2024 Autoimmune Community Summit Session Recap
Have you ever been in the vicious SPACE cycle? If you have an autoimmune disease, chances are you have. In the Autoimmune Community Summit session, Ways to Reduce Autoimmune Pain, Clinical Psychologist Afton Hassett teaches us about what pain is, how to build resiliency, and how to reduce pain.
We have all felt pain. Pain is processed in the brain. Many things impact how you physically feel pain like memory, thought, feeling, habit, sleep and more. Pain is not an isolated experience, there are five symptoms that go together, in what is called SPACE, and pain is only one of them. Those five symptoms are Sleep, Pain, Affect, Cognitions, and Energy. What this means is that when you are in pain, you do not sleep well, and when you do not sleep well, you feel cranky, and when you are tired and cranky, you have brain fog and overall you end up with low energy and you are so exhausted but you still cannot sleep because you are in pain. Do you see the cycle?
Building Resilience
Resilience is the ability to bounce back and cope with change. We all have different levels of resilience and our personal level might change throughout your life. The more resilient you are, the faster you adapt to change and recover and the less likely you are to have chronic pain, sleep impairment and poor mental health. Building resiliency is something that everyone can do and Affton recommends trying positive activity interventions(PAIs) like keeping a gratitude journal or performing random acts of kindness. Research shows that those who do PAIs decrease their pain intensity and depression and increase positive emotions.
Here are some PAIs you can try:
Schedule time for activities that make you happy multiple times a week
Intentionally connect with others either new people or someone you like to talk to and take time to reflect on each conversation
Conduct random acts of kindness multiple times a day such as giving someone a compliment or a hug. Research shows that doing this 5 times a day can really boost your mood.
Keep a gratitude journal. Write down three new things you are grateful for each day and make time to review everything you were thankful for at the end of the month.
Savor happy moments like drinking your morning coffee or feeling the sun on your face.
Make a playlist with songs that make you happy.
For more strategies on how to build resilience, read Chronic Pain Reset by Afton Hassett or listen to the Chronic Pain Reset podcast.
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