Stress does not seem to be playing a significant role in causing or maintaining your pain. If you have significant pain not associated with a life-threatening illness, then your pain is probably mainly being maintained by physical factors. However, even in the absence of stress, long-term pain can lead to neurological changes which can maintain pain. If your pain is more than you can comfortably bear you should consider whether your pain is being managed adequately medically. You may also need to look at how best to manage your pain through pacing, sleep management and pain medication. You should read the articles ’10 steps for overcoming chronic pain’, ‘Pain and Sleep’ and ‘How to get the most out of your doctor,.

Analyzing your results from this questionnaire should give you an idea what psychological risk factors are contributing to your pain and where you need to direct your efforts psychologically in terms of overcoming your pain. This questionnaire is designed to assess the 5 most common psychological risk factors for chronic pain; namely Adverse Childhood Experiences, Present Stress, Alexithymia, Traumatic Stress and Depression. However, everyone is different and not everyone has the same levels of risk factors. This information is intended as a guide only and is not meant as a substitute for appropriate psychological or medical treatment.