Procrastination is the thief of time

Pain is not comfortable and it signals possible damage to the body. It is therefore logical that people with acute pain avoid painful movements. Movements that resemble painful movements are also usually avoided. However, it becomes problematic the moment people also avoid movements that are totally unrelated to pain. This can seriously affect daily life and even contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic pain. In his PhD research, Kristof Vandael therefore investigated how this generalization of pain-related avoidance can be inhibited in the lab to help optimize therapy for chronic pain or even prevent the development of chronic pain. He received his doctorate at Maastricht University on. In his PhD research, Kristof investigated factors to inhibit the spread of avoidance in order to optimize therapy for chronic pain. The focus on generalization of avoidance is not new, but already studied in the field of anxiety disorders. When someone has a trauma, this person often avoids places associated with this trauma. However, these associations sometimes expand to such an extent that, for example, after being bitten by a dog, you start avoiding dogs similar to it as well or even avoid all dogs and therefore no longer dare to go for a walk. This interferes with daily life and therefore becomes problematic. This is also the case for painful movements, with the range of movement avoidance eventually expanding into a 'range' of movements not related to this pain. Positive emotions. How can this avoidance be slowed down?