SELF-HELP TO OVERCOME PAIN: A SELF-HELP PROGRAMM
Everyone's pain is different. But the important thing is that, when you find what works best for you, your progress can go ahead in leaps and bounds -if only you have a positive mental attitude.
Tell yourself that 'Every day, and in every way, I'm getting better and better.'
A self-help programme
The most important prerequisite for any programme of pain management is an adequate diagnosis of the source of your pain. Other important practices to follow are:
• Never abuse the prescribed medication from your doctor. Don't go 'doctor shopping' — particularly if it involves the taking of multiple prescription drugs which may work against each other and thus cause substantial harm.
• Avoid narcotic analgesics. These are extremely difficult to stop once you're on what often turns out to be a very vicious roller-coaster ride of dependence which can sometimes last for years.
• Stop being a patient. Become a person again.
• Remember that, in many cases, resting your injury can lead to further pain through disuse and make the eventual treatment all the more difficult.
• Some of the most effective treatments available to pain patients are the most simple. Remember that simple pain-killers, such as aspirin and panadol, are often effective when combined with simple relaxation techniques and appropriate physical treatment such as Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation.
• Never lose your faith. Nearly every pain patient can be helped significantly. You have to believe that. So, take it slowly and surely, one day at a time.
• Don't worry about all the things that might happen tomorrow. They may never happen. Needless worry is as self-destructive as acid on the fabric of your life. How you see yourself is how others see you.
• Repeat that over and over again until it becomes an article of faith. Your faith should be unshakable. You can be helped. You will be helped.
• It's only a matter of seeking professional help from one of the many pain clinics and then finding what treatment best suits you — hypnotherapy, acupuncture or a portable TENS machine, or perhaps a combination of these and other therapies. *192\37\8*
THE STAGES OF MARRIAGE: FINDING THE IDEAL MATE
