I was recently talking to a friend about pain relief…
I got drawn into a conversation with a good friend who suffers from extreme and frequent pain experiences. It was an amazing conversation– not just because I love talking to this person, but because our conversation turned into an exploration of pain relief strategies. And I was thinking, this is exactly what I wanted to talk about for The Pain Playbook. How timely. We dove into the most recent pain issues and some “new” discoveries for relief. Our conversations are always so engaging and insightful – I learn so much every time we speak. I began to think about coping and how important that is for pain management. For people dealing with pain experiences, or chronic pain issues over many years, how to find ways out of the fog?
What is coping?
Coping is the way we think and behave in order to deal with a stressful situation or event. If you google “coping skills”, you will find a ton of resources for finding healthy ways to cope and/or develop coping skills. Whether you are aware of it or not, you have coping skills already that click in whenever you find yourself stressed by work, life, and pain. Take a moment. Think about it. What do you do after a hard day at work? What happens when you get really angry or really sad? What do you do when your partner triggers you emotionally? What do you do when you experience pain?
We all have coping skills. Sometimes they lean towards the unhealthy – like stress eating, or numbing with alcohol, or retail therapy (wink wink). And some are healthier – like exercise, deep breathing, or journaling.
I’m going to expand the frame a bit as we talk about self-medicating. I don’t want to be too narrow. We cope and try to alleviate our pain all the time with so many products that are out there constantly vying for our attention. Commercials, drugstore shelves, recommendations and advice, or just google searching – we are bombarded with suggestions on how to feel better. We are bombarded with the promise of relief. We are bombarded with an assortment of monetarily driven, legal coping strategies. And why wouldn’t you try them if the promise is exactly that – relief?
The quick fix is totally natural. I have had many patients relay experiences similar to these.
You feel pain, pop a few NSAIDs and OTCs (like Tylenol, Motrin, Advil, Aleve, etc.) and keep it moving. But then the pain persists, and you want to get rid of it, so a few more of those to stave it off. But the pain persists until you find yourself taking 3-6 of those pills every hour to see if/when it will finally work.
You feel muscle pain. You like the patches and have a box for just such an occasion. You pop a patch on the spot and wait for the healing effects. Maybe at first it works, then you notice you again feel the pain. Technically those patches should not be worn more than 8 hours and generally applied at most 3-4 times in a day. But the pain won’t go away. You find yourself going through the whole box or you find that you left that patch on and it’s been like 12 hours – the whole workday.
I love heat application and topical treatments like Tiger Balm. Imagine the relief from a heating pad plus the soothing effect of a topical agent. That would be an amazing combination, so you put on a cream/gel/balm and then get that heating pad out. Heat on heat. The relief seems assured.
Sometimes, in the spirit of prevention and getting rid of the pain before it can start, you decide to use one of your standby treatments as a daily regimen. You know, just in case. And that becomes a habit. But then a pain experience happens – in spite of this preventive regimen – and now you have to up the dosage, use a few different treatments in tandem, and just hope for the best. This is how we try to navigate all the possible ways to find relief with what is available at hand. This is self-medicating. This is one way to cope. This is hope. And the search continues.
I would not take any of these remedies off the table. They all have their place. To be clear, I use them, and in many cases I recommend them. But I just want to make it clear how we use them and how they can turn into a problem when intended as a remedy. This is especially concerning for those of us experiencing frequent pain crises and/or chronic pain.
Just FYI: Overusing NSAIDS & OTCs can cause damage to your stomach and liver, overusing patches can cause skin irritations, burning sensation, or even pain. Topical treatments and a heating pad will cause burning and possible blistering. Heating pads over patches also burn and possibly cause blistering.
Self-medicating happens in many ways. Pain hurts – no doubt about it. When we experience pain, there is panic and a mad scramble to get relief. There is fatigue, frustration, hopelessness, and helplessness. Quick fixes have a place. But they are not miracle cures. And we must try to remain aware that there is also a place for additional self-management skills to move through these pain cycles for better, longer term results.
