Around 50 million people in the United States suffer from chronic pain. While the normal level of pain should be 0 on a scale of 0 to 10, many people live with a constant 4 or higher.
Living with pain becomes normal for many people, but there are pain management techniques you can use to make things more bearable. Learning pain control and how to make it easier to live with pain will change your life and we are here to help.
Continue reading this article to learn more about the management of pain.
What Causes Pain?
Many people think the only reason for pain is a major injury or something noticeable that happened in their lives to cause the pain, but that’s not always the case.
Besides injury, medical conditions and surgery can also cause ongoing pain. If you foresee any of these things in your future, it’s best to learn how to manage pain now. Here are a few of the most effective options.
Physical Therapy
When you experience pain, the first thing you think you should do is to cease all activity. When pain hits, you want to go to bed and sleep until it goes away. However, if you’re dealing with chronic pain — you’ll never get out of bed.
Instead of retreating to your bed and giving up your active life, use physical therapy for pain relief.
Using physical therapy helps you ease the physical part of the pain. Many patients have become weak because of the lack of movement and physical therapy is there to build them up.
There are multiple types of physical therapy you can look into to help with the pain. Massage, moving joints, and bones, manual therapy on soft tissue, movement therapy, exercise, and more. The trick is finding the option that is going to work best for your lifestyle and your preferences.
Cold & Heat
If you want to do something in your own home that isn’t complicated, stick with cold and heat. You can make cold and heat packs at home or get one from the local drug store.
If taking care of things at home isn’t working, you can speak to a physical therapist or chiropractor for more intense versions of heat and cold treatments that get deeper into the tissue and muscle.
Music Therapy
If you’ve ever been having a bad day and then your favorite song came on the radio and cheered you up, you know how powerful music can be. Music doesn’t only help with your mood and it can actually help you manage your pain.
You can try any genre of music you want, but classical music is proven to be one of the most effective ways to help with pain problems.
Mind-Body Techniques
If you feel out of control of your body, this can cause pain to worsen. When you feel out of control, your muscles tighten and tense and there is a fight or flight type of response that takes place.
If you’re going through this type of thing, using mind-body techniques can help you reestablish control over your body and allow you to turn down that fight or flight response you’re experiencing.
Age Progression or Regression
Do you remember a time when you didn’t experience this pain? Or maybe there is a future where you know the pain is going to be over?
Depending on when you know you wouldn’t be experiencing pain, you can use your mind to think of that time and place yourself there mentally. Placing yourself in that place will allow you to experience relief from the pain — even if it is for a short time.
It may take some time to learn how to do this, but if you practice, it will become easier for you. When things get tough and the pain is especially hard, you can take some time to place yourself in that place where there is no pain.
Counting
It might sound a little strange at first, but counting can help with the pain. Counting upwards can work, but if you count backward many people say it helps even more.
You can count anything. Count your breath, count the floor tiles or anything else you can see easily. You might even imagine pink elephants and decide to count them as they are jumping over the moon.
Some people find that the wilder they get with their thoughts, the better it works to distract from the pain.
Pain Movement
Another mind trick you can play on yourself is pain movement. If there is an area in your body where you find it easier to deal with pain, you can move it from the area where you’re experiencing it and put it in that area.
You might move the pain from your stomach to your arm or if you’re feeling especially powerful, you might move the pain out of your body altogether. It can take some time to master moving the pain out of your body, but if you use this technique and learn how to get your body under control, it can make a major difference in your quality of life.
Using Pain Management Techniques that Work
Not all pain management techniques are created equal and you need to find ones that work for you. If you are confused about where to start, use the tips above and test to see which ones work best.
Do you want to learn more about pain management and other health and wellness topics? Keep reading through our site to get the help you need.
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