I’m excited to announce that my latest publication is now out—Addiction-Free Pain Management (APM) Module Four: A Guide for Managing Pain Medication in Recovery.  I am often asked to recommend what people should do if they are in recovery and need to be on appropriate pain medication.  That is why I developed this module along with the assistance of my coauthor Sheila Thares.

The exercises in the fourth APM™ Module are adapted from the Second Edition of my Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide, and the original pamphlet—Guide for Managing Pain Medication in Recovery—also co-authored with Sheila Thares, as well as selected sections from my new book Freedom From Suffering: Seven Strategic Steps to Effective Pain Management (now in clinical trials) and my personal research and development of the APM™ System over the past twelve years. The information and exercises in this module are some of the most requested information from people who take my pain trainings. These exercises have evolved as a result of extensive field-testing by me and other clinicians who generously gave me their feedback about what worked, what didn’t work, and what adaptations they thought would be helpful.

In APM™ Module Four: A Guide for Managing Pain Medication in Recovery you will have an opportunity to explore how you can use pain medication using a recovery oriented approach. First you will look at some misunderstood terms, then you will be asked to list the benefits and disadvantages of using pain medication. Next you’ll write your pain history story and then be shown how to develop your own effective pain medication management plan. The final step is to review a Recovery/Relapse Indicator Checklist and complete a final call to action.

For a brief overview of some of the information in this module please check out my article Managing Pain Medication in Recovery that you can download for free on our Ariticles page. To purchase APM™ Module Four please Click Here.

For an addition resource regarding medication management please go to our Publications page and check out my Addiction-Free Pain Management® Module Two: Examining Your Potential Medication Management Problems. To purchase this module please Click Here.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com.

Please check out our upcoming trainings on our Calendar page.

To listen to a recent radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

I’ve spent this week in Dallas presenting my Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification School training.  As with many other areas of the country Dallas is seeing more people with chronic pain who present with addictive disorders due to being on both opiate and benzodiazepine medications.  Many of these people are also experiencing serious depression, severe sleep disorders as well as many other mental health problems due to the combination of chronic pain and the medication they are taking.

My goal is to teach people how to help these people by implementing a treatment system that I’ve specifically designed to be effective with what they are living with.  To get the best results it takes a multidisciplinary team to deliver this treatment system and most importantly the person with the problem needs to be an integral part of the team.  I believe we need to work with people—not on them.

To learn more about multidisciplinary chronic pain management please check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are in recovery and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing your pain and medication effectively go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a recent radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the November issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

Managing chronic pain can be a very challenging process, but it becomes even more difficult when coexisting psychological disorders, including addiction, are also present.  I have written a book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System.  I wrote this book to assist healthcare providers to develop effective treatment plans for their patients with chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders including addiction. 

One important part of the book is to help healthcare professionals to understand and integrate the principals of the Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) system into their existing treatment protocols.

The APM™ System consists of three major components: (1) A medication management plan—in consultation with an addiction medicine specialist; (2) A cognitive-behavioral treatment plan addressing pain versus suffering, treating family system issues and changing self-defeating behaviors, using eight Core Clinical Exercises from the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Workbook; and (3) A nonpharmacological pain management plan—developing safer medication-free ways to manage pain. Most pain patients need a strategic combination of all three of the above.

I believe that in addition to the many roadblocks this population experience, there are two major initial obstacles that sabotage positive treatment outcomes: (1) The Denial system. People living with this condition need to work through their denial and treatment resistance in order for treatment to be effective; and (2) Depression and the feeling of hopelessness that usually accompanies these coexisting conditions.

To learn more about this topic please go to my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people in chronic pain and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their pain and coexisting psychological disorders including depression or addiction effectively please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a recent radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the November issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.