by Karen Young

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Chronic Pain and Anxiety – What’s the Connection?

Chronic Pain and Anxiety - What's the Connection?

We’ve known for a while that chronic pain and anxiety have it in them to fuel each other. It’s not uncommon for people who experience chronic pain to also experience anxiety but up until recently, little was understood about the relationship.

Research published recently in the journal Biological Psychiatry has removed some of the mystery, offering new hope for the treatment of pain, as well as anxiety. The study found that a neurotransmitter in the body called … ready? … here we go … pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (‘PACAP’) is released in response to stress and is also elevated in response to chronic pain. Neurotransmitters are chemicals in the brain that help send information between cells.

For neurotransmitters to do their job well, their levels have to be just right – not too high and not too low. When PACAP is elevated, we see symptoms of pain, anxiety or both.  In previous research by members of the same research team, it was found that PACAP was elevated in women who had post-traumatic stress.

Here’s how it works. PACAP is found along one of the nervous system’s pathways to the brain. The pathway travels from the spinal cord to the amygdala, which is the seat of anxiety and emotions.

The researchers noticed that when there is chronic pain it’s not unusual to also see an increase in anxious behaviours – but – when the pathways for PACAP are blocked (effectively reducing the levels of PACAP), both anxious behaviour and pain are significantly decreased.

‘By targeting this [PACAP’s] regulator and pathway we have opportunities to block both chronic pain and anxiety disorders,’ – Victor May, Ph.D., senior author of study and professor neurological sciences at the University of Vermont.

The research team is now turning their attention to developing small molecule compounds that can reduce levels of PACAP.

‘This would be a completely different approach to using benzodiazepine and opiods – it’s another tool in the arsenal to battle chronic pain and stress-related behavioral disorders.’ – Victor May.

Whether chronic pain and anxiety occur together or separately, their intrusion into lives can be relentless. When they appear, they have a wide reach – for those who love someone who has to live with pain or anxiety, the struggle is also very real. Hopefully, this research brings us closer to finding an effective, safe way to manage pain and anxiety.

16 Comments

Dave Topper T

Caffeine is my disaster. One night I ended up in the ER from the anxiety. I had my triggers but the caffeine was the catalyst. But sometimes you’re in a position where an anxiety attack just has to be ridden. This last time ( I work overnight ) I had an attack ( post traumatic stress from current events? ) and had no choice but to ride it. I had the anxiety, the dizziness, the upset stomach, the whole nine. Luckily a friend was also working and we got to talking about other stuff, and had a few laughs. That made me feel remarkably better. Does laughing set off different chemicals in the body? It really tapered off after that. But the fibro took off. But HEY beats the anxiety. So is laughter the best medicine? All honesty here. I refuse medicating any of this short of Ibuprofen ( I prefer my liver and do not use acetaminophen ) for pain. I read about Cymbalta, oh the HORROR. Nope not gonna do it.

Reply
Akanksha

At the time of annexity I feel pain in my head . right behind the eyes. What can I do to get rid of it?

Reply
Karen - Hey Sigmund

If you are sure that your pain is from anxiety, breathe strong deep breaths. I know it might sound simplistic, but let me explain. Anxiety is a physiological response. When your brain senses that there might be threat (this doesn’t mean there is danger – sometimes the brain hits the panic button unnecessarily), it surges the body with a number of different neurochemicals, including adrenaline and cortisol (the stress hormone). These neurochemicals are designed to make you faster, more alert and stronger so that you can deal with any potential threat. When there is no need to fight or no need to flee, there is nothing to burn up these neurochemicals so they build up. You will find a more detailed description of this here https://www.heysigmund.com/dealing-with-anxiety/. This is why anxiety comes with the physical symptoms.

Strong deep breathing activates something called the relaxation response. This is a physiological response that neutralises the fight or flight neurochemicals. When this happens, the physical symptoms will start to ease. The problem is that because the brain is so busy during an anxiety attack, it can be hard to remember to breathe strong deep breaths (in for 3, hold for 1, out for 3). To deal with this, practice strong deep breathing a couple of times a day. You only need to do a few breaths at a time. This will help the response to become more automatic so it will be easier to do when you need it.

Reply
Alysha

Hey! Thanks for this. My gp wants me to attend pain clinics but they’re held 2 1/2 hours away and i don’t enjoy long distance travel. She doesn’t get that attending will cause anxiety which will increase the pain which increases the anxiety…

Reply
Lori

This info sounds promising. As a chronic pain patient, I’m not seeking drugs but I am seeking pain relief. If the answer was simply to stand on my head 5 minutes a day, I would do it (well, maybe not ‘simply’)! My question though is this. What about patients, like myself, that have been taking opiates for 25 years and benzodiazaines for 10 years? I have already been through hell coming off opiates due to DEA & CDC pressure. I’ve heard the coming off the benzos is even more difficult. I just hope there is some built in help for us to make these switches.

Reply
Karen - Hey Sigmund

Coming of benzos is difficult, but with the right support it can definitely be done. It’s really important that it’s done closely with the a doctor. It sounds as though you’ve already done some tough stuff – you have what it takes to do this. I wish you all the best.

Reply
Jasmin Beck

Lori,
I have also been on Benzos for over 30 years, mainly Valium nd Xanax.
I was withdrawn under medical supervision, in hospital and no side affects -over a period of 2 months gradual withdrawal.
I was put on Clonazapan late last year and my new psychiatrist is trying to wean me off that also, but because of sleep issues and and the positive results of combining it with melotonin, he is keeping me on it, until the Pain clinic does their procedures on my back and I see the sleep specialist.
If successful he will gradually withdraw me and HOPE for the best.
I have had no negative side-effects due to gradual withdrawal, Trust your doctor and good luck.

Reply
Karen - Hey Sigmund

Thanks so much Robert. It makes so much sense why you would feel as though you are on a knife edge when you’re in pain from your autoimmune arthritis. I hope research like this is able to move towards finding ways to bring relief for you.

Reply
Robert Hammel

I suffer from autoimmune arthritis. When I flare and the pain level is high, it often feels like being on an emotional knife edge.

Thank you for a great article. Sharing.

Reply
Ang Honeyb

I think like a lot of therapists I’ve felt the connection existed for a long but to have tangible clinical evidence is fantastic. As stated the link is self fuelling, chronic pain begets anxiety, enduring anxiety begets chronic pain.

Reply
Karen - Hey Sigmund

I hear you Ang! There’s a lot we know intuitively, or through personal experience but it’s always great to have the evidence, and to know that science is working on moving things forward.

Reply
Leanne

Any suggestions for what sufferers can do in the meantime?
Currently trying CBT, but it’s been a long gruelling road of severe anxiety and chronic pain.
Thanks

Reply
Jasmin Beck

Once again some brilliant info. Where do you get your research from -used to be able to when I worked for The Black Dog,
This info is great, just wish my doctor here at the Home would read it.
Suffering from severe back pain -new procedures being done shortly and unable to have any more ops, plus complex PTSD, boy did I identify.
Thank you so much for your dedication and help-it should be bottled

Reply
Karen - Hey Sigmund

Thanks Jasmin! Sometimes new research can take a little while to filter through. The good doctors will be onto it though. The references for the research are hyperlinked in the article – just click on the words in dark blue print and that will take you there.

Reply

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karenyoung_heysigmund

Let them know …

Anxiety shows up to check that you’re okay, not to tell you that you’re not. It’s your brain’s way of saying, ‘Not sure - there might be some trouble here, but there might not be, but just in case you should be ready for it if it comes, which it might not – but just in case you’d better be ready to run or fight – but it might be totally fine.’ Brains can be so confusing sometimes!

You have a brain that is strong, healthy and hardworking. It’s magnificent and it’s doing a brilliant job of doing exactly what brains are meant to do – keep you alive.

Your brain is fabulous, but it needs you to be the boss. Here’s how. When you feel anxious, ask yourself two questions:

- ‘Do I feel like this because I’m in danger or because there’s something brave or important I need to do?’

- Then, ‘Is this a time for me to be safe (sometimes it might be) or is this a time for me to be brave?

And remember, you will always have ‘brave’ in you, and anxiety doesn’t change that a bit.♥️

#positiveparenting #mindfulparenting #parenting #childanxiety #heywarrior #heywarriorbook

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Jan 30

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Let them know … Anxiety shows up to check that you’re okay, not to tell you that you’re not. It’s your brain’s way of saying, ‘Not sure - there might be some trouble here, but there might not be, but just in case you should be ready for it if it comes, which it might not – but just in case you’d better be ready to run or fight – but it might be totally fine.’ Brains can be so confusing sometimes! You have a brain that is strong, healthy and hardworking. It’s magnificent and it’s doing a brilliant job of doing exactly what brains are meant to do – keep you alive. Your brain is fabulous, but it needs you to be the boss. Here’s how. When you feel anxious, ask yourself two questions: - ‘Do I feel like this because I’m in danger or because there’s something brave or important I need to do?’ - Then, ‘Is this a time for me to be safe (sometimes it might be) or is this a time for me to be brave? And remember, you will always have ‘brave’ in you, and anxiety doesn’t change that a bit.♥️ #positiveparenting #mindfulparenting #parenting #childanxiety #heywarrior #heywarriorbook

karenyoung_heysigmund

The temptation to fix their big feelings can be seismic. Often this is connected to needing to ease our own discomfort at their discomfort, which is so very normal.

Big feelings in them are meant to raise (sometimes big) feelings in us. This is all a healthy part of the attachment system. It happens to mobilise us to respond to their distress, or to protect them if their distress is in response to danger.

Emotion is energy in motion. We don’t want to bury it, stop it, smother it, and we don’t need to fix it. What we need to do is make a safe passage for it to move through them.

Think of emotion like a river. Our job is to hold the ground strong and steady at the banks so the river can move safely, without bursting the banks.

However hard that river is racing, they need to know we can be with the river (the emotion), be with them, and handle it. This might feel or look like you aren’t doing anything, but actually it’s everything.

The safety that comes from you being the strong, steady presence that can lovingly contain their big feelings will let the emotional energy move through them and bring the brain back to calm.

Eventually, when they have lots of experience of us doing this with them, they will learn to do it for themselves, but that will take time and experience. The experience happens every time you hold them steady through their feelings.

This doesn’t mean ignoring big behaviour. For them, this can feel too much like bursting through the banks, which won’t feel safe. Sometimes you might need to recall the boundary and let them know where the edges are, while at the same time letting them see that you can handle the big of the feeling. Its about loving and leading all at once. ‘It’s okay to be angry. It’s not okay to use those words at me.’

Ultimately, big feelings are a call for support. Sometimes support looks like breathing and being with. Sometimes it looks like showing them you can hold the boundary, even when they feel like they’re about to burst through it. And if they’re using spicy words to get us to back off, it might look like respecting their need for space but staying in reaching distance, ‘Ok, I’m right here whenever you need.’♥️

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Jan 23

Open
The temptation to fix their big feelings can be seismic. Often this is connected to needing to ease our own discomfort at their discomfort, which is so very normal. Big feelings in them are meant to raise (sometimes big) feelings in us. This is all a healthy part of the attachment system. It happens to mobilise us to respond to their distress, or to protect them if their distress is in response to danger. Emotion is energy in motion. We don’t want to bury it, stop it, smother it, and we don’t need to fix it. What we need to do is make a safe passage for it to move through them. Think of emotion like a river. Our job is to hold the ground strong and steady at the banks so the river can move safely, without bursting the banks. However hard that river is racing, they need to know we can be with the river (the emotion), be with them, and handle it. This might feel or look like you aren’t doing anything, but actually it’s everything. The safety that comes from you being the strong, steady presence that can lovingly contain their big feelings will let the emotional energy move through them and bring the brain back to calm. Eventually, when they have lots of experience of us doing this with them, they will learn to do it for themselves, but that will take time and experience. The experience happens every time you hold them steady through their feelings. This doesn’t mean ignoring big behaviour. For them, this can feel too much like bursting through the banks, which won’t feel safe. Sometimes you might need to recall the boundary and let them know where the edges are, while at the same time letting them see that you can handle the big of the feeling. Its about loving and leading all at once. ‘It’s okay to be angry. It’s not okay to use those words at me.’ Ultimately, big feelings are a call for support. Sometimes support looks like breathing and being with. Sometimes it looks like showing them you can hold the boundary, even when they feel like they’re about to burst through it. And if they’re using spicy words to get us to back off, it might look like respecting their need for space but staying in reaching distance, ‘Ok, I’m right here whenever you need.’♥️

karenyoung_heysigmund

We all need certain things to feel safe enough to put ourselves into the world. Kids with anxiety have magic in them, every one of them, but until they have a felt sense of safety, it will often stay hidden.

‘Safety’ isn’t about what is actually safe or not, but about what they feel. At school, they might have the safest, most loving teacher in the safest, most loving school. This doesn’t mean they will feel enough relational safety straight away that will make it easier for them to do hard things. They can still do those hard things, but those things are going to feel bigger for a while. This is where they’ll need us and their other anchor adult to be patient, gentle, and persistent.

Children aren’t meant to feel safe with and take the lead from every adult. It’s not the adult’s role that makes the difference, but their relationship with the child.

Children are no different to us. Just because an adult tells them they’ll be okay, it doesn’t mean they’ll feel it or believe it. What they need is to be given time to actually experience the person as being safe, supportive and ready to catch them.

Relationship is key. The need for safety through relationship isn’t an ‘anxiety thing’. It’s a ‘human thing’. When we feel closer to the people around us, we can rise above the mountains in our way. When we feel someone really caring about us, we’re more likely to open up to their influence
and learn from them.

But we have to be patient. Even for teachers with big hearts and who undertand the importance of attachment relationships, it can take time.

Any adult at school can play an important part in helping a child feel safe – as long as that adult is loving, warm, and willing to do the work to connect with that child. It might be the librarian, the counsellor, the office person, a teacher aide. It doesn’t matter who, as long as it is someone who can be available for that child at dropoff or when feelings get big during the day and do little check-ins along the way.

A teacher, or any important adult can make a lasting difference by asking, ‘How do I build my relationship with this child so s/he trusts me when I say, ‘I’ve got you, and I know you can do this.’♥️

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Jan 20

Open
We all need certain things to feel safe enough to put ourselves into the world. Kids with anxiety have magic in them, every one of them, but until they have a felt sense of safety, it will often stay hidden. ‘Safety’ isn’t about what is actually safe or not, but about what they feel. At school, they might have the safest, most loving teacher in the safest, most loving school. This doesn’t mean they will feel enough relational safety straight away that will make it easier for them to do hard things. They can still do those hard things, but those things are going to feel bigger for a while. This is where they’ll need us and their other anchor adult to be patient, gentle, and persistent. Children aren’t meant to feel safe with and take the lead from every adult. It’s not the adult’s role that makes the difference, but their relationship with the child. Children are no different to us. Just because an adult tells them they’ll be okay, it doesn’t mean they’ll feel it or believe it. What they need is to be given time to actually experience the person as being safe, supportive and ready to catch them. Relationship is key. The need for safety through relationship isn’t an ‘anxiety thing’. It’s a ‘human thing’. When we feel closer to the people around us, we can rise above the mountains in our way. When we feel someone really caring about us, we’re more likely to open up to their influence and learn from them. But we have to be patient. Even for teachers with big hearts and who undertand the importance of attachment relationships, it can take time. Any adult at school can play an important part in helping a child feel safe – as long as that adult is loving, warm, and willing to do the work to connect with that child. It might be the librarian, the counsellor, the office person, a teacher aide. It doesn’t matter who, as long as it is someone who can be available for that child at dropoff or when feelings get big during the day and do little check-ins along the way. A teacher, or any important adult can make a lasting difference by asking, ‘How do I build my relationship with this child so s/he trusts me when I say, ‘I’ve got you, and I know you can do this.’♥️

karenyoung_heysigmund

There is a beautiful ‘everythingness’ in all of us. The key to living well is being able to live flexibly and more deliberately between our edges.

So often though, the ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ we inhale in childhood and as we grow, lead us to abandon some of those precious, needed parts of us. ‘Don’t be angry/ selfish/ shy/ rude. She’s not a maths person.’ ‘Don’t argue.’ Ugh.

Let’s make sure our children don’t cancel parts of themselves. They are everything, but not always all at once. They can be anxious and brave. Strong and soft. Angry and calm. Big and small. Generous and self-ish. Some things they will find hard, and they can do hard things. None of these are wrong ways to be. What trips us up is rigidity, and only ever responding from one side of who we can be.

We all have extremes or parts we favour. This is what makes up the beautiful, complex, individuality of us. We don’t need to change this, but the more we can open our children to the possibility in them, the more options they will have in responding to challenges, the everyday, people, and the world.

We can do this by validating their ‘is’ without needing them to be different for a while in the moment, and also speaking to the other parts of them when we can.

‘Yes maths is hard, and I know you can do hard things. How can I help?’

‘I can see how anxious you feel. That’s so okay. I also know you have brave in you.’

‘I love your ‘big’ and the way you make us laugh. You light up the room.’ And then at other times: ‘It can be hard being in a room with new people can’t it. It’s okay to be quiet. I could see you taking it all in.’

‘It’s okay to want space from people. Sometimes you just want your things and yourself for yourself, hey. I feel like that sometimes too. I love the way you know when you need this.’ And then at other times, ‘You looked like you loved being with your friends today. I loved watching you share.’

The are everything, but not all at once. Our job is to help them live flexibly and more deliberately between the full range of who they are and who they can be: anxious/brave; kind/self-ish; focussed inward/outward; angry/calm. This will take time, and there is no hurry.♥️

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Jan 17

Open
There is a beautiful ‘everythingness’ in all of us. The key to living well is being able to live flexibly and more deliberately between our edges. So often though, the ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ we inhale in childhood and as we grow, lead us to abandon some of those precious, needed parts of us. ‘Don’t be angry/ selfish/ shy/ rude. She’s not a maths person.’ ‘Don’t argue.’ Ugh. Let’s make sure our children don’t cancel parts of themselves. They are everything, but not always all at once. They can be anxious and brave. Strong and soft. Angry and calm. Big and small. Generous and self-ish. Some things they will find hard, and they can do hard things. None of these are wrong ways to be. What trips us up is rigidity, and only ever responding from one side of who we can be. We all have extremes or parts we favour. This is what makes up the beautiful, complex, individuality of us. We don’t need to change this, but the more we can open our children to the possibility in them, the more options they will have in responding to challenges, the everyday, people, and the world. We can do this by validating their ‘is’ without needing them to be different for a while in the moment, and also speaking to the other parts of them when we can. ‘Yes maths is hard, and I know you can do hard things. How can I help?’ ‘I can see how anxious you feel. That’s so okay. I also know you have brave in you.’ ‘I love your ‘big’ and the way you make us laugh. You light up the room.’ And then at other times: ‘It can be hard being in a room with new people can’t it. It’s okay to be quiet. I could see you taking it all in.’ ‘It’s okay to want space from people. Sometimes you just want your things and yourself for yourself, hey. I feel like that sometimes too. I love the way you know when you need this.’ And then at other times, ‘You looked like you loved being with your friends today. I loved watching you share.’ The are everything, but not all at once. Our job is to help them live flexibly and more deliberately between the full range of who they are and who they can be: anxious/brave; kind/self-ish; focussed inward/outward; angry/calm. This will take time, and there is no hurry.♥️

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