About the book:
If you are one of the 100 million Americans living with chronic pain, there is hope.
In Living beyond Pain, a physician and a therapist offer a whole-person approach to pain management, addressing the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of pain and providing alternative strategies that don't rely on opioids. Through education, pain triumph stories, daily guided cognitive activity, and as-needed pain rescue techniques, you can reprogram your neurologic pathways, increase functioning, and experience improvement in your symptoms. If you suffer from pain, this book offers real, research-based hope that there are better days ahead.
My review:
This book had such wonderful information! The authors started out with a section on understanding pain, from explaining how pain works to the toll it can take to the types of pain. They talk about the impact our thoughts can have on our pain and how connected our mind and body are. They're incredibly encouraging and point out that improvement can be made, even if you might not be able to get rid of the pain completely. The next section gives tools to improve your pain. They talk about traditional and nontraditional methods to pain management, such as medication and retraining your brain. They also point out it could be a structural issue that needs addressing and that the underlying issue needs to be addressed, if at at all possible, rather than just treating the symptoms. It was especially interesting to read how much our thinking and beliefs affect our bodies. We need to understand what our beliefs are about pain, the negative thoughts running through our heads about it and learn to reframe those thoughts in a positive way. They talk about stress and ways to minimize it and point out lifestyle changes that can have a positive impact as well, such as losing weight, eating well and getting enough sleep. Making sure we exercise or get some movement in is also helpful. I especially liked the chapter where they pointed out it's helpful to find meaning in our suffering with a wonderful real-life example, which they had many of throughout the book. In the end, they encourage us to make a plan, set realistic goals and never give up. There were a lot of great tips in this book that I'm going to implement as this is an issue I've struggled with for years. I'm also going to recommend it to a lot of people I know. I highly recommend this book if you struggle with pain or know someone who does!
I received this book from Baker Books. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own.
About the authors:
Linda S. Mintle, PhD, is a national speaker, blogger, radio host, and bestselling author of twenty books. With nearly thirty years of clinical practice as a therapist and coach, her current clinical and academic efforts are being directed toward the development of an interprofessional approach to pain management given the present opioid crisis and the need for nonpharmacological approaches to deal with people in chronic pain. She lives in Virginia.
James W. Kribs, DO, is a practicing physician. Board-certified in neuromusculoskeletal medicine with a subspecialty in pain medicine, his clinical practice focus includes osteopathic manipulative medicine, manual sports medicine, medical orthopedics, and interventional pain management. Additionally, Dr. Kribs has served on the academic faculty of two medical schools, and is involved nationally in advancing osteopathic medicine curriculum initiatives. He lives in Virginia.
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