Once this occurs, many of us begin to catastrophize. Catastrophizing is the tendency to get so caught up in the emotion that all we can think of is the worst case scenario. For example, we may think "my pain is at an excruciating level." Thoughts and questions automatically begin to snowball.
What if I can't make this pain stop?
What if it gets worse?
What if I have to live like this for the rest of
of my life?
Our brain seems to keep firing the worst possible case scenarios. Then our body gets involved in the act. We may find that we hold our breath or that we hyperventilate; some of us get shaky; some of us cry; some of us panic. All of these physiological symptoms feed back into our psychological symptoms only to make them even worse.
Pain leads to anxiety which leads to panic which leads to increased pain which leads to more anxiety which leads to depression which may lead to poor self care which leads to more pain. You get the idea.
At some point in this, we have to be able to slow down the rapid progression of "negative" emotions. In order to do this, we must be mindful. This simply means that we have to be aware of what is taking place. We HAVE to stop the rapid fire catastrophizing and ask what is really happening so we can see the situation more clearly and think more creatively.
In this case, one might find themselves becoming anxious. At that point, the question is asked "Why am I so anxious?" The answer may be "I am in so much pain that I cannot imagine it ever getting better." At this point, there are two things that need to be done. One is to problem solve.
In this case, problem solving may include calling your doctor, taking a deep breath, thinking about what has worked in the past, meditating, praying, calling a friend or any number of things.
The second thing is to normalize what is happening. "I have chronic Migraines. I have felt like this before and have always gotten through it in the past. I know that these Migraines ebb and flow and that this will get better. I am not alone in feeling like this. Being anxious about my pain is normal. If I don't think I can handle it, there are always people who can help me." Hopefully, you get the gist.
The key is to learn to slow down your thinking. Take a deep breathe.... and then another.... and then think through how you can solve the problem or what steps you need to take to deal with what you are currently feeling.
Next time, I will address why I put the word negative in "negative" emotions in quotation marks.
