Today I want to share with you my Attitude of Gratitude story. For the past 28 years the word gratitude has taken on a different meaning than it had for me up until that point. In my healing recovery process I learned that an attitude of gratitude could shift me from anger, fear, guilt, shame, loneliness, hopelessness or any other uncomfortable emotional state into a state of hope and excitement.

Since 1981 I have seen November as Gratitude Month and the week of Thanksgiving as Gratitude Week and Thanksgiving Day as GRATITUDE DAY. So on this Gratitude Day I sat down and made a long list of everything I’m grateful for in my life. This took quite a while as I do have so much to be grateful for.

What I am most grateful for today is my relationship with Ellen, my wife and partner of almost 22 years. I make it a point to tell her everyday how grateful I am for her. Many times she laughingly asks why am I grateful. The other day when she asked me that I put together my “short list” of 25 reasons I am grateful for her and gave it to her. I say short list because there are not enough words to express how grateful I am that Ellen is in my life.

I want to share a story that my Karate Sensei (Teacher) Richard Kim would tell us when we seemed upset or down. He said that when something bad happens say “Thank you adversity for yet another test. If you break a toe, be grateful it wasn’t your foot. If you break your foot, be grateful that it wasn’t your leg. If you break your leg, be grateful you didn’t die. And if you die, be grateful that you don’t have to finish the rest of this grueling class with me.”

So today when life happens I need to remember to say thank you for yet another test and learn from it. One of the most challenging life events for me was a bit over two years ago when my father died. As I came out of the shock/denial of his death I had a hard time finding anything to be grateful for around that. Fortunately, I have many recovery support people in my life and I started to get into a lot of gratitude for the time I had with my father; especially the last seven years of his life when we became so much closer.

That’s when I sat down and updated Bob’s Story and posted it on my articles page as a testimonial to this wonderful father of mine. Please check out Bob’s Story that you can download for free on our Article page. My niece also helped the healing process by putting together a PowerPoint presentation of dad’s life that we played after dad’s funeral. I still look at that PowerPoing presentation when I am grieving and missing my dad.

So today I’m wishing you all a Happy Gratitude Day (AKA Thanksgiving Day) and hope you can find many things to be grateful for today. No matter what you are experiencing; work hard to acknowledge what you are grateful for.  An attitude of gratitude can turn a dismal day into the best day of your life if you let it.

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This is a time of year when many people start having problems due to depression. Unfortunately, in many cases the depression is not recognized. Sometimes it is situational depression caused by the upcoming Holiday Season while other times it may be Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that is the cause. This is an even bigger problem for people undergoing chronic pain management.

Many people with chronic pain frequently become depressed due to living with under-treated or mistreated pain symptoms. This process starts when thinking and emotions become problematic. This is when thinking becomes irrational or dysfunctional and feelings are not managed well. There are often urges to indulge in self-defeating, impulsive or compulsive behaviors to cope with the depression. This in turn affects relationships with others.

Below you will see a checklist that includes many of the symptoms that are typical for clinical depression. Note, however, that only some of these symptoms are necessary for a diagnosis of depression. If you or someone you love has several of these symptoms please seek professional help. Depression is very treatable; especially if it is recognized and immediately addressed.

Symptoms of Depression

1. A significantly depressed mood or general absence of mood: You may sometimes find yourself feeling overly negative and down or at other times emotionally cut off.
2. Inability to experience pleasure or feel interest in daily life: Things that used to excite or interest you now hold no attraction at all. Sometimes it hardly seems worth getting up.
3. Inexplicable crying spells, sadness and/or irritability: You may find yourself crying for no reason or having a temper tantrum and lashing out without any provocation.
4. Insomnia (difficulty sleeping) or hypersomnia (oversleeping) nearly every day: You either can’t get to sleep or stay asleep and/or find yourself spending most of your time sleeping to the point of missing important events in your life.
5. A substantial change in appetite, eating patterns or weight: You find that you have no appetite and nothing sounds good so you just don’t eat, or in an effort to feel better you discover that eating certain types of foods seems to sooth you. You either loose or gain a significant amount of weight.
6. Fatigue or energy loss: You seem to be always tired or don’t seem to have enough energy to accomplish even simple tasks of daily living.
7. Diminished ability to concentrate: You find that paying attention is very difficult you may even find yourself reading the same page over and over or forgetting the plot of a movie you are watching.
8. Difficulty making decisions: You can’t seem to decide what to do even in simple areas that used to be easy for you. You tend to procrastinate or put off having to decide.
9. Feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness: At times you feel like your life is always going to be unbearable or that you don’t deserve to be happy or successful.
10. Inappropriate feelings of guilt or self-criticism: You find yourself putting yourself down for little things and feel bad about things that might not even really be your fault.
11. A lack of sexual desire: You have lost your interest and passion for being a sexual being. It either seems like too much of a hassle or you just don’t care anymore.
12. Suicidal thoughts, feelings or behaviors: You start having thoughts like “maybe I’d be better off dead,” or “I feel that life isn’t worth living.” You may even start thinking about ways you could kill yourself and even start developing a plan.

To learn more about effective chronic pain management with coexisting depression please check out my article Deprssion Management with the Chronic Pain Patient that you can download for free on our Article page.

If you would like to see my upcoming trainings 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 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.

When one person in a family suffers from living with chronic pain they are not alone in their misery. Everyone in the family is affected and attempts to cope in their own way. Unfortunately many of these coping strategies don’t work and often make the problems worse. 

All members of the family system need to move into their own recovery process regardless of what the person living with chronic pain and coexisting problems inclluding addiction does or doesn’t do. Families can recover even if their loved one keeps living in the problem and refuses help to move into the solution.

Normal problem solving tools that families have developed that work very well in other family crisis areas really don’t work when living with a family member who suffers from chronic pain with coexisting addiction. Some family members keep trying the same coping strategies over and over again and kept hoping that maybe this time it will work although it really never did and probably never will.

It is important that all members of the family receive accurate and helpful information about the family symptoms that develop when one family member is living with chronic pain; especially if they have also developed an addictive disorder. Families need healthy coping tools that can lead the family out of the problem and into their own recovery solution.

The chronic pain problem is growing. People are suffering in greater numbers. Many people undergoing chronic pain management are not receiving adequate treatment. Many are becoming hopeless and helpless while others are experiencing medication abuse and even addiction due to mismanaged chronic pain and this seriously impacts the entire family system. This must change.

Since 1996 I have been researching and developing the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System to help address this growing problem. I have joined several pain management organizations in order to have better access to quality research. I want to revisit how serious this problem with chronic pain management is becoming and review some ideas for improvement that also includes vital education for family members.

It is crucial to improve the problems associated with uncontrolled chronic pain. This is a societal necessity, a medical challenge and an economic requirement. If the need for chronic pain management is not recognized as a serious problem and treated effectively it takes an enormous personal toll on millions of people and their families. It also puts a major drain on our already stretched healthcare dollars. Undertreated chronic pain can also compromise the productivity of our workforce.

Even though the overutilization of the healthcare system by this population is a major drain on society and is one of the most serious public health concerns, it has been curiously missing from the current national debate on health reform. We must take the necessary steps to re-define chronic pain management as a much needed component of our healthcare system and must immediately address this public health crisis.

To learn more about my thoughts on the need and right for effective chronic pain management please check out my article The Right to Quality Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Article page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you or a loved one is undergoing chronic pain management, especially if you’re in recovery or believe you may have a medication or other mental health problem and you want to learn more effective chronic pain management tools, please go to our Publications page and check out my books; especially the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To purchase this book please Click Here.

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.

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.