Chronic pain is often misunderstood and untreated. In addition to the biopsychosocial impact of chronic pain frequently, a spiritual crisis accompanies the condition. This is a body mind spirit problem that needs a multifaceted solution including addressing the spiritual component of pain. Spiritual healing can be an effective complementary and alternative approach.

Many people have found spiritual interventions like the traditions of prayer and meditation to contribute to the easing of their suffering. Unfortunately, in our fast paced world and our secular treatment modality the spiritual component of chronic pain management does not get enough attention.

Another problem is that many people confuse religion with spirituality. Although the terms religion and spirituality are sometimes seen as the same, they are actually separate concepts. Religion is an organized faith system grounded in institutional standards, practices, and core beliefs. On the other hand spirituality is grounded in personal beliefs and practices that can be experienced with or without a formal religion.

So what is spirituality? Let’s look at some different definitions.

Miriam Webster Online Dictionary states: 1. something that in ecclesiastical law belongs to the church or to a cleric as such; 2. clergy; 3. sensitivity or attachment to religious values 4. the quality or state of being spiritual.

Your Dictionary.Com states: 1. spiritual character, quality, or nature; 2. religious devotion or piety; 3. the rights, jurisdiction, tithes, etc. belonging to the church or to an ecclesiastic; 4. the fact or state of being incorporeal.

The online Wikipedia Encyclopedia defines spirituality as: Spirituality is relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. Synonyms include immaterialism, dualism, incorporeality and eternity. Spirituality is associated with religion, deities, the supernatural, and an afterlife, although the decline of organized religion in the West and the growth of secularism has brought about a wider understanding of its nature.

Chronic pain is often associated with perceived endless, meaningless suffering but spirituality is a basic human phenomenon that allows the creation of a meaning and purpose in life. A person’s spiritual beliefs can influence their health beliefs and sense of well-being. Spiritual issues related to the suffering of chronic pain can involve an interaction between emotions such as fear, guilt, anger, loss and despair.

Unfortunately, this suffering may seem inseparable from physical pain and often influences the way pain is expressed.The concept of spiritual pain requires healthcare providers to go beyond the bounds of traditional clinical treatments and be prepared to devote the time required to give supportive and understanding care. It is crucial to add the spiritual aspects of pain in a multidimensional assessment.

To learn more about the need for teamwork for effective chronic pain management check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary 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 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.

Many people who have been taking opiates for chronic pain may develop serious problems with long-term use. Some of them may even develop and addictive disorder due to prolonged exposure to their medication. Others develop tolerance to the medication and need ever increasing dose increases. Others develop a condition known as hyperalgesia.

Although you may already know what hyperalgesia is I’m including a definition of opiate-induced hyperalgesia from Wikipedia—the free online encyclopedia—for those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon.

Opioid-induced hyperalgesia or opioid-induced abnormal pain sensitivity is a phenomenon associated with the long term use of opioids such as morphine, hydrocodone, Oxycodone, and methadone. Over time, individuals taking opioids can develop an increasing sensitivity to noxious stimuli, even evolving a painful response to previously non-noxious stimuli (allodynia). Some studies on animals have also demonstrated this effect occurring after only a single high dose of opioids.

If an individual is taking opioids for a chronic non-cancer pain condition, and cannot achieve effective pain relief despite increases in dose, they may be experiencing opioid-induced hyperalgesia. In this case, they may benefit from complete withdrawal from opioid therapy. Many individuals report reduced pain levels when opioids are withdrawn.

I believe an important part of effective chronic pain management is understanding everything you can about your pain and then learning some effective tools that will allow you to respond in an appropriate way so that you can improve the quality of life. Whenever you experience pain, it is always appropriate to ask: “What is my pain trying to tell me?” Remember, pain is trying to tell you that something is wrong, that you should find out exactly what it is, and find a way to address it—not mask it.

To learn more about how to achieve effective chronic pain management please check out my article Overcoming Obstacles for Effective 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.

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.

We all know how important it is to manage stress. But if you’re living with chronic pain like I am, it’s crucial because increased stress leads to increased pain. In this article I want to give you these five simple steps for managing stress associated with chronic pain: Understanding Stress; Using Positive Affirmations; Breath Work; Muscle Relaxation; & Meditation.

Step One Understanding Stress:

It’s important to learn about stress and understand the stress scale. It’s essential to recognize that stress can either be a positive influence or make your life overly difficult. When looking at stress on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 meaning you are very relaxed and 10 meaning you can’t function or you shut down, the danger zone begins at level 7 —stress overload! From levels seven to ten you will experience disruptive symptoms. It depends on how you interpret this distress whether you face the situation with confidence or helplessness. At this point, you could shift into survival mode—fight, flight or freeze. Any of those three modes will amplify your pain levels. The fight mode leads to anger and attacking others; the flight mode leads to fear and hiding; and the freeze mode leads to depression and immobilization.

Step Two Stress-Reducing Self Talk or Positive Affirmations:

The premise here is if you change the way you think you will automatically start changing the way you feel. You really can talk yourself into feeling better no matter what’s happening around you or to you.

Step Three Autogenic Breathing or Breath Self-Regulation:

This is a systematic daily practice of breathing sessions that last around 15 minutes, usually in the morning, at lunch time, and in the evening. One simple exercise is to breath in deeply to the count of five hold for seven counts and slowly exhale starting from nine to zero. You might consider adding this breath exercise to the next stress tip and practice both three times a day.

Step Four Progressive Muscle Relaxation:

One way to do this is to start by taking slow deep breaths then hold your breath while tensing up one muscle group at a time and when you exhale let the muscle group relax. Then add the next group and keep going until you are tensing and releasing all the muscle groups in your body.

Step Five Meditation:

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of types of meditation. One way to start is to select a consistent time and a quiet place, either early morning and/or evening. Wear loose comfortable fitting clothing and a comfortable position that you can stay in for at least 30 minutes. Do deep breathing for a minute or two to help relax the body. Close your eyes and then focus on the point between your eyebrows to help increase your concentration. If your mind wanders be gentle with yourself and just refocus. When you first start; meditate for 5-7 minutes then slowly increase your time.

These five steps are just a starting point and I encourage you to learn as many stress management tools as you can. If you want more information on stress and chronic pain management please check out my article The Stess Pain Connection 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.