Here are some important things you may not know about chronic pain:
- According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, people who have fibromyalgia are 3.4 times more likely to develop major depression than individuals without fibromyalgia.
- Most people with fibromyalgia are women (Female: Male ratio 7:1). However, men and children also can have the disorder. (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention)
- Though arthritis is often thought to be more common among older patients, nearly two-thirds of arthritis patients are younger than 65. (The National Arthritis Action Plan)
- Over half of adults living with diabetes or heart disease are also living with arthritis. (The National Arthritis Action Plan)
- According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), clinical investigators have found that chronic pain patients often have lower-than-normal levels of endorphins in their spinal fluid.
- According to the American Pain Society, 50 million workdays are lost each year due to pain.
- According to Howard Schubiner MD, chronic pain is not only a physical condition. Brain function has an effect on this condition.
It’s not just a condition for elderly patients. Everyone is susceptible.
To hear more about chronic pain, check out this video clip:
Check out more information about Mind/Body courses here and Brain courses here!
In the meantime, do you address issues of chronic pain in your practice? What kind of approaches do you take?
Leave a comment below, we’d like to hear what you have to say.
I am a chronic pain patient myself and I do address patients who have chronic pain disorders as well. I have Fibromyalgia, lumbar stenosis and osteoarthritis. I have found that for me, a combination of medication, alternative physical therapy interventions,specific types of physical exercize and Mind/Body practices such as Mindfulness meditation, Tai Chi, clinical hypnosis practice and interpersonal support from persons who accept my pain and validate my efforts to keep on learning and trying can provide relief. I have also learned that the most effective pain relievers are obtained through self love.
For my patients, I find that my first and most important interventions involve acceptance, attunement and empathic connection. I use all the interventions discussed above and I have learned that teaching information about the brain and how it is involved in chronic pain is very important for successful outcomes. Additionally, I have learned that each patient pain disorder and how it manifests is unique and different and as a result a “one size fits all” approach will not work..
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I’ve used Therapeutic Art Methods, which is the analysis of unconscious content in spontaneous drawings, and added adjuncts of Therapeutic Touch, Neurolinguistic Programming, resonance in music therapy and Senoi Indian dreamwork to facilitate management/resolution of chronic pain. I believe these avenues allow us to identify the blessing inside the pain, as an opportunity to identify what are often trauma issues that need healing so we can move beyond them.Results have sometimes been so profound that clients/patients become pain free. It is truly awe inspiring to participate in these methods at work…
I use applied kinesiology(muscle testing)to ask the subconscious mind what situation, age or emotional experience the pain has been stored from. The muscle testing will tell us what we need to address–be it a handed down belief or genetic predisposition from parents, an experience from before we have conscious memory–usually prior to age 3, or after that when we might actually remember an emotional situation that upset us. Since I use Brain Gym(R), EFT, Masgutova Reflex Integration and Reiki, I also ask the client’s system, what technique we need to engage in to release the old and re-pattern new connections. The best part is, it works! Client’s are pleasantly surprised to release pain.