"Part of Pain Management Is Teaching You Stress Management"

“Stress makes your pain much worse,” says Beverly Thorn, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, who works with chronic pain patients. People who suffer from chronic pain often, understandably, have habitual negative thoughts that accompany it and those thought patterns increase stress. Through “cognitive therapy,” pain specialists help patients understand the impact of their “automatic thoughts” on their pain level. In this video, Thorn explains how she helps patients examine their thoughts to lower stress and hopefully reduce pain.