Living with chronic physical pain is very challenging.  I’ve been living with my own chronic pain management issues for over 26 years now and I’ve learned that psychological and emotional symptoms are the amplifier for the physical interpretation of pain.  In essence this is the difference between living with pain and suffering—I chose living.

I want to take a few minutes here to share some of the simple but effective tools I use for my own chronic pain management and in doing so I hope it will help those of you also living with a painful condition.

When I have a pain flare up today I immediately explore what could have brought it on.  I start with thinking back to see if I’ve over-done things physically—I have a bad habit of being a “bit” compulsive when I’m on a role with something.  If I discover that it does not seem to be linked to a physical trigger my next approach is exploring any unresolved emotional or stressful situations in my life.  Today I can honestly say I’ve made friends with my pain and can learn from it.  My pain is often telling me I need to deal with something I’ve either been avoiding or mismanaging.

Another tool I use when my pain flare ups seem to go on and on is to start looking for things to be grateful for.  It is impossible to be suffering and grateful at the same time.  In fact I have a daily gratitude journal I keep and can look back on to remind myself of all the things I do appreciate and am glad for.  In fact at the end of each month I go back over each of my daily gratitude lists and make a top 30 list for the month.  At the end of the year I go back to all my top 30 for each month and pick my top 30 for the year.

Another important part of my ongoing chronic pain management plan is my ongoing self-care.  This is another area that if I get lax in I can start having more frequent and severe flare ups.  I want to make sure some of the basics are covered here: (a) diet/nutrition; (b) appropriate exercise; (c) good sleep hygiene; (d) daily prayer/meditation practice; etc.

There are many other tools I’ve developed over the years and I invite you to go to our Articles Page and News Research Page and explore all the entries there.  

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

To learn about two skill trainings coming up in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here.

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 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.

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.

Many people living with chronic pain face obstacles most people don’t need to be concerned about. Some conditions severely limit people’s level of physical functioning and living with constant pain can negatively impact people thinking and emotional management ability. 

What is often not discussed is the impact on family members and other significant others who have to bear witness to the person living with chronic pain. I’ve seen many families disrupted and many marriages end due to mismanaged or poorly managed chronic pain conditions. Sometimes family members and other significant others develop their own healthcare problems while trying to help someone undergoing chronic pain management.

Sometimes family and other significant others get burned out while at other times they become frustrated and resentful towards the person undergoing chronic pain management. A spouse can become as hopeless and helpless as the pain patient and may even develop a severe depressive disorder or sleep disorder as a result of what they are experiencing.

When the person undergoing chronic pain management also develops an addictive disorder family and friends are negatively impacted as with any other alcohol or other drug addiction that occurs in a family system. I often refer these significant others to Al-Anon or Nar-Anon (12-Step support groups for family and friends of alcoholics or addicts) as they need as much if not more support as the person with the addictive disorder.

So what can you do if a loved one is undergoing chronic pain management and is developing problems or experiencing significant quality of life problems and decreased level of functioning? 

Below is a list of five possible starting points

1. Make sure that you are practicing good self-care for you; such as take time to relax, sleep, play, eat healthy, etc.
2. Work to have compassion and even sympathy for your significant other—but never sympathy as that can cause problems.  Thus the old saying “Sympathy Kills” that can be heard at Al-Anon meetings.
3. Do NOT do things for your significant other that they can and should be doing for themselves.
4. Don’t keep secrets for the person undergoing chronic pain management.  This is especially true concerning medication  use or abuse issues.
5. Remember the three (3) Cs of Al-Anon: You didn’t CAUSE it, You can’t CONTROL it, and You can’t CURE it.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you have a loved one who is living with chronic pain, especially if they’re in recovery or believe they may have a medication or other mental health problem and you want to learn what they are going through and need to do, please 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 learn about two skill trainings coming up in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here.

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.

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

Chronic pain management needs a strategic plan for success.  I believe the old saying Those who fail to plan; plan to fail. This is especially true when it comes so someone undergoing long-term chronic pain management.

It is important for these people to have a healthy support network in place as they undergo their chronic pain management journey. There are two crucial components of an effective pain management support network; (a) professional healthcare providers and (b) appropriate family and friends. Next people living with chronic pain need to objectively examine their current pain management program. They need to explore both their medication management plan as well as which non-medication types of pain management activities or procedures they are utilizing—if any.

People living with chronic pain also need to increase their understanding of pain and how to use that knowledge to improve their chronic pain management. In this step people explore the different aspects of pain—acute and chronic—and the bio-psycho-social components of pain as well as the difference between pain and suffering. They also need to recognize the stress-pain connection and how to rate their stress and pain levels accurately. Finally they need to explore how their thinking, emotions, behaviors, and social relationships change when they’re having a “bad” pain day and start looking at better ways to cope.

To ensure optimal outcomes people undergoing chronic pain management require information about depression, sleep disorders, or trauma disorders that frequently affect people undergoing chronic pain management and what constitutes effective psychological management. For example these people need to learn how to accurately rate the type and level of symptoms they experience and then start developing their own personal depression, sleep and/or trauma management plan.

Achieving freedom from suffering is possible if people are willing to stop being passive recipients of their chronic pain management and become proactive in their healing process. I have seen many of my patients come back from severe hopelessness and helplessness to become high functioning and enjoying a much improved quality of life. Most importantly they report they no longer see pain as their enemy and are not suffering anymore.  They are past just surviving—they are thriving.

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

To learn about two skill trainings coming up in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here.

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 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.

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.