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Self Care

Reviewed: December 2006

Pain can affect all parts of our lives. Many people find that talking to a trained therapist or counsellor about the pain can be very helpful. Support groups can also provide the opportunity to talk with others in your situation, and learn from what helped them in relieving their pain. There are factors such as culture, pain tolerance level, religious beliefs, age or gender that will affect people's perceptions of pain. There are also some common fears that most clients have, regarding pain and medication. We hope that this information will help you to make the proper decisions for your pain management.

Factors That Affect People With Pain

People respond to pain in many different ways. There are a host of things that make us individuals; thus we all make decisions and ask for help with pain control in different ways. Listed here are influences that affect the way people respond to pain:

  • Religious beliefs
  • Emotional status
  • Culture (customs, way of life, background, traditions)
  • Each person's response to pain will be different according to his or her upbringing, tolerance level, spiritual beliefs, customs or cultural background
  • Age and gender
  • Anxiety and/or fear
  • Wanting to be a "good patient", some patients don't report their pain.
The BC Cancer Agency maintains a database on commonly used unconventional therapies available to cancer patients.