Living with chronic pain is stressful. It actually increases stress hormones in the body. In the short term, stress hormones protect you from immediate danger by changing your body’s priorities. They increase your heart rate so blood and oxygen moves quickly in the body. They slow down your digestion so energy is available for important organs (brain, heart). They keep you awake, alert, and on guard against danger. In the long term, high levels of stress hormones can have a negative effect on your pain experience.
Imagine…
Stress as a backpack of survival items (water bottle, extra clothes, lantern, sleeping bag, etc.) you carry everywhere you go. A survival kit seems like a good idea at first but carrying the backpack becomes a burden over time. The backpack weighs down on your shoulders, changes your posture, causes you pain, and makes you tired. This affects your mood and makes you irritable. Since wearing the backpack, you are less active and constantly hungry. Overeating makes you gain weight. At night, you wear your backpack in bed and this makes it hard to sleep well. Like a heavy backpack, stress makes pain worse by becoming a burden in your everyday life.
What is happening in the body?
Increases in stress hormones cause many problems that are common in chronic pain. The information below gives a summary of how your body responds to high levels of stress over time and why it happens.
