Coping Successfully with Pain
By Neville Shone - A Sheldon Press book

If you're one of the thousands of people who suffer from pain, this book is for you. Whether it's arthritis, fibromyalgia, backache or migraine, whatever the cause, even if it can't be diagnosed, you can find relief. Pain can dominate your whole life, and leave you depressed and despairing, living only for a miracle cure. If sitting, standing and walking are difficult and pain keeps you awake at night, it holds you back from getting involved in all that life has to offer.

But it doesn't have to be like that. You can build your strength, recover your mobility and control your pain.

This is a practical guide to taking charge of your life again. Step by step you can overcome your fears, improve your confidence, and lead a more mobile, more active life.

This revised and updated edition includes a new chapter on how changing your diet can help control and prevent pain.

Contents

• Understanding chronic pain
• The way in
• The way out
• Exercise
• Take control of your pain - take control of your life
• Changing
• Does your food affect your pain?
• Stepping out - alone or with a partner
• Practical ways to get going
• Keeping going at work
• Coping with set-backs
• A new partnership with your doctor
• And... finally!

It may be that you find it difficult to stand or sit for very long, or walk more than a few yards or feel so miserable as a result of your pain that life has lost its savour. Sitting, standing and walking are crucial to functioning and our inability to do them comfortably limits our scope to such an extent that we tend to avoid getting involved and as a result miss out on the rich variety that life has to offer.

My aim, therefore, is to help you understand the nature of the problem and to put you in a better position to ask informed questions of professionals involved in your treatment, and, in addition, to provide a pointer to the steps which you can take in planning and carrying out your own treatment and rehabilitation in a way that meets your own individual needs. Keep it by you for reference and use it as a handbook.

I am not suggesting that you disregard the advice of your doctors; I simply wish to provide you with a set of positive options which you can use to become less dependent on external sources and to find the confidence to rely more on your own resources in managing your pain. At this point you may be tempted to say, 'Ah!, but nobody understands my pain like I do.' Maybe not, but I have had to learn to understand and deal with my own pain and resulting disability over many years and to communicate this understanding to others whose lives, like mine, have been shattered by the experience. However, first-hand experience, although valuable, is not enough. We need to have access to knowledge and information about the problem itself, the techniques and skills required to deal with it, and where and how these can be acquired. In developing my understanding of the problem and methods of working, I have drawn upon my knowledge and experience of pain from both sides of the fence as patient and therapist and from my professional training and experience working with children and families.

My own pain problem, which is the result of a spinal disease, began in the mid-1970s and I became progressively incapacitated so that by the end of 1981 I was no longer able to work as a university teacher and as a result had to take premature retirement. My social life had become severely restricted and I changed from being an outgoing energetic sportsman and keen amateur stage performer to spending my days confined to the house, afraid to move even slightly for fear of injury. The pain made it difficult to get off to sleep at night and when eventually I did, it woke me again. It was a chore to get out of bed in the morning and I spent the day feeling only half awake. The pain was on my mind almost constantly.

My condition caused confusion to friends and family since there were no outward signs of illness apart from the fact that my face was gaunt and grey. But I could no longer sit for more than a few minutes at a time or hold a book comfortably; even when the book was supported, I was unable to concentrate for more than a few minutes. As an academic whose professional life was dependent on extensive reading this was devastating: comparable to a craftsman losing the use of his hand. I shuffled about like an out-of-condition octogenarian. I was 44 years old! As far as I was concerned I was locked in the prison of pain until the day I died or until someone came along with the key, in the form of a cure, to set me free. I was full of despair and afraid. Afraid particularly that I would become mentally unbalanced, frightened that I would never, ever be in a position to thoroughly enjoy myself again or to join in everyday activities such as going out for a meal, country walks, or sitting in the theatre. In short, the future looked bleak and this is the way things remained until...

In the spring of 1985 I was offered a place on the Pain Management Programme run by Walton Hospital in Liverpool under the directorship of Dr Christopher Wells. No 'quick fix' was promised. The only offer made to me on entering the programme was that at the end of four weeks' daily attendance I would be more mobile and better able to cope with my pain. Dr Wells was the first doctor to focus on my pain as the real problem. Hitherto the emphasis had been on investigation, possible treatment — and cure, a process which seemed to have gone on endlessly. As I had long since lost interest in the cause of the pain and was desperate for some relief, his words were music to my ears. Although modest objectives were claimed for the programme, I and many others found that surprising, unexpected and wonderful things can happen as a result of taking this step. The programme, which had been running for about a year, was staffed by a dedicated group of people, medical and non-medical, who firmly believed in its aims and accepted above all that PAIN... IS ... REAL. Although similar programmes exist in the United States, this was the first of its kind in Europe. In contrast to its American counterparts, like so many pioneer ventures in this country, it was given official approval and encouragement but relied for the most part on grants and fund-raising efforts and the unpaid services of many of the staff.

As a result of this programme I regained my zest for life and learned many skills fundamental to building up strength, resuming mobility and controlling my pain. My progress was helped by the fact that at the end of the four-week course I was invited to make a voluntary contribution to the programme as a therapist. Before I could undertake this I had to be sure that I was physically able to cope with driving once or twice a week from North Wales to Liverpool and at the end of the journey still have sufficient energy to work to good effect for two hours at a time with a group of 8—12 patients, and then drive home again! This tested out the effectiveness of the teaching of Dr Wells and his colleagues and although at first I needed several days to recover between each trip, I found in a matter of weeks that it was well within my capacity and I began to set new targets for myself. Ultimately, I set myself the target of writing a book which would help people in circumstances similar to my own and to demonstrate how available resources can be used much more effectively in the treatment of chronic pain.

It took me about seven years to build up sufficient stamina to enable me to carry out research, both in this country and in America, and to meld experience, practice and information into book form. It is now ten years since the first edition of this book. This third edition takes into account the changes in the way chronic pain is treated since then, but more importantly it shows how I continued to cope and lead an increasingly fulfilling life. Nothing is recommended which I have not tried myself. I still cope with pain every day and feel that I can offer a great deal to others who are just getting to grips with managing their pain or who have been locked into pain for many years without having had the opportunity to learn effective ways of coping.

Like the pain management programme, which I shall cover more fully in a later chapter, this book will help you, step by step, to draw on all available resources, external and internal, to regain control over your pain and your own life. You can do this provided you accept that your problem has taken time to develop, that it has been with you a long time, and that it will take time to sort out. So, what is my aim? In fact, I have several:

1. To help you understand your pain and make the best use of the professional help which is available;
2. To help you by physical and psychological means to find ways of controlling your body's alarm system which is causing you so much discomfort;
3. To help you increase your range of physical mobility and activity;
4. To help you understand the connection between your pain, your feelings, and your behaviour, and how they all interact, and to demonstrate how you can change them for the better and help you to enjoy a fuller life.

Ultimately, the test of the programme is that you will behave differently and feel better.

The basic premise on which this programme is built is that you have inside you the resources to promote your own healing and that you have the will to get better. You will not be able to achieve this single-handed. You need to be shown the way. You need to be shown the way to recognize and strengthen your own resources and progressively to learn new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. By following this step-by-step guide you will be able to look back and see that what was once thought to be insurmountable has been conquered and you are already well on your way to meeting a new challenge.

About the author
Neville Shone was at the height of his career as a university teacher and researcher, bringing up a young family, a keen sportsman and amateur entertainer, when a spinal tumour rendered him almost immobile and in constant pain. His career and social life ended abruptly, bringing him close to despair. This is reflected in the book Coping Successfully With Pain but the real story of his fight back and the techniques of pain management which enabled him to regain his mobility and his zest for life, and to escape from the prison of pain. Neville continues to help other people caught up in the pain trap through his involvement with pain charities. He has made many radio and television appearances on the subject of pain and has acted as advisor to a number of television programmes. Neville is also the author of Cancer - A Family Affair published by Sheldon Press, 1995.