Our bodies are always talking to us. When we are hungry, our stomachs growl.
When we’re cold, we shiver. When we feel pain, we try to do something about it, like resting or taking medicine.
This ability to notice and understand what our body is telling us is called interoceptive awareness.
It plays a big role in helping us take care of ourselves and stay healthy. But for people who live with long-term pain, this body awareness can become unclear or confusing.
Chronic pain can last for months or years, and it often changes how people feel and respond to their body’s signals.
Some people stop trusting their own bodies, while others become more anxious and worried about their pain. These changes can lead to serious problems, like misusing pain medicine.
In recent research, Anna Parisi, a professor at George Mason University, studied how improving body awareness could help people who use opioid medications for chronic pain. Opioids are strong drugs that are often used to treat pain, but they can be risky. Misuse of opioids can lead to addiction, health problems, or even death.
The goal of Parisi’s study was to see if a program called Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement, or MORE, could help. MORE was developed by Eric Garland from the University of California, San Diego. It teaches people mindfulness skills to help them deal with pain, emotions, and the urge to misuse medication.
In the study, people with chronic pain who were already using opioids joined group therapy sessions led by trained professionals. They practiced mindful breathing and body scan exercises. A body scan involves slowly focusing attention on different parts of the body and noticing sensations without judgment.
These exercises helped participants become more aware of what was happening inside their bodies. They also learned how to manage strong emotions and how to find joy in small positive experiences, like a peaceful moment or a happy memory.
The program encouraged people to pause and breathe mindfully before taking their medication, helping them reflect on whether they truly needed the drug at that moment.
The results showed that people who had lower trust in their body signals, more trouble focusing on body sensations, and more fear about their pain were more likely to misuse their medications. But those who completed the MORE program reported stronger body awareness and felt more in control.
As their body awareness improved, their risk of misusing opioids went down, even after the program ended. This is an important finding. It suggests that when people learn to listen to and trust their bodies again, they may be less likely to misuse medicine.
This study, published in June 2025 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, is the first to closely examine how mindfulness and body awareness affect the risk of opioid misuse in people with chronic pain. It shows that helping people reconnect with their own bodies can change behavior in meaningful ways.
Instead of only focusing on medications, this approach focuses on rebuilding trust in the body and teaching healthy coping skills. It gives people tools to manage their pain and emotions in a safe, natural way. Programs like MORE could be an important part of helping people live better with chronic pain while avoiding the dangers of opioid misuse.
If you care about pain, please read studies about how to manage your back pain, and Krill oil could improve muscle health in older people.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how to live pain-free with arthritis, and results showing common native American plant may help reduce diarrhea and pain.
The study is published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
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