Let’s look at ‘thinking positive’

Okay, Let’s look at ‘thinking positive’

I am of two minds on this whole thinking positive thing for chronic pain. I do believe that in some sense thinking positive can help motivate ourselves to handle the pain through the day better. On the other hand, I have had depression and thinking overtly positive rings so false to my ears my brain ‘rejects’ the thought. Which is counterproductive. I prefer thinking realistic.

But I always found CBT to be beneficial to how my brain thinks about depression and pain.

CBT and Pain

Nevertheless, thinking positive has been looked at.

In 2014 a study in cognitive behavioral therapy (CB) showed 5 minutes of it led to a 60% reduction in pain. They used thermal probes to apply heat to the arms of the 34 subjects, creating pain similar to a burn. When asked to rate the severity of the pain those who had undergone pain training therapy before gave scores of 58% lower than the control group. Although to me this suggests more that CBT works, less than positive thinking, and CBT is more than that.

Although, yes, of the 34 half were trained to control negative thoughts relating to pain, and the other have was given training unrelated to pain. So even those with secondary hyperalgesia from the thermal stimulation the pain trained group had 38% reduction in its pain, while the control group had an increase in hyperalgesia pain.

The CBT-trained group also reduced the self-reported ‘unpleasantness’ of the eight pain sessions by 58 per cent, said Dr Salomons. This indicated that CBT changed the emotional response to pain as well as the sensitivity of skin around the burn. MailOnline

Another study linked inflammation and pain to the anticipation of a positive outcome.

Dr. Tetsuo Koyama from Wake Forest University reported that expecting a positive outcome could reduce pain perception by 28%. His team told test subjects to expect three different levels of pain: mild, moderate, and severe. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) was used to measure what part of the brain was involved.
By mixing up the signals so that the people who expected only moderate pain but were exposed to severe stimulus, their pain rating was 28% lower than predicted. Researcher Robert Coghill explains, “Pain is not solely the result of signals coming from an injured body region but, instead, emerges from the interaction between these signals and cognitive information unique to every individual.” Positively Positive

Full link to that study here.

I think we can attest to the fact that anticipating higher pain can increase the intensity of a pain outcome.

Reframe the brain

And this isn’t mentioning the specific studies for neuropathy, fibromyalgia and back pain I came across with absolutely no digging at all. Because, yes, the perception of pain, reaction to pain, affect pain. We know that. It is like we know when we dwell on pain, it is worse. And if we dwell on pain and think all those horrible dark thoughts… it is likewise worse. So the opposite is also true.

Because often with positive thinking, and likely because of my comorbid depression, it was hard to do, for one, and secondly, those thoughts rang so false they had no strength. Not like a thought that was far more negative would have.

I don’t find this to be really about positive thinking so much as reducing negative thinking with CBT. All the power to that idea. I know that is effective. Changing our perspective on things can change our reaction to pain, to some extent. Not the pain itself, but the reaction to it, so the suffering of it, not the pain signal we feel in the body. I find that less to be positive thinking and more so not aligning myself with negative thinking.

 “Positive Thinking” is so much easier to do when you are not suffering with depression. Trying to constantly think positively when depressed is exhausting and we often end up depleting our already limited energy reserves. Secondly the idea that we must “think positively” when we clearly aren’t or we feel unable to do it, can make our depression worse as oops, now there’s another thing we’ve failed at.

“We ask our depressed and anxious patients to try to suspend the positive or negative judgment on what they are thinking and to ask themselves a different question– “Is my thinking helpful or unhelpful”. And when we say ‘helpful’ we mean:”

1: Does that thought or idea make you feel the way you want to feel?

2: Does that thought get you to become the person you wish to become?

3: Does that thought or way of thinking aid you in achieving your goals and where you want to be in life? Counselling Directory

So when I think about it I don’t think about it as positive thinking at all. I think about it as realistic thinking. Countering unrealistic negative thoughts that Automatically take space in my head. Thoughts that take up space in all our heads but that doesn’t mean we have to accept those thoughts. We can reject them but that seems to give them more energy than they deserve. We can just let them go knowing full well thoughts are not facts. We can ask these questions and reframe them. Lots of things we can do when our brain presents us with beliefs, thoughts and concepts we no longer need.

So yes, when someone tells you, you need to just think positive they are being trite. And it isn’t as simple as that. CBT therapy, on the other hand, effective to help a person cope with chronic pain. And likewise finding your own methods to turn those negative thought patterns into more realistic thoughts. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows in chronic pain land, but we know sunshine exists.

And really whatever works. If this works a bit for you, then it is worth it. If it doesn’t then it isn’t.

See also: Feeling your feels with chronic pain

Reprint from brainlessblogger.net

The cult of positivity