Word: pained
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Rather, ACT promotes the acceptance of negative thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations (like chronic pain) that a patient may have struggled with for a long time. The goal is to observe and be mindful of your crummy thoughts and feelings without getting mired in them - and to be able to act in accordance with your values (like, say, going to work every day or not drinking too much) despite them. In short, ACT therapists encourage engagement with life even when it hurts. (Learn about how ACT works and the fascinating psychologist who created...
...proved effective for a variety of conditions - from depression to drug abuse to schizophrenia - but this is the first time it has been used to treat kids with pain. Here's how the study worked...
...research team - four Swedish investigators at the Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University - recruited kids who had truly suffered. The children had headaches, backaches and neck problems; many had widespread musculoskeletal pain; a couple had internal, visceral pain. They had high depression scores; 11 of the 32 had been to the emergency room with pain symptoms; 20 had had MRIs to try to find the source of their pain (without success); 21 had had physiotherapy. In short, the kids' parents had tried everything, and nothing had worked...
...extra one or two ACT sessions with their parents present). During the sessions, the therapists emphasized that the kids should go out and do what they truly loved even if they were hurting that day - in other words, that they should accept rather than try to avoid their chronic pain. To shift kids away from focusing only on alleviating their symptoms, therapists discussed how their pain was not caused by a harmful disease or injury and how previous strategies (such as taking painkillers) had not worked. Kids were encouraged instead to notice and accept discomfort and to get back into...
...although those sessions were divided among physicians, physical therapists and a psychologist or psychiatrist. Each day, these kids were also given up to 100 mg of amitriptyline, a sedating drug that used to be prescribed as an antidepressant but is now used more often as a treatment for chronic pain...