The difficulty remembering, concentrating or meet are very common in the population, especially as it progresses age. However, if the forgetfulness were the result of aging only, why two people older than the same age and cultural level presented a memory differently, and how it is possible that people of very old continue to be a capacity memory good?
Despite the fact that the majority of difficulties with the memory are benign and common, there are many individual differences and a large number of people presents these difficulties much before reaching the 50 or 60 years. Many of them share the fact of disease psychosomatic, i.e. suffer pain continued or chronic. In this article, we will see how it relates the chronic pain with these alterations of the memory. This is what causes and maintains and what resources can be useful to minimize the disruption and strengthen the cognitive abilities.
As it has been mentioned in the previous articles, chronic pain persists for more than six months and is coupled with a set of physical symptoms and psychological alterations. The disease involving this type of pain cause much interference in the daily lives and is in the cognitive performance where many patients suffer more; especially those who have led a good mental activity. It is therefore, one of the symptoms that most concerned and frustrated, together with the pain.
When we ask why memory in general, we see that there are many elements that are related to her, especially of environmental: a decrease of external demands, the lack of mental activity frequent or the use of tools such as agendas or calculators which make us the cognitive work. However, there are other variables such as the stress, anxiety, the low morale, which is very present in turn in patients with memory problems. Thus, how it relates the pain with the problems of memory and attention?
There are several hypotheses. Some professionals believe that the loss of retentive emerges as a side effect of the medication for pain. Others believe that such a loss is a symptom of low morale. However, the hypothesis that greater force has is as follows: the continued presence of pain increasing attention on our body, on these painful sensations, which we cause more concerns and keep us in hypervigilance toward the same.
In other words, people with chronic pain, due to changes in pain that are constantly, may be more outstanding those feelings, corporal involuntarily. In this way, the attention toward the external decreases, and if you do not look at something, hardly able recalled later. This process is not only in fibromyalgia patients, but in any person with chronic pain. This does not mean that the pain dependent only if you look at it, as it is usually an automatic process. However, it is possible dominate the attention. In addition, it emphasized that these memory problems not degenerate into something more serious; but are a source of anxiety, limit the action daily, and as the rest of symptoms, varies according to the pain. Forgetfulness as not recall the name of someone, losing objects, forget what you are going to do or say, difficulties in the calculation or confusion with the dates are the signals more frequent.
Let us know some exercises that are advised to help improve memory in patients with pain:
- Activities with the external aid: made lists, keep a calendar, address book or cards.
- Remain active with physical exercise daily and also cognitive: It repeated mentally things, make table games, hobbies, read to official 10 minutes the newspaper or a book and explain what you remember to somebody or oneself.
- Perform tasks without distractions (TV, telephone, people talking).
- To carry out an activity after another: want to do everything at once hampers the concentration.
- Put things or objects in the same place.
- In addition, try to divert attention from our body or physical pain to objects from outside (describe the elements that surround us, what we see, hear) can be helpful, too. The more aware of what we are paying attention will help us to change our attention and redirect.
It is important to take into account that the memory problems in people with pain are not irreversible, can be treated and improve. The daily practice of mental exercises improves cognitive performance, especially the attention and memory. Therefore, depends on ourselves both the exercise our memory as to and redirects our attention. If we manage our attention to other external aspects perceive to a lesser degree the discomfort, we feel more assets and useful, while also improving our memory. Therefore, our well despite the existence of the pain.
In short, manage the anxiety, redirect attention to elements that is not the pain and to keep assets cognitive and physically determine levels of pain significantly, thus improving the quality of life.
