In my early pain management recovery I often set myself up for setbacks.  I have the personality type of “more is better” and always pushed the envelope.  It took me a while to see how this was self-defeating behavior.  The first thing that often happened after my setback was a feeling of hopelessness and frustration—“I’m always going to be this way.”  This second self-defeating mindset is one of the 12 common denial patterns—Strategic Hopelessness; AKA Diagnosing Myself as Beyond Hope.

For the past 25 years I’ve worked with patients living with chronic pain who also developed coexisting psychological disorders, including addiction, as a result of living with debilitating chronic pain.  One of the tools that I was able to adapt was Terence T. Gorski’s Denial Management Counseling for Addictive Disorders.  I modified his denial management system to work with other coexisting disorders including chronic pain.
 
My first publication in this area is the Denial Management Counseling for Effective Pain Management Workbook.  This workbook was designed for people who have experienced significant problems related to living with chronic pain, but who honestly don’t believe—or don’t want to believe—that their self-defeating decisions and behaviors are undermining what could be an effective pain management plan.  This process is an important component of the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System.

If you want to learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System go to our website at www.addiction-free.com and also go to our Publications page and check out my book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders or: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System.  You can also check out our Articles page to download my free article From Denial to Effective Pain Management to learn more about denial and chronic pain; including a look at the 12 Common Pain Mangement Denial Patterns.