Many people in chronic pain are afraid to take their opiate pain medication because they have heard horror stories of people getting hooked on pain pills.  This leads to a decision to under-medicate and leads to suffering as a result. 

On the other hand not taking effective precautions could lead to developing an addictive disorder.  If someone happens to be in recovery for alcoholism or another drug addiction the problem is even worse.  If they under-medicate it could trigger a relapse.  Of course the other side of the coin is overmedication; which could lead to rapid tolerance building and finally reactivation of an existing addictive disorder that was in remission.

One tool I developed is called The Red Flags Checklist.  It’s a list of indicators that can help someone identify if they are using their pain medication in a manner that could eventually lead to problems or even addiction.  Both the patient and their support network, as well as their 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 if problems surface. By doing this people will be able to work with their healthcare providers to make better, and safer, decisions about using potentially problematic pain medication. 

This checklist is designed for motivated people who want to take an honest look at how they are using their medication.  It is only as accurate as the person answering it is being honest with themselves.  I often ask my patients to have someone who knows them and their medication use patterns to go over the results and give them honest feedback.

Below are ten (10) important indicators from the twenty-eight (28) item Red Flags Checklist that people need to be aware of.

Instructions: Please review each of the items below and rate each on a 0 to 10 scale with 0 meaning this item is not and has not been a problem for me to 10 meaning this is or could be a serious problem for me.

1. After adjusting to the medication you still experience a sense of euphoria (feeling buzzed).

2. You start having urges or cravings for your medication in between scheduled times.

3. You are unable to take your medication exactly as prescribed.

4. You start thinking you might be having a problem with your medication.

5. Your quality of life and/or relationships are being impacted by your use of medication.

6. You use medications in physically dangerous situations, i.e., driving a car, operating power tools, providing childcare to young children, etc.

7. You find yourself not informing one healthcare provider what medication another provider is prescribing for you.

8. Family members or friends report concerns about your use of medication.

9. You start using your medication to cope with psychological/emotional type pain or to cope with stressful or uncomfortable situations.

10. You find yourself needing early refills and may rationalize this by coming up with unusual excuses: I lost it, someone else took it, it fell in the water, etc.

To learn more about coping with a potential medication management problem please check out my article Addressing the Problem of Perscription Drug Abuse/Addiction 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.

To see an online overview of Cognit delivering Addiction-Free Pain Management® please go to this Link for a free demo.

To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.

When people are undergoing chronic pain management they want help stopping or relieving their pain symptoms.  What they may not realize is that some pain medications can actually cause or increase the pain that they are using the medication to manage—this is called hyperalgesia or pain re-bound.  That is why it is crucial for people undergoing chronic pain management to educate themselves and learn as much as possible about their chronic pain condition as well as the most effective treatment options.

Buprenorphine is one medication being used very effectively by some pain management physicians for people living with chronic pain that is less likely to cause this re-bound effect.  However, it is important to remember that medication is only one modality for effective chronic pain management.  It is also crucial to develop non-medication based treatment interventions as well as learning to address the psychological/emotional components of chronic pain.  A multidisciplinary team approach always gives the best treatment outcomes.

For someone with chronic pain who has developed an addictive disorder Suboxone (Buprenorphine combined with Naloxone) may be the best transitional intervention possible along with concurrent addiction treatment modalities.  In addition, it is important to help people differentiate between the physiological and psychological/emotional components of their pain.  Once that is done then cognitive behavioral approaches can help people manage the psychological components more effectively.

To learn more about Suboxone please check out my newest article Revisiting Suboxone: Maintenance versus Total Detoxification that you can download for free on our Article page.

You can learn 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.

To see an online overview of Cognit delivering Addiction-Free Pain Management® please go to this Link for a free demo.

To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.

I am very excited to announce that the newly revised Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT) Workbook is coming out next week.  The RPT Workbook is designed for people in recovery from alcohol or other drug addiction who have a history of relapse, or are currently afraid they might relapse. There continues to be confusion and misunderstanding about what relapse is and how it happens. In this workbook, Terry Gorski and I clarify the definition of relapse, how it happens, and most importantly how to prevent a person from entering the relapse cycle.

For several years, Terry Gorski and I have been co-teaching, modifying the process, and field testing all of the exercises contained in this newly revised, simplified, and updated version of Relapse Prevention Therapy. If a person is willing to be open and honest as well as actively complete each of the fourteen developmental exercises in this workbook, they may never have to experience the pain of relapse again.

To pre-order please go to this RPT Workbook Link

To learn about relapse prevention for chronic pain management with coexisting disorders check out my article Relapse Prevention and 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.

To see an online overview of Cognit delivering Addiction-Free Pain Management® please go to this Link for a free demo.

To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.