Medication and treatments for persistent pain

Self help and self referral – Talking therapies

Persistent pain can have a significant impact on your moods.

It can be a miserable experience which leaves you feeling alone and low – so it can be helpful to talk about it.

Talking therapies involve discussing your issues with a psychological practitioner. These professionals are skilled at helping you understand the ways thoughts and mood affect pain.

They can help you learn strategies and skills to improve your quality of life and ability to deal with pain.

It helps to learn a range of skills to recognise how the way you think can cause unhelpful moods, for example becoming very angry. The therapy helps the person learn how to make changes to unhelpful thoughts or behaviours.

The Sheffield Talking Therapies service helps individuals cope better with depression and anxiety as well as having courses on living well with pains. They have self help resources and self referral options.