Self-compassion, pain, and breaking a social contract

Abstract

Self-compassion is the ability to respond to one s failures shortcomings and difficulties with kindness and openness rather than criticism. This study, which might be regarded as a proof of concept study, aimed to establish whether self-compassion is associated with expected emotional responses and the likelihood of responding with problem solving, support seeking, distraction, avoidance, rumination or catastrophizing to unpleasant self-relevant events occurring in three social contexts. Sixty chronic pain patients were presented with six vignettes describing scenes in which the principal actor transgressed a social contract with negative interpersonal consequences. Vignettes represented two dimensions: 1) whether pain or a non-pain factor interrupted the fulfilment of the contract, and 2) variation in the social setting (work, peer and family). The SelfCompassion Scale was the covariate in the analysis. Higher levels of selfcompassion were associated with significantly lower negative affect and lower reported likelihood of avoidance, catastrophizing and rumination. Selfcompassion did not interact with the pain vs. non-pain factor. Work related vignettes were rated as more emotional more likely to be associated with avoidance, catastrophizing and rumination and less likelihood of problem solving. The findings suggest that self-compassion warrants further investigation in the chronic pain population both with regards to the extent of its influence as a trait, and in terms of the potential to enhance chronic pain patients ability to be self-compassionate, with a view to its therapeutic utility in enhancing psychological wellbeing and adjustment. Limitations as regards to possible criterion contamination and the generalizability of vignette studies are discussed.

Lifestyle and Chronic Pain across the Lifespan: An Inconvenient Truth?

“…Still, when providing physical activity and exercise interventions to people with chronic pain, individual barriers for being physically active should be taken into account to prevent low adherence. Pain cognitions and beliefs (eg, fear of movement, catastrophizing, hypervigilance, self‐compassion, and acceptance) are often key determinants of certain lifestyles such as sedentary or avoidant behavior in people with chronic pain. Patients' beliefs about pain shape their attitudes and behaviors about how to manage their pain, including whether or not to be physically active.…”

“…Finally, any comprehensive lifestyle program for people with chronic pain should take possible determinants and barriers to behavioral lifestyle changes into account. For instance, fear of movement, catastrophizing, hypervigilance, self‐compassion, and acceptance are prevalent among people with chronic pain, and each of them can serve as a barrier to an adaptive lifestyle change. Therefore, they should be addressed prior to initiating the behavioral lifestyle intervention.…”

An exploration of pain experiences and their meaning in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…The desire for an explanation of the cause of pain is common among those with chronic pain in the absence of COPD (Corbett, Foster, and Ong, 2007;Toye and Barker, 2012). Patients' inability to make sense of their pain leads to worry, confusion, distress and vulnerability (Davis, Zautra, and Reich, 2001;Keefe et al, 2001;Lansbury, 2002;Lumley et al, 2011;Purdie and Morley, 2015). In this study, the absence of a definitive cause may foster patients' perception that their pain is being dismissed or met with skepticism by HCPs.…”

Compassion and chronic pain

“…Higher self-compassion was also associated with greater satisfaction with social participation [26]. These results provide more detailed findings regarding the way in which self-compassion may influence affect, cognitive and behavioral responses to pain-related events.…”