Many people in any type of recovery process know that recovery is an inside job.  We also learn early in recovery that in order to gain control of our lives we need to admit we are powerless—what a paradox that is.  Some of us had a belief system that said we couldn’t ask for help. For some of us it was because others always let us down and for others we mistakenly believed we had to be in control no matter what.  The reality is that though recovery is an inside job we can’t do it alone.  We need help. For me I learned that I needed both Spiritual help and the help of mentors, coaches, and guides on my recovery journey for both my substance problems and my chronic pain management problems.

Unfortunately, many people living with chronic pain become problematically dependent upon something or someone outside themselves for relief.  For some they become overly dependent on the medication and other on their healthcare providers.  While it is important to have the appropriate pain management team in place and having an appropriate medication management plan in place, way too many people are not acting as an important (and I believe the most important) part of the team.

When I work with people I like to use the metaphor of me being a Guide for them on their journey.  One example I use is telling them they would want to have expert guidance and help if they were preparing to go on a trek to a remote wilderness area that held many dangerous situations. They would want the aid of a guide who was familiar with the terrain and potential dangers that you might face. They would also want to have help with making their trek as comfortable as possible by having help toting supplies and camping equipment.

The chronic pain management journey is somewhat similar.  To get the most out of this journey to breaking the chronic pain trance it’s important to have guides and other helpers to make the journey as safe and comfortable as possible.  But it is never the guide’s job to be the pack horse—each individual is accountable and responsible for their own healing.

To learn more about patient rights and responsibilities for chronic pain management please check out my article The Right to Quality 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 www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people in chronic pain or living with chronic pain yourself and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing the pain and coexisting psychological disorders including depression or addiction effectively please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to listen to this interview.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.