Thursday, July 23, 2009

Looking Objectively at Pain for Effective Chronic Pain Management

Pain Is a Signal That Communicates Information

The easiest way to understand pain is to recognize that every time you feel pain your body is attempting to tell you that something is wrong. Pain sensations are critical to human survival. Without pain you would have no way of knowing that something is wrong with your body. So without pain you would be unable to take action to correct the problem or situation that is causing your pain.

What Is Your Pain Trying To Tell You?

Whenever you are experiencing pain, it’s always helpful to ask: “What is my pain trying to tell me?” I believe that pain is trying to tell you that something is wrong and that you had better find out what exactly is wrong and find a way to fix it. To understand the language of pain, you must learn to understand how the pain echoes and reverberates between the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of the human condition. Pain is truly a total human experience that affects all aspects of human functioning.

Knowledge is power. Once you know what is really going on with your body and mind you can start to take action to effectively manage your pain. In fact, you need to stop believing pain is your enemy and begin to embrace it as your friend. I know this is easier said than done. Many of my patients have looked at me like I’m crazy when I tell them they must make peace with their pain and that pain is really their friend. They tell me—very strongly in some cases—that they can’t buy it, but nevertheless it is true. Below are three very important tips I give all my patients and also practice myself.

  1. Stop Believing Pain Is Your Enemy!
  2. Make Peace With Your Pain!
  3. Start Embracing Pain As Your Friend!


To learn about the importance of treating the whole person for effective chronic pain management please check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management, that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.


You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website http://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 learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.

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