Negative Thinking
Some call it "boiling the ocean", "imagining the worst", "getting caught up in negative thoughts", or "worst-case scenario thinking."
Summary: What do I need to know?
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Your thoughts affect how your pain feels.
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Negative thoughts are completely normal...But they aren't always helpful!
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Focusing more on negative thoughts = more pain.
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Learning to reflect on your thoughts and changing your negative thoughts can help improve your pain.
Since using this app, you’ve probably started to learn that reporting your pain can bring attention to different aspects of your life that relate to your pain.
Maybe you’ve noticed that on days where you’re happy or distracted, your pain is doing better, or maybe you’ve noticed that on days where you’re struggling or stressed out, your pain is doing worse.
This can usually go both ways – sometimes your pain is worse and that can bring up some difficult emotions later in the day, or some days your state of mind might be in a better place, and so your pain is better. Some days you feel emotionally well and notice you tolerate your pain better.
Doctors and researchers know that your pain affects how you feel emotionally and how you feel emotionally affects your pain too.
Let’s dig a little deeper. Thoughts about pain and pain-related stressors, including cancer, can also make a huge difference in how you adjust and cope with your chronic pain.
So, what really is Negative Thinking?
Negative Thinking refers to those really negative thoughts about our pain - those unhelpful thoughts often make you feel helpless and really afraid of the future. It’s common to think this way, especially when having severe pain. Unfortunately, thinking this way all the time or fairly often can actually make your pain worse, especially over time. So, the more you have unhelpful, negative thoughts, the worse the pain is, and the worse the pain is… the more you probably have these thoughts… it goes round and round.
When you think negative thoughts, imagine that this is like putting fuel on a fire.
This is because it leads to increases in the stress reaction in the body. If you’re worried that your pain will never get better? Or if it will ever go away? you’ll usually start to feel afraid. Feeling afraid will lead to increased stress reactions in the body, and therefore more pain.
The way you think impacts the way you feel.
Your thoughts and emotions, or your “head space”, impact the way you act. Specifically, negative thoughts often make us focus A LOT on our pain.
This is not to say that your thoughts cause your pain or can cure your pain.
We know that pain is… well, painful. But often the experience of your pain can be worsened by negative thoughts. And the more we focus on these thoughts, the worse the pain feels.
Research consistently shows that having more negative thoughts relates to more pain, more distress, and more disability.
One thing to consider here is some of the thoughts you have about your pain and how often you have them.
For example:
Are you worried that your pain will never stop? Or are you worried your pain will continue to get worse? Are you worried that your pain may never get better?
These thoughts about your pain aren’t always very helpful. However, they’re incredibly common!! Most people who have pain find themselves “catastrophizing” at one point or another about how the pain feels. Having a cancer diagnosis can trigger negative thoughts too. Engaging in negative thoughts frequently and focusing on them too much can have a lot of negative consequences.
