By: Juliette Siegfried
The term "chronic pain"
is one that many people who have never experienced it don't fully understand.
They think, "Oh, that means a headache or a backache that doesn't go away
in a day or two." Not so. Chronic pain is pain that just doesn't go away,
period. For months, or years.
Try to imagine this, pain that
cannot be made to go away, and can only be "managed." This is a
reality that an estimated 50 million Americans live with. This pain doesn't
just cause physical discomfort, it interferes with people's family lives,
social relationships, and self-esteem, and is often a causative factor in
depression. Most chronic pain is treated – ineffectively, if you ask those who
suffer from it – with medications. Researchers Alan Krueger and Arthur Stone
found that Americans spent about $2.6 billion in 2004 on over-the-counter pain
medications and another $14 billion on prescription analgesics.
So now imagine the potential
excitement in the world of medicine at the news that a simple, easily learned
form of meditation called mindfulness has in many clinical studies enabled
people to manage their chronic pain almost as effectively as many of the
medications.
What is mindfulness
meditation?
The modern approach to
mindfulness was pioneered by biologist Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of
Massachusetts. Trained in the Buddhist Vipassana method of meditation, he
believed that if he "pared down" the technique and removed many of
the traditional religious or spiritual aspects, it could help patients at the
university's medical center. "The idea was to train medical patients in
Buddhist meditative practices, but without the Buddhism."
The basic idea of mindfulness
practice is to focus on what is happening in the moment, without getting caught
up in the emotions that often accompany chronic pain, and the negative thoughts
and assessments that often accompany pain. Mindfulness practice can interestingly
focus either away from the pain (by focusing on something else, such as the
breath) or on the pain (by feeling the sensations, but with a sense of
detachment, and without judgment).
Kabat-Zinn found that the idea
worked. Their patients became more relaxed (as you might expect from a form of
meditation), but they also became less afraid of their pain, less angry about
it, and less depressed about it. As a result, their suffering from the pain
diminished significantly.
This sounds like New Age Woo
Woo. Is there actual science behind it?
Yes, there is. So much so that it
is now difficult to find a major hospital or medical center that does not offer
Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course or some similar
training in mindfulness techniques as part of its offerings. Numerous studies
have shown that mindfulness can be an effective treatment not only for chronic
pain, but for depression, stress, anxiety, eating disorders, and addiction. One
such study reported that "Statistically significant reductions were
observed in measures of present-moment pain, negative body image, inhibition of
activity by pain, symptoms, mood disturbance, and psychological symptomatology,
including anxiety and depression. Pain-related drug utilization decreased and
activity levels and feelings of self-esteem increased."
The body of evidence on the
effectiveness of mindfulness has grown so large and so conclusive that the U.S.
military is sponsoring mindfulness training for soldiers suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One of the reasons for this is that
mindfulness practice, once learned, can be done anywhere, and at any time. You
don't have to sit cross-legged with your eyes closed to practice it; you can do
it while working, or walking, or doing almost anything else. It requires no
apparatus or special clothing or continuing classes; just the ability to think,
and direct your thoughts.
Where can I learn more?
Those interested in the use of
mindfulness techniques to manage chronic pain may wish to read Jon Kabat-Zinn's
books, or those of his co-researcher Shinzen Young. Most bookstores have
additional books on the subject, and a useful set of worksheets and resources
can be downloaded from the Psychology Tools website at http://www.psychologytools.org/mindfulness.html
Source: healthguidance.org
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