How to stay motivated with chronic pain

[Netball01]

I’ve had a prolapsed disc & sciatica since October. Prior to this I exercised every day, worked in the office 4 times a week & socialised a lot at the weekend.

Since my injury, I’ve not been able to exercise & I’ve been wfh & I just feel like I have lost all motivation to do anything. I wake up in the morning & stay in bed until I have to start work & then in the evenings I just watch tv. I’m also struggling to keep on top of chores as it just hurts too much !!

I do try & get out for a few walks every day but it can be quite painful walking so some days I’ll only leave the house once.

So does anyone have any tips on how to start getting motivated again ? I feel like I’m never going to get better if I just sit on the sofa all day.

No real advice but I’m in the same boat with chronic autoimmune issues (lupus etc). It’s miserable isn’t it.

Sorry to hear you’re going through similar - yes it’s really miserable. I’m so bored of feeling like this !

Drugs help.

I managed to find a personal trainer with experience in rehab for injuries.

He's great, but I suspect there aren't many with that experience around.

I was on an enormous amount of medication for chronic pain for 2 years. There were a few things which I found really useful - the curable app is great and REALLY committing to the principles of it. The first few times I did the meditations I was like, no no you’ve got this wrong I’m temporarily injured and blah blah, fighting against it really. If you commit to it and really do the work, trust the process, it’s brilliant. I’m better now (actually 100% better, no pain, no meds) and I think this is one of the main things which helped.

Cold water swimming/ice baths very good too. In terms of staying motivated, you don’t need to do things which hurt you like walking. You can do something which will help you instead, whatever that is. Yoga, meditation, curable app, talking to someone. I kept thinking well I SHOULD be doing x y z. But really, why should you. Is it helping? If not, don’t do it (within reason! Obviously the dishes still need to be done unfortunately!)

Do you have a physio? They can give exercises that strengthen areas like glutes, pelvic floor and core which can help to support your back.
And pain killers

I’ve been seeing an osteopath which has helped a bit & got some painkillers which haven’t!

I’ll take a look into the curable app thank you 😊

Can you ask GP for different painkillers if your current ones aren’t working? I found my sciatica was relieved through a combination of amitryptiline for nerve pain together with the anti-inflammatory naproxen. Have you had phsyiotherapy treatment? They should be able to give you exercises - these together with keeping mobile (walking etc) should help you recover more quickly, would that help motivated you? Maybe listen to music or podcasts when walking to help keep your mind off the pain - but the right meds should help with that too. Good luck!

I'm in a similar position. It's horrible. I'm shattered just now but will come back and update

I am in the same bot with hip labral tear (hence being awake at 3am). It's so hard. I get very emotional as like you I used to be so active and feel I have lost a massive part of my life.

I force myself to do what I can even though I feel so much anxiety about it and often suffer afterwards. I do a lot of sitting down things (go to the cinema a LOT!, often on my own, just to get out of the house). And try and read for an hour a day instead of scrolling.

It's such a challenge though and every day is draining.

Sorry to hear there are others in a similar boat - it’s horrible isn’t it !

I’ve definitely made progress since this originally posting this thread, longer gaps without pain and able to walk a bit more so really hoping I’m on the right track.

At the beginning of the week I set myself a goal to do X amount of steps a day & told DH to check id actually done them ! I’ve downloaded some podcasts as well to keep it interesting

Have a listen to this https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-sean-mackey-tools-to-reduce-manage-pain

It’s awful isn’t it, I’m in a similar boat with spinal stenosis. Just standing for more than a few minutes is agony as is walking & I used to walk miles with my dogs.
I have physio, my GP referred me but you can refer yourself on the NHS for free. It hasn’t helped me an awful lot but your problem may benefit more. Mine is never going to get better & is progressive, unfortunately they don’t replace spines like hips & knees! I sometimes get sciatica with it, for that the best thing I’ve had prescribed was Amitriptyline which is actually an antidepressant but is also great for the nerve pain of sciatica. It was the only way I could get any sleep.

I haven't read it yet but I've had this book recommended to me

As above Curable. Along with The Cure for Chronic Pain podcast and The Way Out book by Alan Gordon. So much back pain is neuroplastic and you can totally overcome it. Just be open to learning about it.

I don't like the current view that mindfulness will help. It's fine as a momentary sticky plaster. But why not address the root cause. Try to deal with the original pain.

@Oblomov24 For many people mindfulness does tackle the original pain. There are two types of pain: structural, organic pain (there is a physical injury) and neuroplastic pain (the body is fine, the brain is getting it wrong and causes pain for no reason). In people with neuroplastic pain the brain has got into a pain loop it cannot get out of. People with neuroplastic pain need to retrain their brains. Mindfulness helps with that.

@onlytherain

The thing is, I don't see it that way, or rather:

Generally speaking, pain is the body's way of telling you something isn't right. This is the purpose of pain. It is meant to make you uncomfortable so if you are injured or sick, you will know you need to do something (or stop doing something).

I don't want to be in pain. For the rest of my life. I want to address the root cause.

But I feel no one else I've seen in the nhs re my back sees it that way.

I'm not opposed to mindfulness. (Although there are lots of studies questioning its use, saying there hadn't been enough extensive research on it). But to me it's a sticky plaster, a means to and end. How to cope with the pain. But I don't want to just or only learn to live with it. I want to address the root cause, aswell, and try and get it to stop. But they make me feel unreasonable for wanting that.

Btw I broke my back, more than a year ago. I was in so much pain it took me by surprise. I couldn't initially get anyone to see me nhs, because waiting times were 6 months, so went private.

I'm better than I was, now 1.5 years later, but nowhere near right. was dismissed, finally they saw 4 breaks, 3 historical they thought. Diagnosed with osteoporosis. Given an injection, great. Told latest break is still 'healing' not healed. MSK (back Dept) are just dismissive.

Like other posters I'm not the person I used to be, and feel robbed. That kind of thing is hard to take.

Initially I couldn't move, couldn't walk, couldn't get up out of a chair, couldn't roll over in bed.

Now I can. But I can't walk very far. 50m I can manage. I wake up just about ok, I go to work, (I've had desk assessments) but as the day wears on, I get worse, then have to come home and get straight into bed.

I've had rubbish generic physio, I've been on 4 painkillers including morphine, all do little for me.

I can't carry anything, thus I can't go food shopping. I can barely cook, if I hang out a load of washing I need to do it in four different parts. I can't change a bed. I can't do any ironing or hoovering, so my husband has to do everything, do you think that's okay? Is that what you call living?

Am I being not open-minded to the idea?

Plus doesn't mediation only help with that immediate moment. I don't need meditation in my life, because I'm a content and happy person anyway. I'm not anxious, I don't have a stressful job, I'm not tired, I sleep plenty, I'm not busy, I'm organised and have loads of spare time.

If I'm in pain. I could meditate. I like meditation, I think it's a good thing, I've done yoga and Pilates before. But if I breathe, control the thoughts, focus, then that might help. Momentarily. But my pain hasn't gone away, because no one has addressed the root cause.

So after my meditation, I now need to continue, with my day, my work. That spreadsheet, the budget and forecast for the next year still needs to be done. And I am momentarily ok, didn't think about the pain because I was focusing on meditation. But I can't meditate every three minutes whilst I'm at work because I'd never get anything done and I'd get the sack. So how does it work long term?

If you are 50, are you supposed to live in pain for the next 40 years. Meditate every few minutes?

I had similar issues to you OP. Keep mobile as much as you can, see a physio for stretches and strengthening exercises. When you feel up to it I’d recommend Pilates. My condition is chronic (over 3 years now) but manageable - long periods sitting down make it flare up so I also got a sit/stand desk for work. When it’s painful I found a hot Epsom salt bath helpful. Painkillers didn’t help me unfortunately

Everyone is different - I personally didn’t find being mindful helped with the pain at all ! However if it works for people then there’s great 😊

It’s been a few months since I posted this and thankfully my pain has really improved which has naturally meant I can get out & about more, get back on top of the house etc. I guess my main takeaway from it is if you are in pain then don’t feel bad for resting!

Hi Netnall01
Would you mind outlining what you did during/for your recovery, please? Though I haven't had a diagnosis (people who see me think it's muscular, maybe a small muscle tear) I've been in intermittent pain that ticks a lot of sciatica boxes for over two years now. The pain in my lower back/hips/groin/knee/lower legs is sometimes so bad I can't help making faces and vocalising in public, which is a big deal for me. I start off on a supermarket shop or short walk in the village feeling ok and within a couple of hundred yards I'm hobbling. I'm now doing pilates which feels right at the time but I'm in more pain afterwards. Have seen a private physio but not convinced she's got to the bottom of what's happening. GP totally fobbed me off a couple of weeks ago. I wonder about naproxen but I don't want to become reliant on painkillers. This stuff about neuroplastic pain is interesting...

My life is curtailed by my pain and lack of mobility (horrendous stiffness and some weakness in leg) and it's brought me very low.

@onlytherain I have structural issues (prolapsed discs and arthritis and structural impingement) but I also think my brain is caught in a loop. In a sense I think the visual evidence of my arthritis tells my brain to feel pain. I wonder if Psilocybin mushrooms might help with resetting the brain? I know the brain registers pain. I know there is good reason for it to do that but I wonder if it forgets to stop registering pain when the structural problem is addressed. I hope the neuroscientists figure it out along with the psychologists. Meanwhile I will continue to do what helps me which isn't mindfulness (i wish I could do it). Swimming helps me a lot.

Very good post! Hypnosis is also good for pain management for the same reason as mindfulness.

@GlomOfNit Of course - so I got an MRI scan which showed a herniated disc compressing the nerve which was causing the sciatica.

The thing that really made the biggest difference was seeing an Osteopath. I had been seeing a physio who got me doing some stretches that made it worse but I noticed an improvement within 2 sessions with the osteo. Initially went once a week and now dropped down to every other week.

Osteo also got me to do these twice a day and I after a few sessions, I felt able to be a bit more active & reallr forced myself to swim a couple of times a week & walk every day - in the beginning I was just going to the end of my road and back as that’s all I could tolerate pain wise but would go every 45 mins.

I chose to avoid Naproxen but that was just because it can stop ovulation & we wanted to start a family asap - so very much a decision based on personal circumstance.

Also, I noticed the biggest improvement when I stopped just trying to power through - I stopped doing any lifting at all, got a food delivery, DH took over the house work & I was able to WFH. So really aside from the walking, swimming & stretching I rested in all other areas.