Persistent pain can reorganize attention.
Plans begin with the pain.
Mood is interpreted through the pain.
Movement is evaluated through the pain.
The entire day can start occurring as a day about pain.
That does not mean the pain is imagined.
Chronic pain is common, including among older adults, and it can affect function and quality of life.
Acceptance-based and mindfulness-based approaches are used in chronic-pain care and may improve some pain-related functioning, acceptance, or psychological flexibility, although evidence quality varies and these approaches do not make medical evaluation unnecessary.
The useful distinction is therefore not between having pain and pretending not to have pain.
It is between pain being present and pain becoming the sole organizing fact of experience.
What care does the body need?
What activity remains possible?
What else is also true in this hour?
Pain may continue to deserve attention.
It does not have to receive every available unit of attention.
A day can contain pain without becoming only pain.

A medically cautious reflection on chronic pain: acceptance-based approaches may change the relationship to pain, but pain remains real and appropriate care still matters.

Persistent pain can reorganize attention.

The entire day can start occurring as a day about pain.

Chronic pain is common, including among older adults, and it can affect function and quality of life.

Acceptance-based and mindfulness-based approaches are used in chronic-pain care and may improve some pain-related functioning, acceptance, or psychological flexibility, although evidence quality varies and these approaches do not make medical evaluation unnecessary.

The useful distinction is therefore not between having pain and pretending not to have pain.

It is between pain being present and pain becoming the sole organizing fact of experience.

It does not have to receive every available unit of attention.

A day can contain pain without becoming only pain.

Pain Does Not Have to Organize the Whole Day