Making Important Decisions About Chronic Pain Management

The initial decision to seek help is the most crucial point in the treatment process for someone experience quality of life problems due to ineffective chronic pain management. Finding treatment providers who are willing to work with people—not on people—is essential. It is crucial to find doctors, therapists, or counselors who are willing to see the chronic pain management patient as a whole person, and not just their pain condition or list of symptoms.

Making an Empowered Decision

I often ask my patients to ask themselves the five questions below and answering as completely and truthfully as possible to assist them to make their decision to start the an effective treatment process. I invite them to share their answers to these questions with someone they trust—as well as someone who will be honest with them—to obtain an accurate reality check.

1. What is the best that will happen if I continue using my pain medication and/or managing my pain the way I have been doing?
2. What is the worst that will happen if I continue using my pain medication and/or managing my pain the way I have been doing?
3. What is the worst that will happen if I decide to start on this APM recovery journey?
4. What is the best that will happen if I decide to start on this APM recovery journey?
5. Am I willing to make a commitment to complete this APM process and develop a plan to overcome any resistance or obstacles? Please explain why or why not!
   

Once someone has fully answered these five questions they will have the information they need to make an empowered decision and the beginning of an action plan to move them forward. It is imperative that they not do this work alone for many reasons. The most important is that many people in chronic pain management, or who suffer from substance abuse/dependency often isolate themselves. Another reason is that you deserve to have support when dealing with this problem.

The Addiction-Free Pain Management® (APM) treatment process requires a tremendous amount of hard work and self-honesty, as well as allowing other people to join their team who are willing—and able—to support them in a healthy way.

If someone is currently using their pain medication problematically or experiencing negative consequences from the medication, they may need detoxification treatment or a medication taper before starting the APM™ process. Some chronic pain management patients may not have reached the abuse or dependency stages yet, but they too can benefit from the APM™ process so they do not have to experience the painful ramifications of a full blown addictive disorder.

To read more about the importance of using a team approach for 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.

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