A Clinical Psychologist from Hull’s hospitals is working with a national charity to help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) cope with long-term pain.
Dr Phillip Simpson, Lead Principal Clinical Psychologist at NHS Humber Health Partnership, has appeared on a podcast with the MS Trust to help people live with chronic, persistent and long-term pain linked to their neurological condition.
Dr Simpson, who works in the Department of Psychological Services supporting patients at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, explained how pain can act as an early alarm system but can have a significant emotional impact when it becomes long-term or persistent.
“Pain is designed to grab our attention and that can be disruptive to everyday life,” said Dr Simpson. “It can affect how we see ourselves and we might withdraw from other people so it can also affect relationships. Pain impacts on sleep and if we’re not sleeping, it can have a profound effect.
“It touches every area of life.”
As part of the podcast entitled: “Coping with MS pain in the long term: how to look after your mental health”, Dr Simpson explains how he and the team help patients understand and manage their pain better, reduce fear and anxiety and encourage people to re-engage with activities and hobbies they’d previously enjoyed. He also helps them identify goals to help them live well.
Dr Simpson explained how he uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which helps people understand how thoughts, feelings and actions work together so they can disrupt patterns to feel more in control, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which give people skills to understand thoughts and taking conscious decisions to change how they’re living their lives, and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), which tries to “soothe” the fear people experience when facing struggles and difficulties in their own lives.
He also explains trauma therapy including Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), previously used to help people with PTSD, but a useful tool for pain control.
Dr Simpson also spoke of the importance of language related to health conditions, where people speak of a “battle” or “fight” with illness.
He said: “There is a lot of ‘battle’ and ‘war’ imagery in health conditions and we say things like ‘I’m going to beat this’ when, of course, that isn’t the reality for some people. It’s about how can I live peacefully alongside this thing that I didn’t want but is here.”
Dr Simpson also shared that part of his work is around helping people experience similar feelings to grief for the life they had before diagnosis and offer them techniques to cope with waves of panic or anxiety.
He said: “The reality is MS and all long-term health problems can affect life in lots of different ways. There may be loss of role in the family, career, hobbies, changes in relationships and confidence.
“We give people space to work through those losses and reconnect with their life as it is now.”