2024 pain awareness month
Pain awareness month is an opportunity to bring the biggest global health burden onto the agenda.
Arguably it should not leave the agenda until modern approaches are the standard. Unfortunately we are a long way from that scenario as the predominant biomedical model clings on.
For the millions of chronic pain sufferers across the UK, every day is an awareness day. They are only too aware of their pain and the impact on day to day living.
1:5 people suffer chronic pain.
More people suffer chronic pain than heart disease, cancer and diabetes together.
Of course there are many reasons why people suffer, each unique to them.
What does cause chronic pain? This is the question we are much better at answering now ~ read here.
Science and the understanding have moved forwards enormously over the past 10 years revealing many ways we can help people to ease and overcome their pain.
Most of the practical and helpful approaches are drawn from non-pain fields!
This maybe a surprise until you realise trying to treat pain the traditional, biomedical way doesn’t work. The biomedical way needs something visible and measurable; a cause and effect.
Pain is not visible and barely measurable. And there are no direct causes, even though it can appear to be the case. Logic takes you down the wrong path.
Pain is a lived experience and a need state, similar to hunger and thirst. There are a set of conditions (e.g./ biology, circumstance, past experience, beliefs and expectations) that mean pain emerges as a best explanation for these conditions. Change the conditions and the experience changes.
In practical terms, this means focus on what you want rather than what you don’t want.
You may have noticed that the more you focus on the pain and try to treat the painful part of your body (doing things to the place where you feel pain — i.e./ your body; and it is real, pain is always real), the worse the outcomes. Because you get more of what you focus on — where your focus goes, the energy flows.
Setting yourself the goal of pain relief is like saying don’t think of elephants…
So what do you do?
Focus on what you want.
What is your picture of success? What are you going to work towards?
What do you want to be doing in your life? With your life? How do you want to feel?
What are your needs? Your unmet needs?
The answers to these questions reveal your direction and the work to be done.
When you focus on what you want and the step to take in that direction, the outcomes are much better!
If you want success, this is the formula.
In essence, you live yourself better in the way you think and act (they are not separate) each day. Moment to moment.
You know what you want to do and why it matters, but not how to do it?
This is the power of Pain Coaching.
You have the motivation to get better. You have abilities and capacity to build.
But you need the know-how.
How do I do this?
Together we practice skills and strategies with the know-how on a foundation of understanding.
You understand your pain. That is the first step.
The way forward opens when you understand your pain.
That is why we must start there. And one of the reasons we made the short film (see below).
The skills and strategies are mostly straight-forward.
The nuance of how to prepare, what and how much to do, and recharge/recovery afterwards needs to be coached so you can self-coach and make best decisions.
Each time you practice is a new time. You must meet your needs and work according to these and where you are rather than where you want to be.
Principles over protocols.
Needs over numbers.
That is the truly personalised approach fundamental to Pain Coaching.
A short film to understand pain
Out now, for pain awareness month.
A conversation between Andy, chronic pain lived experience, and Richmond, founder of Pain Coaching.
Filmed in Battersea Park.
This is the first of two dialogues, each with a different style.
The second will be released in the coming weeks.
Andy bases many of his questions and comments on my book, Understand and overcome your chronic pain.
I hope you find it useful.
Before you start watching though, have you subscribed to my daily posts?
Direct to your inbox each day, plus exclusive skills sessions and material for paid subscribers (the equivalent of just a few coffees a month!).
The single purpose: to help you understand, ease and overcome your chronic pain.
What do people say about it?
“I would like to thank you very much indeed for your Daily messages. I am finding them extremely helpful in my continuing journey to recovery.”
“I look forward to your daily deliveries as for me it tells me that you really care and not just when I am with you for an appointment. That means a lot to me, thank you very much.”
“Thanks so much for these posts. One of the most helpful things about them is that they are bite-sized reminders that I read at the start of the day which help to set me on the right course for the day ahead. I loved reading your book. It is absolutely jam-packed with insights and pointers that have been hugely instrumental in re-orienting my approach to living well with chronic pain.”
So, join me…
And now to the film…