Rethinking Chronic Pain: Considering the Whole Person
Treating patients with chronic pain is difficult because there is no one-size-fits-all approach. While many treatment options for pain considers one aspect of pain—the physical effects—chronic pain is multidimensional, affecting the whole person. This approach is often understudied and undocumented. How can clinicians start to approach chronic pain as a condition that affects multiple aspects of the patient?
Navigating the complex world of chronic pain can be challenging, especially when handling a large amount of information that may be incomplete, uncertain, or one-dimensional. As clinicians, we often feel like our decisions rely more on educated guesses than solid evidence. This isn’t surprising, considering the large number of medical papers published each year—most of which offer limited guidance in a clinical setting.
There is a lot of value in holistic approaches that treat pain from many angles, not just the biological, physical side of things. This article will discuss how pain is multidimensional and requires a unique, tailored, holistic approach to treatment, based on each patient’s needs.
The Problem with Treating Chronic Pain From One Direction
Pain is more than just a physical feeling. Imagine acute pain as a warning—the body’s alert to withdraw a hand from a hot stove. In contrast, chronic pain persists for over six months, even after the initial injury has healed.
This type of pain is often connected to deeper emotional and psychological issues. Sadly, most research on chronic pain has only looked at the physical aspect, neglecting the psychological and emotional elements that are vital to a person’s overall well-being—neglecting the whole person.
A Lesson from Psychology
The history of psychology offers an important lesson. Early on, Freud emphasized the unconscious mind and its impact on our behaviour. Although his work was pioneering, his followers sometimes defended his ideas so passionately that they dismissed other important perspectives. For instance, Carl Jung’s work, which focused on spiritual identity and a collective human unconscious, was overshadowed.
This illustrates what can happen when we focus too narrowly on a single idea. Similarly, when pain research only considers biological factors, it overlooks a significant portion of the full picture. This limited approach has resulted in many patients being treated solely for their physical symptoms, while their emotional and psychological struggles are left unaddressed.
A Better Way Forward: Treating the Whole Person
To truly understand and treat chronic pain, we must consider the whole person. Just as ignoring Jung’s ideas slowed down psychology, neglecting the emotional and spiritual aspects of pain stops us from developing the most effective treatments.
Moving forward, we need to incorporate biological, psychological, social, and spiritual perspectives. This isn’t just an abstract concept; it’s essential for supporting people living with chronic pain daily.
Sharing Free Chronic Pain Resources that Consider the Whole Person
We created the I-Engage Academy as a free resource for people with chronic pain, sharing resources through a holistic lens. Pain patients can find resources on several topics related to chronic pain, including nutrition, mental health, exercise, self-love, pain education, and many more.
Resources like these aim to help patients learn multidimensional self-management techniques that they can use to support themselves between doctor’s appointments. They are more than just a number on a pain scale.
Check out the I-Engage Academy today and consider sharing this free, accessible resource with your pain patients.
