Customer Reviews

The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life (APA Lifetools)

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I have chronic pain syndrome as a result of a couple of spinal cord injuries. Sometimes it is more than a bit overwhelming. The hard part is the way the pain is always there. Sometimes it's worse; sometimes it's tolerable. But, it never stops. What I have found over the years is that if you suffer from chronic pain doctors are a sorry lot for the most part. If you have a good one, you are truly blessed. The ones I encountered seem they either don't understand your suffering, don't believe the degree of your suffering, or just don't care. None seem adept at offering any coping advice beyond a shrug and anti-depressants. Almost all practice with a greater concern that the DEA is looking over their shoulder at the pain medicine they prescribe than helping you as their patient. Even pain specialists I have seen seem to be more hi tech gadget sales people than care givers. Or they are the worst of the skeptics in believing the patient. It's hard to find anybody who cares or understands what you're going through. Except you. That's what's so empowering about this book. It makes no excuses and pulls no punches about the medical profession, friends, family, and the sorry way they almost all treat pain sufferers. The emphasis here is that YOU have to seize the initiative and guide yourself down the path of getting some sembelence of a life back. What's contained here is a simple method to find the parameters you can function in as you explore what you can and can't do. There are easy to follow tips and guides that help you document your condition as you follow the program. Not only is this useful for you as a timeline to measure progress, but it provides a solid database to present to your physcian which may help him/her understand what you are going through. But, just like following a diet plan or an exercise regimen, it's up to you to follow it through. The approach isn't pie in the sky and there are no claims that you'll find some miracle cure or fix. It's an instruction manual on how to seize back as much of your life as you can from the pain that holds you down. My next visit to my Neurologist will have me showing him this book and trying to resist the urge to slap him upside the head with it. Just the first 1/4 of it has done more for me than seeing him over the past 3 years has done. Mostly, this program has given me hope. That's something he never even thought to offer.

I am a clinical psychologist working in a multidisciplinary pain treatment clinic. I also have chronic pain. In my view, as an introductory pain coping resources self-help book, this book wins best of breed. This book's author, Dennis Turk, PhD., is a leading expert in the subject of chronic pain in general and what works in pain coping resources in particular.

Like other good pain coping self-help books (e.g., "Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You" by Margaret Caudill, MD, PhD and "Hypnotize Yourself Out of Pain Now!", by Bruch Eimer, PhD), it does an effective job of covering the range of what has been learned on helping chronic pain patients help themselves. Important areas of pain coping resources are effectively addressed (e.g., effectively adopting the role of your own pain expert; the extremely important, but frequently overlooked, issue of pacing; the importance of effective moderation of sympathetic arousal; pain and fatigue; how interpersonal factors can effect pain and visa-versa; changing thoughts and behaviors; maintaining gains).

The book not only provides understanding and information. It is structured as an effective self-help tool. Although I do encourage my patients to use this book as part of their treatment with me, I strongly disagree with the reviewer above (promoting his own book) who suggests that the book is not effective to use "by yourself" and should include a "user manual." I have found the truth to be quite the contrary. The user manual is right there. The book is structured into ten lessons that conclude with well-conceived exercises to effectively introduce and encourage adoption of proven resources. Many of my patients pick up the book and effectively apply it with little or no assistance from me. For others, I often use the book as a focus of therapy. I hasten to add that for many with chronic pain the first issue is determining if the cost of addressing/managing pain appears worth the benefit. For many, gaining the motivation to help self is the biggest challenge.

If you are looking for self-help help with chronic pain, I highly recommend this book. I also recommend "Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You." In addition, I recommend this book to healthcare professionals who regularly, or occasionally, treat individuals with chronic pain, as an effective summary of current clinical wisdom on this subject.

Additional Comment: Another reviewer here somewhat bitterly criticizes Turk's book as being a waste of money and for beginners only. That reviewer also misrepresents Turk's take on narcotic use. First, let me suggest that the reviewer's use of hyperbole suggest a personal grudge, rather than an objective reading. That said, I would agree that Turk's book is well structured to help someone just beginning to learn to manage their pain. However, I have yet to meet a `veteran' pain patient who was motivated to help him or herself who did not find benefit in the book. I would say the big value of this book is it helps you start to manage your pain; the rest is up to you. Turk provides recommended readings for those who wish to learn additional means of dealing with pain. For those who are interested, one book I would strongly recommend is "Hypnotize Yourself Out of Pain Now!" by Bruce Eimer, PhD.

As regards narcotics, Turk does not condemn narcotic use. He affirms narcotics value for various pain problems. However, he and almost all of us who specialize in helping people with chronic pain are too aware that far too often narcotics cause more trouble (e.g., pain and discomfort) than good. In my experience, the majority of (though not all) patients who do well at managing chronic pain use narcotics sparingly or not at all.

This book is an easy can do book for anyone suffering from pain and unable to get their life back. It not only teaches, but also reminds us of the life we had before pain took over our day to day living, leaving us embroiled in medication and non activity which just makes things worse. Get it. USE IT. Do not JUST READ it.

Written by doctors with years of experience in the assessment and treatment of people with chronic pain, The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life is a ten-step program for learning to live and minimize chronic pain, emphasizing the importance of gradual behavior changes. Chapters discuss relaxation tips, ways to reduce fatigue, the importance of not allowing pain to sabotage personal relationships, making adjustments in behavior, bolstering self-confidence, coping with setbacks, and much more. The Pain Survival Guide also denounces common myths about pain, and emphasizes the following truths: pain is not a reliable signal of injury; the absence of injury or disease does not mean that one's pain is not real; pain should always be taken seriously; drugs are not always the best or only way to treat pain; and having pain for a long time does not mean that one's condition is beyond treatment. An index rounds out this highly accessible and practical and serious-minded resource.

This book is written for those of us with persistant chronic pain. Written in the form of a workbook, it forces the reader to take a hard look at attitudes and behaviors that may worsen the pain levels. The book offers a perspective on the importance of "pacing" one's activities in a way that maximizes energy levels and minimizes pain levels. I would highly recommend this book for anyone coping with chronic pain.

There are many pain management books on the market - often they offer the reader 'the cure', or 'ways to reduce your pain', leaving the person who follows the directions yet doesn't find their pain reduces feeling frustrated, helpless and often hopeless. This book is different. It acknowledges that pain interferes with so much in life, and offers sensible, research-based strategies that people can follow for themselves.

As a health professional, I would say that to follow this by yourself without support would be very difficult - because learning new skills may be relatively easy, but dealing with the thoughts and beliefs and habits of a life can be very difficult! This book strikes me as one that will be referred to by health professionals working with people experiencing chronic pain for many years.

My only suggestion for improvement would be to have a 'user manual' with areas for the person experiencing pain to complete. This would make the book less likely to be 'read' and put aside, and help the reader bring it to personal relevance.

Definitely recommended.

Regardless of the cause of your pain, mine has had me low for 5 years and I wish that someone had told me about this book right from the beginning.

I've learned a lot about the high cost of giving into pain by remaining inactive, and about the need for balance in everything, including activity and rest. Everyone with severe and chronic pain should have this book.

If you are dealing with chronic pain, this is an excellent book to add to your arsenal of pain management tools. It's taught me how to become my own pain management expert and how to really rest, relax and pace myself. This is one of my favorite books and I keep referring back to it. Highly recommended!!

This book (and another) were recommended to me by a doctor in a pain clinic. The only way that this book would ever be helpful is if someone is new to chronic pain. Being that I'd been dealing with my chronic, intractable pain for 6 years prior to reading the book, most of the information contained in the book were dealing with issues I've long come to terms with. It also very much implies that taking narcotics in any way for a long term is not the solution for chronic pain, when that couldn't be further from the truth for very many people. I was offended by the overall tone in the book that seemed to come off that all persons taking narcotics for pain were addicts, in many instances.

This book was not helpful to me. It may be helpful to you if you don't yet know how to cope with life-long severe pain. However, if I were you, I'd first research intractable pain - there are much better resources out there than this book, and most of them are free on the web.

Here's to a managable day!

Sincerely,

Chandra Welter

I have been working through this book with a counselor who deals primarily with chronic pain patients. It is already starting to change my life, even though I am only on the third technique. After > 2 years trying to learn to live with chronic pain, I am finding techniques that are making a difference!