice and sprinkle with lemon pepper. It's so yummy. @edieh
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Any tips will help
So I've been dealing with eating disorder since way little. Where there days i can't eat. Well lately now I've been sick to my stomach can't eat nothing. On top of that I have sever low back pain. I'm in so much pain from both I don't know what to do hospital won't help. They said that it has to run its course. But what course bc they said nothing was majorly wrong. Any home remedies that could possible help?
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Oh for the love of...
My back is trashed. I'm trying to get comfortable sitting on my couch with pauley but every position hurts. I've taken 2 tramadol since I woke up at 1130am. At about 5pm she decided to take an Adderall and have a half hour nap. So I took 2 hydroxyzine and laid down on my bed. I wasn't able to sleep but I meditated for 2 hours. Then she turned my light on and I was just like hissssssssssss. I was enjoying the dark quiet. I'm usually scared of the dark but it helps me meditate.
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Ugh
So I've been taking my sumatriptan when I get a migraine but I forgot that taking it more than once every 3 days can cause rebound migraine. So that's what I'm dealing with right now. I took one yesterday and the day before. Pauley reminded me not to take one. So I took a tramadol and 2 hydroxyzine. It will hopefully help me relax.
My back feels like I got kicked. I know I say that often but it's accurate. Luckily sitting on my couch helps. I'm sitting with Pauley and I've got my headphones on. There was some gingerbread and pumpkin spice flavored coffee left over from last night so I reheated it and added some vanilla cappuccino powder, caramel syrup and oat milk. It's quite yummy.#Migraine #BackPain #coffeeadventures
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Dinner tonight was yummy
The theme was scrambled eggs. I made double cheese for pauley and for myself I made cheesy garlic ranch sausage scrambled eggs. I diced up a cheddar brat, added some shredded cheese, and when it was done cooking I added some ranch dressing and garlic Parmesan seasoning. Gosh gee it was really good. And pauley said her eggs were really yummy. Now she's washing dishes while I sit cuz umm... I had to stand for about 20 minutes. And my back pain spiked to 8. Whoops. She was kinda upset with me for making dinner and getting hurt. I think maybe we should get tray tables so I can sit in the kitchen and make dinner. But she gave me a whole Norco and 2 aspirin. We're getting a refill on Monday.
I've been having really uncomfortable hot flashes for months. I know it's man-o-pause but it sucks. I was hoping going back on testosterone would help. It's been almost 2 months and I'm still having trouble. But my voice is changing again. I've got squeaky boy voice. And my facial hair is growing faster. But not how I want. I was hoping for a mustache. Or a goatee.
I really need to get a BBQ grill lighter. I've got a few small jar candles that smell amazing but I can't light them. One of them is mahogany and leather and coffee scent. I cannot put into words how much I love that candle.
My mom has my daughter today so she won't answer my call or text me back. It's been awhile since we last talked. My phone said the last time we talked was December 31st. She was kinda awful and I hung up on her. I've texted her a few times this week but she said she is busy. I know I should cut ties and be done with my family cuz they don't accept me. But I still care about them.
I'm craving a cookie with my coffee.
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I need to vent
2 years ago I thought maybe with the back surgery, I would be done with the bad pain and trouble walking and standing. I thought gosh can I please finally be healthy... Now I'm dealing with new back problems from my tailbone to the first vertebrae under my skull. And my eyes are so broken. So much is going on with my eyes. I have an appointment with one of the providers tomorrow to discuss the X-ray results. Then I have an appointment with my neurologist next week. Then I have an appointment next month with my neuro-ophthalmologist . And my BHH nurse is freaking out about my HR being too high and she wants me to go see my cardiologist. And I'm having trouble scheduling my appointment with the new Endo. And I gotta find a pain management clinic soon. I'm really sick of being broken. Whatever I did to piss off the gods...
#thegodsmustbemad #BackPain #FemoralAcetabularImpingement #spinalbonespurs
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