Memory, Concentration and Chronic Pain
When a person is suffering with chronic pain, it can affect every aspect of his or her life. It can sometimes start out like a pebble in one’s shoe, only to become a piece of glass. The difference is that when there’s a foreign object in our shoe, it’s easy to take the shoe off and remove it. Yet when it comes to living with pain, it’s much more difficult to treat than removing a pebble from a shoe. The constant suffering can affect a person’s mentality in a number of different ways. It can influence thoughts, feelings, sleep patterns, memory, concentration, and even connections with others.
The Brain Processes Pain
The effects of persistent pain may sound intense, far reaching, and perhaps even exaggerated; but those who experience it truly understand just how debilitating it can be. Research covering the different ways the brain processes pain show us that the brain reacts differently to short-term pain than it does to long-lasting pain. When the body experiences the latter, it can change the central nervous system (CNS), and influence sensory, emotional, and modular circuits that would otherwise inhibit pain. Chronic pain is now looked at as a neurological disease of its own—comorbid with symptoms of anxiety and depression. This is due to the altered cognitive and emotional states by the CNS. This means that the longer pain exists, the greater it becomes, and the more prone to feelings of fear, anxiety, and depression a person will be. Constant, debilitating pain can truly interfere with a person’s life.
Pain Affects Memory and Concentration
A study conducted by the University of Alberta shows that pain not only affects one’s physical, emotional, and mental states, but it can also affect a person’s memory and concentration. It interferes with the memory trace needed to hold information for processing, and long-term storage. This affects not only one’s ability to remember, but also to concentrate and focus in the moment.