Are you in pain?
Pain is universal. It is complex as well as unique. The degree of pain experienced and how you react to it are the results of your own biological, psychological, and cultural makeup.
Why you really hurt : it all starts in the foot
Burton S. Schuler.
Panama City, Fla. : LA Luz Press, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The mindfulness solution to pain : step-by-step techniques for chronic pain management
Jackie Gardner-Nix with Lucie Costin-Hall.
Oakland, CA : New Harbinger, c2009.
Your mood, thoughts, and emotions can affect your perception of pain and even your ability to heal. In fact, your past life experiences influence your current physical challenges: "your biography influences your biology." While treatments like medication and physical therapy can be enormously beneficial to the body, to maximize pain relief, it's necessary to take advantage of the mind's healing abilities. This book offers a revolutionary new treatment approach, mindfulness-based chronic pain management, that helps you harness your mind's power to quiet your pain and put you in control. Mindfulness practice, which includes stationary meditations, movement meditations, mindful art, and other strategies, will help you: Understand how emotions #38; thoughts affect physical symptoms, Reverse the debilitating effects of some chronic pain conditions, Prevent pain from becoming chronic or long-term, Life the anxiety #38; depression that may accompany chronic pain. Book jacket.
The body broken : a memoir
Lynne Greenberg.
New York : Random House, c2009.
At 19, Greenberg narrowly survived a devastating car crash. When her broken neck healed, she was hailed as a medical miracle. But when an unbearable pain in her neck returned many years later, she and her family were forced to deal with a medical system ill-equipped to handle patients with chronic pain.
Conquer back and neck pain : walk it off!
Mark D. Brown ; foreword by James Weinstein.
North Branch, MN : Sunrise River Press, c2008.
In Conquer Back and Neck Pain: Walk It Off!, renowned spine surgeon Dr. Mark Brown, MD, PhD, explains exactly what causes back pain and why humans are so predisposed to spinal problems. He includes a detailed questionnaire to help you identify which of the seven types of back pain you are experiencing, and then he explains each of those types in easy-to-understand language. Contrary to what you might expect from a spinal surgeon, Dr. Brown actually advocates against turning to surgery in most cases of back pain, and he warns against many other pitfalls that people with back pain commonly fall into when looking for relief. Avoiding these mistakes, along with incorporating gentle aerobic exercise, will almost always allow you to "walk off" your back or neck pain naturally. Book jacket.
Seven minutes to natural pain release : WHEE for tapping your pain away, the revolutionary new self-healing method
by Daniel J. Benor.
Santa Rosa, Calif : Energy Psychology Press, c2008.
Daniel J. Benor, MD, has done what no other therapist has done before. In this remarkable book he explains how we develop our pains, how they serve us in many ways, and how we can choose to let them go or keep them. Though pain affects millions of people daily, until now it has been one of the most mysterious and hard-to-treat conditions. Pain often defies the most advanced treatments in modern medicine. WHEE promotes painless healing on all levels of a person's being. It's hard to believe so much relief is possible so quickly, even when pains have endured for years; yet WHEE produces amazingly rapid shifts routinely. Dr. Benor's money back guarantee has been claimed only once in six years.
For persistent pain, called chronic pain, medication alone may not be the best form of treatment. Instead, a comprehensive approach that includes exercise, relaxation skills, and behavioral changes can help to control the pain. These usually can be practiced without the risk of serious side effects.
|
Pain can be classified as "acute" or "chronic." Acute pain lasts a short time and should end soon. Chronic pain lasts beyond the healing of an injury and continues for several months. |
Struggling with chronic pain can be especially difficult for someone who is used to being in control. This type of person must first admit to being in pain, and then learn to adjust life goals. It is important to not compare current activities to how things used to be. Instead, learn to adjust and enjoy life as it is now.
Pain medication taken regularly may actually make the pain worse instead of better. This is called rebound pain. Any type of pain reliever may cause rebound pain. When medication wears off, the pain can return with a vengeance. A cycle of taking more pain medication, and severe pain, can be never ending. A physician can provide alternatives.
Living with chronic pain makes it uncomfortable to get a good night's sleep. In order to attempt getting to sleep better, try to:
- Establish regular sleep hours.
- Don't "try" to sleep, instead read or watch television.
- Limit bedroom activities.
- Avoid or limit caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.
- Minimize interruptions.
- Schedule a "worry time."
- Check your medications to see with your doctor if they contribute to your difficulty in sleeping.
- Don't substitute a nap for a full night's sleep.
Those living with chronic pain need to learn new skills, have a positive attitude, and give themselves realistic expectations. To gain a better understanding of what can be done to manage chronic pain, many join a support group. Here coping techniques may be shared with others who live daily with chronic pain.
More about pain
Article by: St. Louis Public Library staff.
