Many people focus on the physical injuries and the healing process that occurs after a victim suffers from an injury to the back.
However, this is a lengthy process that involves multiple parts of a person, including their emotional and mental health.
The connection between pain and mental health
As the International Association for the Study of Pain reveals, back injuries can have many lasting effects. This includes impacts on a person’s mental health.
Many studies over the years have proven a strong connection between mental health and chronic pain. Chronic pain and anxiety also have strong ties. In some cases, chronic pain has even brought about trauma or stressor-based disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder.
Living with chronic pain is mentally taxing. Living with the idea that pain may last forever is also very difficult for people to overcome. The mental pressure that results from this realization is often enough to make a person feel despondent, or even like their life is over.
How pain changes a person
When dealing with extended chronic pain, victims may develop a more pessimistic outlook on life and develop a more negative personality in general. This period of time can also result in the destruction of the victim’s social ties, as they no longer have the mental or physical energy to keep their interpersonal relationships healthy.
On top of that, the strain can drop a person’s performance at their job, even putting their employment at risk if their physical injury had not already done so. In short, the mental and emotional impacts of a back injury can irrevocably change a person’s life.
