Pain clinic

[Slimjohn]

My rhumatologist suggested i tried a pain clinic. So after waiting nearly 2 years took my first session of 8 this week.I don't like group settings at anytime and have explained this to them many times .

I was told that i wouldn't be forced to voice myself in group discussions.

Yet with in the first 15 minutes thats what i was expected to do.

My anxiety was the worst its been in years and as the 3 hour season went on it just got worse.

The seating was so uncomfortable my pain was getting worse everywhere.

I did not really know what to expect But I'm struggling to understand how doing something nice is helping me with my condition.

I have tried the talking therapies course (1 to 1 not group) for my long time depression several times and that has never helped, i didn't realise this was the same.

Since being the first day my overall pain has been 10 times worse

I'm just wondering if anyone has actually found this helpfull ( they said it would help me. All i'm hearing is the pains all in my head.) And should i stick with it or drop out.

Sorry for the rant after waiting so long and loads of appointments at the pain clinic with them telling me it would help i seem to be suffering more.

[Cat00]

Mood can amplify pain signalling, so things that improve your mood can reduce the size of the channels pain signals move through. So mood, or doing things that lift your mood can literally reduce pain levels and vice versa.When I eventually got to a pain clinic they didn't do groups but I'd had plenty of group therapy before, it is not for everyone.

I was extremely jaded when it came to therapists by the time I got to the group. I didn't want to go but actually in the end I was much more impressed by the other patients than any of the staff.

These were people that had been tortured as children etc, I was amazed how despite all they'd been through they managed to be such good/kind people.

I had lost faith in humanity before meeting them. These things take time and change is often painful at first. I was very different to everybody in the group, but I gained a lot of good things by meeting them.

Maybe just give things more time if you can?

Resistance is a normal reaction, the status quo has its own momentum. Your pain has probably been around a very long time, it's going to take some growth to shift the dial.

[Slimjohn in reply to Cat00]

Thanks for finding the time to respond.I just can't cope with a group setting where your expected to join in.

All i wanted to do was leave the whole time. I did tell them this. I suppose i should have realised what the course was about.

Thanks again for your help I've still got a eeek to discide if I can manage to go again

[Cat00 in reply to Slimjohn]

A lot of boils down to who get in the group and a lot of that comes down to luck. Maybe try to take an interest in their experiences so you're not locked in your own world so much. Making those connections may give you a path into the therapy. Maybe think about why you feel you can't join in, what that means about you, does this have anything to do with the physical pain itself too? You should be allowed to have some privacy, we are only supposed to share what we can cope with other people knowing. But you can still be private and discuss the practicalities of being in chronic pain. Some people just want to tell their story, but in a way that is missing the point of group therapy, it's often what the group tells you that's key.

I would say most of the time I did these things I often didn't think they were helping at all at the time, it was only much later I realised they had. Sometimes it's worth just going through the motions.

[Slimjohn]

ThanksI think i wil just go through the motions