The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life
If you suffer from chronic pain, this proven 10-step program brings hope and relief, showing you how gradual changes in specific behaviors can lead to great improvements in your ability to cope. Psychologists Turk and Winters’ recommendations are based on solid research that shows what works and on their success with thousands of patients. Unlike the authors of other pain books, they promise no miracle cures, but they do help you learn “not to let your body push you around” so life becomes enjoyable again. The key lessons in this book include
- Uncovering some of the myths about pain and the deceptive ways it fools your body into unconstructive behavior
- Pacing your activity, so you build strength without overdoing or underdoing it
- Learning how to induce deep relaxation so you can begin to enjoy life again
- Dealing with disturbed sleep and chronic fatigue
- Improving your relations with family and friends, and soliciting support
- Changing your habitual behaviors in ways that reduce pain
- Combating the negative thinking that often accompanies pain
- Regaining your self-confidence and trust in yourself
- The power of goal-setting and humor
- Dealing with the inevitable relapses and setbacks once improvement has set in
Workbook exercises, behavior logs, and suggested readings help you integrate these lessons into your daily life and learn to live well despite pain.
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Highly Recommended,
I am a clinical psychologist working in a multidisciplinary pain treatment clinic. I also have chronic pain. In my view, as an introductory pain coping resources self-help book, this book wins best of breed. This book’s author, Dennis Turk, PhD., is a leading expert in the subject of chronic pain in general and what works in pain coping resources in particular.
Like other good pain coping self-help books (e.g., “Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You” by Margaret Caudill, MD, PhD and “Hypnotize Yourself Out of Pain Now!”, by Bruch Eimer, PhD), it does an effective job of covering the range of what has been learned on helping chronic pain patients help themselves. Important areas of pain coping resources are effectively addressed (e.g., effectively adopting the role of your own pain expert; the extremely important, but frequently overlooked, issue of pacing; the importance of effective moderation of sympathetic arousal; pain and fatigue; how interpersonal factors can effect pain and visa-versa; changing thoughts and behaviors; maintaining gains).
The book not only provides understanding and information. It is structured as an effective self-help tool. Although I do encourage my patients to use this book as part of their treatment with me, I strongly disagree with the reviewer above (promoting his own book) who suggests that the book is not effective to use “by yourself” and should include a “user manual.” I have found the truth to be quite the contrary. The user manual is right there. The book is structured into ten lessons that conclude with well-conceived exercises to effectively introduce and encourage adoption of proven resources. Many of my patients pick up the book and effectively apply it with little or no assistance from me. For others, I often use the book as a focus of therapy. I hasten to add that for many with chronic pain the first issue is determining if the cost of addressing/managing pain appears worth the benefit. For many, gaining the motivation to help self is the biggest challenge.
If you are looking for self-help help with chronic pain, I highly recommend this book. I also recommend “Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You.” In addition, I recommend this book to healthcare professionals who regularly, or occasionally, treat individuals with chronic pain, as an effective summary of current clinical wisdom on this subject.
Additional Comment: Another reviewer here somewhat bitterly criticizes Turk’s book as being a waste of money and for beginners only. That reviewer also misrepresents Turk’s take on narcotic use. First, let me suggest that the reviewer’s use of hyperbole suggest a personal grudge, rather than an objective reading. That said, I would agree that Turk’s book is well structured to help someone just beginning to learn to manage their pain. However, I have yet to meet a `veteran’ pain patient who was motivated to help him or herself who did not find benefit in the book. I would say the big value of this book is it helps you start to manage your pain; the rest is up to you. Turk provides recommended readings for those who wish to learn additional means of dealing with pain. For those who are interested, one book I would strongly recommend is “Hypnotize Yourself Out of Pain Now!” by Bruce Eimer, PhD.
As regards narcotics, Turk does not condemn narcotic use. He affirms narcotics value for various pain problems. However, he and almost all of us who specialize in helping people with chronic pain are too aware that far too often narcotics cause more trouble (e.g., pain and discomfort) than good. In my experience, the majority of (though not all) patients who do well at managing chronic pain use narcotics sparingly or not at all.
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|Very workable program,
I have chronic pain syndrome as a result of a couple of spinal cord injuries. Sometimes it is more than a bit overwhelming. The hard part is the way the pain is always there. Sometimes it’s worse; sometimes it’s tolerable. But, it never stops. What I have found over the years is that if you suffer from chronic pain doctors are a sorry lot for the most part. If you have a good one, you are truly blessed. The ones I encountered seem they either don’t understand your suffering, don’t believe the degree of your suffering, or just don’t care. None seem adept at offering any coping advice beyond a shrug and anti-depressants. Almost all practice with a greater concern that the DEA is looking over their shoulder at the pain medicine they prescribe than helping you as their patient. Even pain specialists I have seen seem to be more hi tech gadget sales people than care givers. Or they are the worst of the skeptics in believing the patient. It’s hard to find anybody who cares or understands what you’re going through. Except you. That’s what’s so empowering about this book. It makes no excuses and pulls no punches about the medical profession, friends, family, and the sorry way they almost all treat pain sufferers. The emphasis here is that YOU have to seize the initiative and guide yourself down the path of getting some sembelence of a life back. What’s contained here is a simple method to find the parameters you can function in as you explore what you can and can’t do. There are easy to follow tips and guides that help you document your condition as you follow the program. Not only is this useful for you as a timeline to measure progress, but it provides a solid database to present to your physcian which may help him/her understand what you are going through. But, just like following a diet plan or an exercise regimen, it’s up to you to follow it through. The approach isn’t pie in the sky and there are no claims that you’ll find some miracle cure or fix. It’s an instruction manual on how to seize back as much of your life as you can from the pain that holds you down. My next visit to my Neurologist will have me showing him this book and trying to resist the urge to slap him upside the head with it. Just the first 1/4 of it has done more for me than seeing him over the past 3 years has done. Mostly, this program has given me hope. That’s something he never even thought to offer.
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|Great book to take back your Power !,
This book is an easy can do book for anyone suffering from pain and unable to get their life back. It not only teaches, but also reminds us of the life we had before pain took over our day to day living, leaving us embroiled in medication and non activity which just makes things worse. Get it. USE IT. Do not JUST READ it.
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