During the last two decades Dr. Grinstead has published a number of articles concerning effective treatment for people with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including addiction. His articles have appeared in California Therapist Magazine, Professional Counselor Magazine, Addiction-Professional Magazine, The Gorski-CENAPS© Resource Guide, and New Times - Recovery Newspaper for NCADD in the Silicon Valley. These articles can be used for educational purposes for both healthcare providers and pain patients. Any use of this information other than for education, without permission from Dr. Grinstead is prohibited. For training, consultation, or coaching services in Addiction-Free Pain Management™ click here. Please check back for new additions.
Latest 10 Articles
Chronic Pain Management and the Impact on Family and Friends
Posted on: Mar 2012
By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-III’m writing this for people who are living with someone—or care for someone—who is suffering with a chronic pain condition and they are having a hard time coping because they’re not sure how to help. Unless someone’s been in your place they have no idea how challenging this can really be. I’ve seen many marriages and partnerships end due to one of the partners living with an undertreated or mistreated chronic pain condition. Sometimes...
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Making Peace with My Pain: A Journey of Discovery
Posted on: Nov 2011
By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II
I believe that life is meant to be lived to the fullest. For me, the term “fullest” has changed significantly over the past three decades. Before my injury in a construction accident over 28 years ago, my definition included opening my own Karate Dojo and teaching other people the art I had learned to love with a great passion. I was in my early 30s and believed anything was possible. After my injury I lost all hope of ever teaching the martial arts again. In fact, I became so depressed I seriously considered...
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Seeking Balance for Effective Chronic Pain Management
Posted on: Jul 2011
To find a balance point you must be able to identify what the extremes are that you need to balance. Below you will see each of the target five balance points you need to strive to obtain in your life. In the remainder of this article you will see what the extremes of each point are and why it is important to find the healthy balance point in each of the five areas. • Positive Self-Talk
• Appropriate Emotional Expression
• Healthy Support Network
• Spirituality/Humility...
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Effective Chronic Pain Management is a Right and a Responsibility
Posted on: Jun 2011
By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II
Can you imagine what it’s like to live with chronic pain day in and day out? If you have chronic pain, you know all too well what I mean. Or perhaps you know someone suffering with chronic pain. For those who don’t have a personal experience of living with chronic pain, going through the following steps may help you to develop understanding, compassion and empathy for those who do.
Think back to a time when you hurt yourself in a fall or accident, or you had a painful condition such...
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Walking the Tightrope of Pain Management and Addiction
Posted on: May 2011
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Unnecessary Obstacles in Chronic Pain Management
Posted on: Mar 2011
By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II One of the challenges I face as a healthcare provider dealing with the management of chronic pain is that many of my patients cannot receive certain treatment interventions that are medically indicated for their condition. One major reason is that they are often denied needed multidisciplinary chronic pain management treatment services by their insurance company. In our down-sized economy many people don’t...
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Identifying and Managing Five Stuck Points
Posted on: Nov 2010
By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II When confronted with issues that get in the way of effective chronic pain management, it is important to not linger too long in any phase of the healing continuum. Over the years I’ve seen many of my patients stop making progress and not transition through the following five phases: • Hopeless to Hopeful
• Demoralized to Revitalized
• Victim to Victorious
• Powerless to Empowered
• Surviving to Thriving In the sections below you will see the...
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Managing the Inner Saboteur for Effective Chronic Pain Management
Posted on: Sep 2010
Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II Have you ever had an exciting dream or goal you wanted to accomplish but somehow got in your own way? Sometimes you don’t even realize how you set yourself up to fail which is often very frustrating. But if someone doesn’t believe they have a problem; it will be impossible to find a solution. If you refuse to acknowledge that there are self-defeating patterns that keep getting in your way, it will be extremely difficult to overcome them. There are different ways of talking about that part of ourselves that can protect...
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Living Life to the Fullest as We Face Adversity
Posted on: Jul 2010
Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II I believe that life is meant to be lived to the fullest. The phrase “living life to fullest” has changed significantly for me over the past three decades. Before my injury over 28 years ago my definition of living life to the fullest was to push my body during Karate practice as far as I could. My dream was to open my own Karate Dojo and teach other people the martial art I had learned to love with a great passion. I was in my early 30s and in my mind anything was possible. After my injury I lost...
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Chronic Pain, Addiction and Trauma: The Troubling Trifecta
Posted on: May 2010
By Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II The Impact of Coexisting Disorders Historically pain, psychological and addictive disorders have been treated as separate issues. Pain clinics have had great success in treating chronic pain conditions. Addiction treatment programs have had success in treating addictive disorders. If the addiction program also treats coexisting disorders their success rate with the coexisting psychological disorders increases as well. However, the effectiveness the pain clinics or addiction treatment programs often fail when the...
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