There are many problems associated with living with chronic pain that you may be experiencing. Chronic pain is a serious health condition confronting many people today.  Those of us living with chronic pain know first-hand that our pain is often disabling and for many of people living with chronic pain there are few safe alternatives when seeking help.  As a result, some people may end up suffering or developing an addiction to the medications they are using to help manage their pain.  Many people in addiction recovery can relapse and may even die from their addiction as a result of untreated—or mistreated—chronic pain conditions.

When people are on pain medication most do not experience problems.  However, many people do. Fortunately there are Red Flags or indicators that you may be using your pain medication in a manner that could eventually lead to problems or even addiction.  Both you and your treatment providers need to be familiar with these red flags and to seek professional help from a person trained in addiction who also has experience, understanding, or training in pain management.

A major obstacle to recognizing these Red Flags and achieving effective pain treatment is our denial system—the psychological defense mechanism that is there to protect us from unbearable situations.  It is important to remember that we developed this defense system to protect us from being overwhelmed by what I call Painful Reality.

There are times when this defense mechanism called denial can help.  Unfortunately, it can sometimes lead us to avoid looking at and dealing with a situation that is causing life-damaging consequences.  There is also another interesting point about denial.  If you are told “you’re in denial” you are now in a no-win position.  If you are in denial you don’t know it, and if you’re not in denial you can’t prove it to the satisfaction of your accuser.

To learn more about chronic pain management and denial please check out my article From Denial to Effective Pain Management that you can download for free on our Article page.  You can also check out my article Managing Pain Medication in Recovery.  

For an additional 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.   If you would like to be skill trained in a treatment model that teaches how to implement a multidisciplinary chronic pain management treatment plan including coping with denial we have an Addiction-Free Pain Management® 20 Hour Certification Training scheduled this Spring at Valley Forge Medical Center and Hospital in Noristown PA on June 10-12, 2009. It’s not to late for people to sign up and in fact by mentioning this Blog I will make sure you get a $20 discount for this training. To get this discount you must call my partner Ellen at (916) 575-9961 and ask her for the discount. Also, for this and other upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar 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 or are living with chronic pain and have any resistance or denial and want to learn how to develop a plan for helping to identify and manage denial please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Denial Management Counseling for Effective Pain Management Workbook. 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.