Living with chronic pain is very difficult. If a person also has a coexisting addiction, it makes it even harder. Many people who have chronic pain and addiction become very depressed and begin to feel hopeless. They have often lost their self-esteem and the support of significant others, who may be feeling burned out by trying to be overly helpful. Healthcare providers often become confused and frustrated when none of their treatment interventions seem to work. Sometimes it’s helpful to put a face on this painful situation, so let me introduce you to Jerry.

Jerry is thirty-four years old, married man with a wife and three teen-age children. He was injured in a construction accident three years ago and has been unable to work since two months after his injury. At first Jerry was very hopeful that he would be able to return to work in a short period of time and believed that everything would be fine. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

Although his injury was very painful and he had great difficulty even walking, his treating physician determined—without appropriate diagnostic testing—that Jerry was “only” suffering from severe muscle strain and prescribed analgesic narcotics and antispasmodic (muscle relaxing) medication. Jerry attempted to return to his job on limited duty and tried his best to cope with his increasing pain symptoms, but found it harder and harder to keep going. After two months Jerry sought legal counsel and discovered that he had the right to seek another doctor. Thus began a three-year journey of confusion and frustration.

To read the rest of Jerry’s story and find out how he found hope check out my article From Despair to Hope: A Recovery Story that you can download for free on our Article page.

If you would like to see my upcoming trainings and especially to learn about my 20 hour (three days) Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification Training on December 7-9, 2009 in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here and scroll down to the December 7-9, 2009 for the description and how to sign up.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people undergoing chronic pain management and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders; including depression, addiction and other coexisting psychological disorders effectively; please consider my book 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.

According to research published in Pain Physician Journal (2006), 90 percent of people in the US receiving treatment for pain management are prescribed opiate medication. Of that number 9 percent to 41 percent had opiate abuse/addiction problems. In addition, prescriptions for medications like Vicodin and Percocet have increased drastically in the past decade leading to significant medical problems for many people including addiction.

Over the past several years organizations like the International Association for the Study of Pain, the American Academy of Pain Management, and the American Academy of Pain Medicine have all promoted better and safer ways to treat someone undergoing chronic pain management. In fact they have been advocating for many different pain initiatives designed to promote more effective and humane chronic pain management.

For the past 27 years I have been focused on assisting people undergoing chronic pain management who were also experiencing other coexisting psychological disorders including addiction. I have been very active in helping people in recovery from any addictive disorder to develop more effective—and safe—medication management plans to prevent relapse. I have also been focused anyone living with chronic pain to develop effective medication management plans so they do not have the high risk of prescription medication abuse or addiction.

Finding the safest medication protocol possible cannot be overemphasized; when the narcotic medication is taken in increasingly larger doses due to tolerance, the side affects from the medication may become physically and/or psychologically damaging and in some cases even life-threatening. Undergoing chronic pain management is difficult for anyone, but especially for someone with coexisting medication abuse, addiction or other psychological disorders. They can become severely depressed and discouraged. Healthcare providers often become confused and frustrated when their treatment interventions are ineffective and frequently blame their patients.

The problem of managing pain and medication for people in recovery continues to grow and healthcare professionals are left with the challenge of how to effectively address it. Given the biopsychosocial nature of addiction and chronic pain, it is imperative to understand both conditions and implement a multidisciplinary chronic pain management treatment plan.

To that end I have written several books and booklets as well as published many articles to get this information to the people undergoing chronic pain management. In fact, last month I posted a new article on our website 12 Personal Action Steps for Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

If you would like to see my upcoming trainings and especially to learn about my 20 hour (three days) Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification Training on December 7-9, 2009 in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here and scroll down to the December 7-9, 2009 for the description and how to sign up.

For an addition resource regarding medication management please go to our Publications page and check out my Addiction-Free Pain Management® Module Four: A Guide for Managing Pain Medication in Recovery that was co-authored by Shelia Thares, RN, MS, APNP. 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. 

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.

There is a systemic problem that sabotages effective treatment for anyone with an addiction problem, but especially people with chronic pain and coexisting disorders. It’s called Competition! In my experience of working with this population, an integrated, multidisciplinary treatment approach is vital to the success and effectiveness of pain management recovery.

But everywhere throughout society competition reigns supreme: in politics, sports, and relationships. It’s fundamental to our American economy and the foundation for every reality program on TV today. Regrettably, in the treatment field, it often develops into what I call Turf Wars between healthcare disciplines. It is also a dynamic that occurs when one agency “competes” with another in order to build their treatment census.

Sadly, the reality is that there is enough pain and suffering in this country, in fact so much that there are not enough treatment beds for everyone who needs our help. It is estimated that there are over 11 million people in the United States alone who have developed a substance use disorder—either abuse or addiction—as a result of living with a chronic pain condition.

Our current system of treating just chronic pain does not offer access to quick and effective treatment and as the population of people with chronic pain grows, this problem will only worsen. This is especially true when someone develops an addictive disorder due to prolonged exposure to psychoactive pain medication. If we really want to contribute to the health and healing of these people, the treatment community must create a new paradigm that values collaboration over competition.

This is why team work is so crucial. We need to work with the whole person, which means treatment plans for the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual domains. This can best be accomplished by using a truly integrated multidisciplinary treatment team with the patient being the Captain of the team. We need to work with patients—not on them.

Over the years I have conducted many Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) trainings for agencies that included every treatment discipline. I am always cognizant of the need for teamwork and break participants into random multidisciplinary groups that support them to work collaboratively with each other on different problems or learning skills. By the end of the training amazing results occur.

To learn about the importance of using a team for chronic pain management please read my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Article page.

If you would like to see my upcoming trainings and especially to learn about my 20 hour (three days) Addiction-Free Pain Management® Certification Training on December 7-9, 2009 in Sacramento California designed to teach treatment strategies for people living with chronic pain and coexisting disorders including disorders including addiction please Click Here and scroll down to the December 7-9, 2009 for the description and how to sign up.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people undergoing chronic pain management and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders; including depression, addiction and other coexisting psychological disorders effectively; please consider my book 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.