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What Your Doctor Didn't Know - 7 Pain Traps

By: Christine Sutherland

Most doctors, physiotherapists and other health specialists simply don't know how to help you get rid of long-term pain, but that's not really their fault. The fault lies partially with the drug companies, and partially with researching scientists who have been slow to understand the real nature of long-term pain. One Australian researcher has "cracked the code" and that's what I'll be sharing here.

I'm going to share just one technique that this research has led to, but before that you really need to know the pain traps that could keep you stuck with the pain. Take action on every one of these so you can increase your chances of success.

We know that every one of these 7 traps can act as a trigger to your nervous system to give you more pain. So please pay close attention, for your own sake.

TRAP 1

Withdrawing from people. I know that when you've got pain the last thing you might feel like doing is mixing with people. In the acute stage of your pain, when the injury was still fresh, that was a good idea, but it's the last thing you should do when your pain is long-term. It's absolutely vital that you mix with people, and that you don't let anything stand in the way of that, including your pain.

TRAP 2

Limiting your physical activity. When an injury is fresh, rest can be very important, and that can mean total rest, or just limiting your activities or limiting your range of movement. That's sensible. However when pain is long term, the reverse is true. You must do as much activity as you can without flaring your pain too much. And you should be consistently increasing the intensity and duration of that activity, again without flaring your pain too much. You absolutely do not have to "push through your pain" as some pain specialists say. That's plain dumb because it can sensitise you even more.

There's a balance to be found here, and that's what you should be looking for.

TRAP 3

Not being as independent as you possibly can. When you're dependent on others more than you need to be, you suffer (whether you know it or not) from higher stress levels. These stress levels sensitise your nervous system and increase your pain. So take a good look at what you allow others to do for you and think of ways around that. Also take a good look at your conversation with you're with family or friends. Are you saying the same things over and over each time you see them? Don't let them get in a rut either!

TRAP 4

Not having interests or hobbies. I hinted in trap 3 that it's important to get your focus off yourself, and hobbies and interests are a great way to do that. I should explain that this has nothing to do with being selfish, or having self pity. No, no-one could blame you even if you did feel that way! This is about that nervous system again, and the crucial need to get your attention outside of your body! Some patients tell us that they just don't have any interests, but our answer is "Get one!". Do you want to get better? Choose an interest or hobby. You're not going to be stuck with it for life - you can ditch it later. But right now you need it.

In the same way, you must stay aware of what's going on in the world. Stay informed, and talk to people about their thoughts and feelings in relation to what you discover. Become involved.

TRAP 5

Putting up with depression, anger or anxiety. It's understandable that if your pain isn't being managed well, and if your quality of life has been affected, that you might feel depressed, angry or anxious. However these feelings create a lot of stress in your nervous system and just make the problem worse. I'm not saying you need to use willpower here - not at all! There are some really good techniques that can take care of those emotions for you and knock them right out, regardless of your pain.

TRAP 6

Poor sleep. There's not enough space here to go into what good sleep actually is, so please do yourself a giant favour and get a book on "sleep hygiene" from your library so you understand all the things that interfere with healthy sleep. Good sleep aids healing, calms the nervous sytem, increases the metabolic rate, and makes you feel great!

TRAP 7

Nutrition that doesn't support health. Good nutrition supports good mental and physical health, just as good sleep does. How do you know if your nutrition is right? Look at your weight for one thing. If you're overweight or underweight then your nutrition is probably wrong. Are you tired a lot? Do you feel confused sometimes? These are also signs that your nutrition needs to be examined.

I hope you'll pay very close attention to these 7 traps and make sure that you're in no way trapped in any of them. Sure they're common sense, but I'll bet your doctor hasn't given you any detailed guidance on many, if any. Get these things right, and you have the foundation for recovery.

HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO TEST A NEW PAIN RELIEVER

The book "The Pain Train - Time to Get Off" tells you all the theory you'd want to know (and more) of the technique I'm going to share with you here. Basically, this technique "mixes up" the pain signals and over time permanently eliminates them so you become pain free.

Don't be fooled by how crazy this technique looks, because doctors around the world are in awe of the results it gets and scrambling to understand the theory behind it. Make sure you're focussing on the pain at the same time you're doing the other things I suggest!

Although you might have several areas of pain, or even just one area that is quite big, I want you to make a choice to focus on an area that is a maximum of one centimetre (or one inch - it doesn't matter), and only that area. Give that pain a rating out of 10 for how strong it is. Now, while you're still focussed on just that spot, start tapping or pinching on your head, face, arms and chest (you can even include your legs and feet if that's convenient), and at the same time imagine that you're eating your favourite food, that you're sucking on a lemon, that you're licking sugar. You are giving yourself physical sensations as well as other sensory input, at the same time as you're focussing on that one spot.

Keep that up for a few minutes, then with your focus still on that exact spot, take a really deep breath through your nose, and powerfully blow through your mouth until your lungs feel really empty.

Make sure you check that one spot. A lot of people, even from the start, notice that the pain isn't the same. It might have changed in some way (a different type of pain) or it might have increased, decreased, or moved. Often it comes back, but less and less until it's gone for good.

Article Source: http://www.homesteadarticles.com

Christine Sutherland is an Australian clinician who trains health professionals and patients to eliminate back pain. If you have back or neck pain that isn't responding to treatment, this new method is worth checking out.

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