One of the annoying social side-effects of pain is that everyone has their opinions about it. Especially if the pain persists for years, there are countless people who have something to say about it:
- Medical specialists, where there is a good chance that each specialist will give a different explanation, or even use different diagnoses.
- Friends and family, who can be a good support, sometimes take too much work off your hands and/or don't understand you.
- Other people, where the type of person 'that has experienced is all by himself or knows someone who...' can be very tiring.
- And maybe even psychologists or coaches, who tell us that it's just a matter of accepting.
And so the list goes on. Now it is not the case that no one contributes or helps to your pain. However, one of the disadvantages of so much involvement is that you can get the feeling that you don't know what to do about your pain anymore.
Steerless at sea
It's like a ship sailing in a storm at sea. Due to the strong winds and high waves, no course can be set. The ship is thrown back and forth without achieving any results.
Now the comparison may be a bit strong, but you could check for yourself: to what extent am I 'thrown back and forth' in my life between different opinions, social workers and perhaps even your own thoughts about how to get out of the negative spiral of pain... To what extent does that make it more difficult to determine what is still good, what helps you deal with pain?
Taking back control
The main disadvantage of all opinions and advice is that it is difficult to make progress. Without making a decision, choosing a direction that may mean progress, nothing is going to change. But, how do you choose a direction to get out of pain?
- Remember that you can and must make decisions for yourself. You can choose what you spend your time, attention, or maybe even money on.
- Ask yourself difficult questions: What do I want to achieve? In what way? What am I willing to do?
- Choose a direction, practitioner or method that appeals to you. Having positive expectations and feelings is very important for the outcome of a treatment.
- Stick to the choice for a while! Some developments take time.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of different treatments? In this blog you can read more about this.
