by Jason Medina

Created on: March 02, 2008

I am a thirty-three year-old male who has been dealing with chronic pain issues for over four years now. I know firsthand how long-standing chronic pain issues can adversely affect a person's quality of life and overall level of happiness. Chronic pain takes a huge toll on a person's ability to enjoy life, and it impedes a person's ability to see the good in everyday life. Pain is bad enough when it's only temporary. It makes you irritable and grouchy, and it prevents you from doing many of the things that you would normally do. However, when a pain condition becomes chronic and long-term, the life-altering effects and mind-altering effects are profound.

The pain just doesn't go away. Or if it does, you can be sure it will return soon enough. It's hard to face each new day with any degree of optimism and joy when you know full well that your day is going to be clouded with pain. Physically, chronic pain can be debilitating. But as bad as the physical tolls that chronic pain can take on a person, I believe the psychological impacts are just as great or even greater! A person suffering from chronic pain knows their limitations. A chronic pain sufferer knows that, no matter what, their pain is going to return tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. There is no escape! Sure, there are a huge array of various pain medications that can provide various levels of relief - often at the expense of your overall health and ability to function - but the effects are only temporary, and more often than not the pain medications leave you in a foggy mental state that basically prevents you from enjoying whatever fleeting moments of pain free existence that they offer.

And then there's the impact on a person's lifestyle and ability to perform the activities that they love. For me, I've always been a very active person. I love working out, going to the gym, hiking in the mountains, and cycling. However, as my pain condition has worsened, I find myself unable to do most of the things that I really love to do. And that creates havoc with my self-esteem and overall happiness level. Which in turn opens the door for depression. It basically boils down to this: the more adversely a chronic pain condition affects your life and your lifestyle, the greater the chances that you will become depressed, often severely depressed. It doesn't take a Harvard PH.D to realize that as a person's life becomes restricted and impeded by chronic pain, there are going to be some serious psychological ramifications. That's only human nature.

Chronic pain is an ugly thing that far too many people have to deal with. As I have been suffering from chronic pain and it's effects on my life and lifestyle over the last four years, I have firsthand knowledge as to how it can adversely affect a person psychologically, and how it can open the door to a severe depressive disorder.

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