7 Therapeutic Ways to Take Your Mind Off Your Chronic Pain

When my sickle cell chronic pains aren’t crippling to the point I’m bed bound, there are times when I can feel the pain throbbing in my joints but I’m still able to get up and do things. During these times, although the pain isn’t bad enough to put me down for the count, the pain can become annoying and uncomfortable.

When the chronic pain is in this state, there are things I can do to take my mind off of it so that it doesn’t trigger anxiety, PTSD, sadness, and other mental health issues. The fact of the matter is that chronic pain and mental health conditions are closely linked.

Below is a list of ways that I deal with my chronic pain.

Art Therapy

Art and creative therapy is something I’ve been exploring more over the past few years. Art therapy can include things like drawing, painting, journaling, crafting, sculpting, creating music and much more.

My go-to methods of art therapy are journaling, drawing, writing and now and then I play around with watercolours. Sometimes I even grab a colouring book and colour a page.

I’ve found art therapy an effective way of dealing with my sickle cell pains (when it’s not too severe) because it takes a relevant amount of thinking power to create something, and if I’m thinking in this way then it means I’m not focused on the pain.

Even before I got into journaling and drawing in my adult life, I used to draw my own comic books back when I was in primary school too. So in reality, art therapy has been a part of my life for a long time.

What if I’m not good enough to do art therapy?

When dealing with art and creativity, the biggest hurdle for people to overcome is dealing with their self-doubt. But it’s important to know whether you’re doing art to cope with chronic pain or not, you don’t have to be a master artist. Art is completely subjective so don’t overthink it. You’re not creating a piece of art to sell to an art museum here, you’re creating art for you first. Leave the imposter syndrome at the door.

Also remember that the more you do art, the better you’ll get over time. So just do it and keep doing it. Stop judging yourself!

This isn’t a manly way to deal with my chronic pain!

One thing that I deal with is the misconception that filling in colouring books or painting with watercolours, or journaling isn’t exactly a manly thing to do. The fact of the matter is that I’m the one who has to deal with the pains that show up every day in some form, and I’ll decide how I want to deal with it.

At times in life, you have to break free of the ignorant thinking that becomes a social norm. And there’s nothing about colouring in or journaling that makes you less of a man.

Gaming

Gaming is something I’ve been doing since I was young. Back in the 90s when I was a young boy, I didn’t even know what chronic pain was. I knew that I had sickle cell and that sometimes I was in pain and that I lived a different life than other children.

Even back then, my subconscious mind knew that gaming made me feel better about life. It became more than an escape for me. And to this day, gaming holds huge significance in my life; to the point I’ve co-owned a video games media blog for almost 12 years.

Gaming is an interactive form of entertainment, meaning that the gamer is put into a completely new world or environment. RPGs (role-playing games) are my favourite types of games because they’re all about your character’s growth. Your character levels up as you progress through the game and you’re given the choice on how to upgrade them. Playing games like this gives me a warm gratifying feeling that often allows me to forget the difficulties in my own life that stem from pain.

Another game I’ve grown to love is Overwatch, and this is because of its teamwork-based gameplay. Although Overwatch may look like a generic shooter to an outsider, the gameplay is all about problem-solving as a team. This means you have to communicate with a bunch of players on your team (who you may or may not know) and figure out the best strategy to take as a team to win.

Visual Entertainment

For me, visual entertainment covers movies, TV shows, anime, rap battles, and YouTube videos.

I rely on visual entertainment when the pain is so bad that I have to stay in bed. At times, the pain can be severe to the point its hard to sleep; visual entertainment tends to have a calming effect on my brain during this time. It’s also useful for when you’re waiting for painkillers to kick in.

Reading

Reading has become such an important part of my therapy that I aim to do it every single day now. There’s nothing like being able to escape the hardships of your own life and visit an entirely new world. I revere anyone with the ability to whisk someone away to a new place with their words alone. It’s a talent that’s under-appreciated in these times.

For more, check out my book blog Redital (Read-it-all).

House Chores

This might seem like the most boring thing on the list, but some people see cleaning and tidying up as a form of therapy. If your pain level doesn’t prevent you from moving around too much then doing some house chores could be a good way to take your mind off of your pain and do some light exercise at the same time. But don’t overdo it and be mindful of aggravating your pain.

Building Lego Sets

This is another one of those things with a misconception attached to it. People look at Lego sets as being either kid’s play or a collector’s item. Yes, children love Lego and Yes, Lego sets can be collectors’ items if you hold onto them long enough. But also, building a Lego set has the same effect that art therapy does. It keeps your mind working and it’s extremely self-fulfilling to finish building a set. You can also put it on display somewhere after, making it mean something in the long term.

It’s another great way to take your mind off of your pain.

Meditation

My friend Annabel introduced meditation to me as something that can aid sickle cell pain.

I find meditation difficult as my mind wanders too much for me to sit still with my eyes closed for too long. All the things I need to do come across my mind and it spikes my anxiety. But despite the difficulties I’ve had with meditation, I also think if I can train myself to do it more frequently then it will be beneficial.

The reason is because guided meditation often focuses on breathing exercises. The act of deep breathing and taking in fresh oxygen is important for sickle cell. And it’s likely the same for many other chronic pain conditions.

I’m going to try adding meditation to my life more frequently and then I’ll write a follow-up blog post on how it’s helped me.

Do you have any other suggestions on ways to take your mind off of chronic pain? If so, please share in the comments!