Hey everybody! Today's video is about chronic pain and depression
*intro music*
Now before I even get
into the video, I want you to know that
there are two ways that this can work.
Number one being that depression itself
can lead to chronic pain. You know we
talked before about psychosomatic
symptoms, where something that's happening
mentally for us can manifest itself
physically. Like if any of you have been
depressed or had a really hard time you
know how mental illness can affect us
physically. Meaning that we'll be achey,
we'll be really tired, it'll be hard to get
out of bed.
Not to mention any of us who have had panic attacks or
anxiety. You can feel it physically, right?
Our heart may be racing we may struggle
to breathe fully and feel like we're
suffocating, we may be sweaty, our palms
can be sweaty a lot of different things
that happen to us mentally can manifest
themselves physically and one of those
is pain and aches, and depression can
manifest itself that way. But what I want
to talk more about today is the other
version where because we have chronic
pain, we then have depression and how
those two are linked and the truth about
it is, and I know this is gonna sound
like a really simplistic type of video,
and as always, it's not just me sharing
information for you, to you, I want you to
share information with the community. Let
us know in the comments how it feels for
you. How this happened for you and what
things you've done to feel better
because the truth about it is, that
imagine if we're in chronic pain. A lot
of people are told from doctors that
they're making it up. If they can't find
a specific trigger or reason for the
pain were told that it's not happening
and that it's psychosomatic that we're
doing in our head. Imagine how that would
feel if you know you're feeling the pain
that you go to a professional to get help and
you're kind of turned away or dismissed or
even worse, like made to feel embarrassed
about the fact that you even went. Those
are all terrible things but I've
heard from a lot of you, that that happens a
lot, it's very common. And so that's just
one of the things I want to talk about.
The other thing is the fact that if we
have chronic pain, or if we have any chronic
illness that can lead to a lot of
different struggles. That can make it
financially difficult,
because trust me anything that Sean and I've
had happened to have medically has ended
up costing us quite a lot of money. Even
though we have insurance it somehow
doesn't cover a certain percentage and
that can be thousands and thousands of
dollars and so financially it can be
extremely stressful. The chronic pain can
also make sleep really difficult, and I
don't think that we talked enough about
how important sleep is, but it can
really affect our ability to concentrate,
function, have relationships, because we
can be extremely irritable and it can
make it hard for us to go about our day
in general and for more information
about sleep and the importance, I'll link to the
video I did in the description so you can
learn more.
Also, chronic pain can lead to
difficulties at work or school.
Imagine if you're in pain constantly
more days than not, how are you going to
be able to do your work,
either at work or school and get
anything done? I know personally if I'm
in any kind of pain whether it's like a
pulled muscle or if I'm extremely sick, I
really cannot concentrate and I can't
get anything done and if I do it's at a
much slower pace and I would definitely
be behind schedule if someone was
holding you accountable to certain
deadlines whether it be tests or
presentations, etc. And also chronic pain
can lead to a lot of different legal
issues. I've heard from many of you that
you're working really hard to get
disability or to get some of the medical
issues covered because your insurance
is saying they don't, and you read through
your paperwork and you realize that they
should have and so legal issues can come
along with this as well and back to the
original point that I made, where a lot
of you told me that you go to get help
and you're told that you're making it up
or that they don't know where it's
coming from? This can lead to a lot of
low self-esteem or low self-confidence.
I've heard from many of you that going
through this, and dealing with chronic
pain or chronic illness,
just makes us feel like shit. It makes us
feel worse, it ruins our relationships
because it's hard for us to do all the
things that we used to be able to do and
people in our lives don't always know
how to support and they don't always
seek to understand, and in the end that can
just make it feel really bad about
ourselves. But luckily there are things
that we can do to get better. Hooray!
And the first thing I work with my
clients on is grieving the loss. And I
know that this sounds really silly
because a lot of times people just attribute
grief to when someone passes away in
our life but grief can be applied to a
lot of different things, and when it comes to
any chronic illness or pain, I think it's
important for us to grieve the loss of
what a quote, unquote, normal life look.
I did a video a long time ago that
i'm going to link at the end of this
video as well as the description with
Hank Green, talking about his chronic
illness and how for him he had to put a lot
of time and effort into grieving what
normal was, because he had a planned life.
I'm going to do this, this, this, these are the things
that I'm able to do but having something
like chronic pain or chronic illness can
change that and something that he
recommends, in the video, is that instead
of focusing on the things that you can't
do, focus on the things you can and what
things you want to do now and I think
that that is such an amazing advice. And
also, there are treatment centers that
work with both. Meaning they work with
the depression and they work with the
chronic pain or chronic illness there
are a lot of pain treatment centers out there.
However I know and I've heard from a lot
of you that they are hard to get into they can be
very expensive, some don't take
insurances, there can be a lot of things
going on so you may have to divide up
your issues and treat them separately to
get the help that you need and that
could mean that you see a therapist like
myself. Tah-dah! And we do talk therapy. We
work on that grief process, we work on
focusing on the positive and can do some
CBT techniques to help challenge any of
that negative or faulty thinking that we
have so that we can feel and think more
positively and also medication has been
shown to be extremely helpful for people
not only pain management medication
that's a mouthful but also SSRIs and
SNRIs because at the end of the day
we're talking about depression. And if
you're wanting to look into a program
they're called "pain rehabilitation
programs." The Mayo Clinic has a great
one, and they have a great website with a
lot of additional information that I'll link
in the description but I would encourage
you to reach out to your local hospital
because many of them know which ones are
available in your area and they can also
refer you to pain groups. I know that sounds crazy
there are a ton of groups for pain
management patients, because it is so
extremely difficult and it is so
isolating. This helps
realize that we are not alone. What we're
feeling, what we're going through is
completely normal
and that there are people out
there and there is help available. I
think that it's really important for us to
remember that. There are tons of people,
resources, professionals, out there wanting
to help you get through this so that you
can feel better. The overall message that I want
you to hear with this video is that you're
not alone and it can get better. When it
comes to chronic pain and chronic
illness, I find that sometimes we have to
shout to be heard but know that there
are professionals out there who can help.
We may just have to ask a few times to get
them to hear us, to get them to give us the
treatment that we need. If you're new to
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will see you next time. Bye!