Stress will absolutely make your pain worse. Focusing on your pain will also make it worse, which is why distraction is such an important part of dealing with pain. Anything that will allow you to lose yourself for even 30 minutes is a good thing. Distractions are different for everyone, and could be anything from watching TV, reading a good book, arts and crafts activities, surfing the internet, writing letters or a journal, or even taking a nap. You get the idea. The more you practice distraction, the more second-nature it becomes. It takes work to retrain your brain to ignore pain, but it can be done. Can you think of anything you can start doing in that area?
Living in the Republic of Texas minus a gallbladder, a couple of cervical discs, appendix, uterus, and 18" of colon; but still alive and living with my husband, 2 dogs, 1 cockatiel, 1 quaker parrot and 2 gold fish.