4 Things That Make My Pain Worse and How I Manage Them

It’s not alway easy to predict what triggers flares. Here’s how I find a balance between avoiding pain and enjoying life activities.

I’ve been living with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) for about 5 years. You might think that by now, I must know exactly what causes flare-ups and exactly how best to avoid them or at least manage them when they do happen.

The truth is, I don’t. At least, not always. And that’s because the single most challenging thing about PsA, for me, is that it always seems to be changing. What causes a flare-up for me one day won’t necessarily cause a flare-up for me another day.

What fixes one flare won’t necessarily work the same for the next flare or even the one after that. I feel like I’m playing a game where the rules and objectives are always changing. And on top of that, I always seem to be the last to know about those changes. It’s exhausting, frustrating, and feels downright unfair some days.

There are a few things I have found that do make pain worse for me more often than other things, and I’ve listed them below. Most of the time, I try to avoid these things, but I also believe it’s important to let myself live a little, even if that means having to pay the price of pain later. What feeds my soul and brings me joy won’t always be what is good for my body and vice versa. For me, living a full and happy life means existing somewhere in the middle.

Having said that, here is my little list of some of the things that make pain worse for me.

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Moving too much or not enough

This one can be particularly annoying because some days, I really and truly just want to be a couch potato. Unfortunately, if I lay down too long, my joints start to feel like rusted tin. Not only is it more painful to get up and walk around after sitting around for too long, but sitting itself becomes painful!

On the flip side, standing for too long will cause pain, too. Every single day, I’m on a quest to both stand and sit for the optimal amount of time to keep my arthritis happy. It feels like a second job.

Wearing unsupportive shoes

I used to love to dress up in heels or walk barefoot outside. I still can to some extent, but one of the fastest, surest ways to send my arthritis into a flare-up is to wear unsupportive shoes or no shoes at all for too long (which, for me, is probably more than 30 minutes).

Typically, no shoes at all can cause a painful condition for me called “enthesitis,” where the arch of my foot becomes tight and feels almost like I’m walking on a golf ball. Unsupportive shoes generally cause pain in my hips and knees. I’m pretty good about avoiding unsupportive shoes, but every now and then, I’ll still walk barefoot in the grass because it makes my heart happy.

Eating and drinking flare foods

It has been difficult for me to pinpoint what foods cause flares for me. Some foods or drinks cause flare-ups more than others but may not cause them all the time. Some of the foods that I struggle with more are fried or heavily processed foods and alcohol. I am gluten- and dairy-free, so sometimes I forget that those foods do cause flare-ups for me just because I rarely eat them.

For dairy, it seems to be a certain amount (like drinking three glasses of milk a day), whereas if I have a dollop of ranch with carrots, that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Alcohol seems to be my biggest trigger and can send me into a flare for up to a week. It doesn’t always cause me to flare, but because I never know if it will, I choose when and if to have drinks cautiously. Again, it’s very important for me to enjoy life, and each day may look different from the day before.

Not getting enough sleep

Getting enough good sleep seems to be one of the MOST important things I can do to keep my arthritis happy. If my sleep is disrupted or I don’t get enough, not only does it increase my pain levels, but it also sends my fatigue skyrocketing. This sets me up for an overall very hard day, week, or however long the flare-up lasts.

I try my best to turn off screens at 9 p.m. and read from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. I usually wake up around 6 a.m. (toddler mom life) and get 8 to 9 hours of sleep, which seems to be the best for my body. Does that mean I always get 8 to 9 hours? No way. But I’m not aiming for perfection … I’m aiming for good.

So, there you have it! Listed above are four things that seem to make pain worse for me and a little bit about how I manage or navigate those things. Living with PsA is like constantly trying to win a game where the rules and objectives are ever-changing. Some days, I do win. Some days, I lose, and a lot of days, I exist somewhere in the middle. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe existing in the middle is really winning in the end.