by P Reddy

Created on: October 31, 2010   Last Updated: November 03, 2010

Most people that suffer from chronic pain were born without it.  This means that they got to spend many years of their lives cultivating their work, friendships, family and other relationships.  For someone that has an active lifestyle chronic pain will mean a significant change in his/her lifestyle.

Listed below are some reasons why chronic pain can lead to depression:

-  Lack of Contact With the Outside World

When you are sick you are often confined to your house until you are better.  People that suffer from chronic pain stay inside far more than regular people.  This is because the pain makes it difficult for them to be active and carry out a normal life.  It is less painful to stay home and rest.

This of course means that people are not getting to spend time with their friends and family.  People suffering from this type of illness often find it difficult to maintain relationships as the pain means that they cannot be a part of normal every day activities.

This can bring on depression as people who do not interact with others often feel lonely and left out.

-  Lack of Purpose

People that were high achievers or loved to work before they got sick will find chronic pain very difficult.  This is because most people with chronic pain are forced to leave work.  Many will find that the pain is too much for them to be working for eight hours a day.  The others that do stick it out will find that employers want healthy workers that do not take sick days.

Once they leave work they will be at home without much to do aside from rest.  What will make this difficult is that although their bodies are weak their minds are still strong.  They will ache to gt involved in the activities that they used to engage in before the illness and their bodies will prevent them from doing so.  This of course will lead to depression.

Most people need a reason to get up every morning.  Whether it is an exciting social activity, work or the chance to do something they love.  Chronic pain makes this hard to achieve. People that do not have anything to look forward to will suffer from depression.  This is especially true if the sufferer sees no improvement in their condition.

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