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Pain is an often normal perception which can signal an injury or condition. While pain may go away after the initial issue is resolved, for some individuals, pain may be a constant, long-term symptoms, known as chronic pain. Chronic pain can be debilitating, and it may drive you to wonder just what can you do to relieve the symptoms.

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What are some chronic pain control techniques?

Dr. Alex Jimenez discusses issues pertaining to chronic pain as well as describes 11 chronic pain control techniques which can help individuals cope with and manage their specific symptoms.

To prepare for almost any chronic pain coping procedure, it is important to learn deep breathing to relax the body and how to use focus. Learning to relax takes practice, especially when you’re in pain, but it’s definitely well worth it to have the ability to release muscle tension and begin to remove attention from the pain.

Coping techniques for chronic pain start with controlled deep breathing, as follows:

Try placing yourself in a relaxed, setting like a darkened room. Either closed your eyes or focus on a point.
Then start to slow down your breathing. Breathe using your torso. Should you find your mind drifting or you are distracted, then think of a word, like the word “Relax,” and believe it in time with your breathing…the syllable “re” as you breathe in and “lax” as you breathe out.
Continue with about 2 to 3 minutes of controlled breathing.
When you feel yourself slowing down, you can start to use imagery techniques.

Eleven special imagery and chronic pain control Methods that are effective for pain control include:

Altered Focus

This is a favorite technique for demonstrating how powerfully the mind can change sensations in the body. Focus your attention on any particular non-painful part of the human body (hand, foot, etc.) and alter sensation in that portion of the body. As an instance, imagine your hands warming up. This will take the mind away from focusing on the source of your pain, including your pain.

Dissociation

As the name suggests, this chronic pain procedure involves mentally separating the painful body area from the rest of the body, or imagining the body and mind as different, together with the chronic pain distant from the mind. For instance, imagine your back and let it stay sitting there, far away from your own mind.

Sensory Splitting

This technique involves dividing the feeling (pain, burning, pins and needles) into different parts. For example, if back pain or the leg pain seems hot to you, focus on the sensation of the heat and not on the pain.

Emotional Anesthesia

This entails imagining a shot of numbing anesthetic (such as Novocain) to the painful area, like imagining a numbing solution being injected to a painful site. Similarly, you may then want to envision a soothing and cooling ice pack.

Emotional Analgesia

Construction on the mental operation concept, this technique involves imagining an injection of a powerful pain killer, like morphine, into the painful region. You can envision your mind producing quantity of endorphins, the pain relieving substance of the human body, and getting them flow to the painful parts of your body.

Transfer

Use your mind to produce altered sensations, such as heat, cold, anesthetic, at a non-painful hand, and then set the hands on the painful area. Envision moving this nice sensation into the area.

Age Progression/Regression

Use your mind’s attention to project yourself forward or backward in time to if you are pain-free or experiencing much less pain. Then instruct yourself to act “as if” this picture were authentic.

Symbolic Imagery

Envision a symbol that represents your chronic pain, such as a loud, irritating noise or a painfully bright light bulb. Decrease the annoying qualities of this emblem, such as dim the light or lessen the loudness of the sound.

Favorable Imagery

Focus your attention on a pleasant place that you could imagine going, such as the shore of a beach, the mountains, etc., in which you are feeling carefree, safe and relaxed.

Counting

Silent counting is a good way to manage painful episodes. You might count breaths, rely holes rely floor tiles, or simply conjure up mental images and rely on them.

Pain Movement

Move chronic back pain in one area of your body to another, where the pain is a lot easier to deal with. By way of instance, your pain that is chronic moves into your hands, or even out of your hand to the atmosphere.

Some of these techniques are likely best learned with the help of a professional, and it usually takes practice for all these techniques to succeed in helping alleviate chronic pain. It’s often advisable to work on pain coping strategies for approximately 30 minutes 3 times each week. With practice, you will realize that chronic pain management and the relaxation become stronger and longer once you’re finished.

Sometimes, after you’re proficient at using the methods, you can create chronic pain relief and relaxation with only a few deep breaths. You may then begin to use these techniques as you’re engaged in any activity, working, talking, etc.. With experience you will begin to feel a sense of control over the chronic pain and its effects on your life.

The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .Â

By Dr. Alex Jimenez

Additional Topics: Wellness

Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.