When it comes to our minds, awareness is very often the solution itself.
Matt Haig
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When it comes to our minds, awareness is very often the solution itself.
Matt Haig
In the summer of 2013 I was nearing the completion of my Masters in Art Museum and Gallery Studies at the University of Leicester. In theory it should have been one of the happiest times for me … Getting back to studying in 2012/13 was a dream come true: I loved my course, I made some great friends and having improved somewhat physically was able to have some kind of social life again.
What I kept hidden from all but a handful of people was the true cost of that “progression”. Studying full-time was the hardest task I had undertaken in a long time: it drained me, physically and mentally.
I understand that for many people living with chronic pain, night can be one of the worst times of day – there’s nothing to distract from any pain or discomfort and any medications you’re on can have an effect on how, when and even if you’re able to fall asleep. But I think that is a trap we can fall into far too easily when trying to cope with managing sleep alongside chronic pain – we look for distraction to help us fall asleep rather than creating the most ideal conditions within which to do so.
When I posted recently on Instagram about throwing my back out and putting my flare-up plan in place my thoughts halted. What do we even mean by flare-up? It’s a phrase used so often but do people really understand what it means? And what the heck is a “flare-up plan”?! Let’s dive in …
My pain management programme defined a flare-up as being your usual pain, with the volume turned up to the maximum - not new pains or signs of a new injury.