Addiction-Free Pain Management

Discover a New Approach to Addiction-Free Pain Management
I have seen many people relapse and die as a result of untreated or mistreated chronic pain conditions. I decided to do something about this. It is my belief that a team of people working in harmony toward a common goal can achieve far more than any individual working alone. Addiction-Free Pain Management is a system for managing chronic pain without becoming addicted to pain medication.

The exercises in this book were extensively field tested in clinics and by individual treatment providers with great success. The Addiction-Free Pain Management Workbook can help you avoid the pain of addiciton.

Below is a brief description of each of the eight processes that the Addiction-Free Pain Management Workbook leads you through.

Process One: The Effects of Chronic Pain  You will review and analyze of a list of common effects that people who live with chronic pain experience. This exercise instructs you to identify the ones that affect your own lives. You also learn to build a pain vocabulary.

Process Two: The Effects of Prescription and/or Other *  You will explore the benefits you experienced from using problematic pain medication (including alcohol) and other * and what you wanted to get from using the chemicals. You will also be asked to identify the problems you experienced as a result of problematic pain medication (including alcohol) and other drug use.

Process Three: Decision Making about Pain Medication:

 You will explore the reasons why you started using problematic pain medication (including alcohol) and other *. You are then instructed to make an assessment of life damaging problems you experienced as a result of using chemicals, and explore reasons for deciding to stop using.

Process Four: Abstinence Contract and Intervention Planning  You are asked to define what your abstinence and recovery plan includes. You complete and sign an abstinence contract, agreeing to maintain abstinence. You are then instructed to develop a relapse intervention plan that describes the responsibilities of yourself, your counselor, and significant others (at least 2 or 3) to stop relapse quickly should it occur.

Process Five: Identifying and Personalizing High Risk Situations  You will learn to identify the immediate high risk situations that can cause chemical use and ineffective pain management in spite of your commitment. You are instructed to review a list of common High Risk Situations that can activate the urge to use/abuse problematic pain medication (including alcohol) or other * and/or sabotage your effective pain management program. You are then asked to identify and personalize your own most important (critical) High Risk Situation and write a personal title and description for use in self-monitoring.

Process Six: Mapping High Risk Situations  You are asked to describe one past situation in which you experienced your immediate high risk situation in recovery and managed it poorly. This situation map will be used to help you to identify the pattern of self-defeating behaviors that drives your relapse process. You are then instructed to identify one past situation in which you experienced your immediate high risk situation in recovery and managed it effectively. This situation will be used to identify new and more effective ways of coping with your high risk situation. These new behaviors will become the foundation for High Risk Situation management and recovery planning.

Process Seven: Analyzing and Managing High Risk Situations  You are asked to analyze the immediate high risk situation that you are learning to manage. You are asked to identify the irrational (addictive) thoughts, unmanageable feelings, self-destructive urges, self-defeating (addictive) behaviors, and reactions of others (TFUARs), that drive your high risk situation. You are shown how to manage this kind of high-risk situation more appropriately by identifying three points where you can use more effective ways of thinking, feeling, and acting to avoid relapse. You are then instructed to apply these new ways of coping to a future high-risk situation.

Process Eight: Recovery Planning  You are asked to develop a schedule of recovery activities that will support the ongoing identification and effective management of your high risk situations. You are then instructed to write a schedule of recovery activities and explore how each activity can be adapted to help you identify and manage their high risk situations.