Millions of people suffer from debilitating chronic
pain from arthritis, fibromyalgia, low back pain,
chronic headache syndromes, neuropathies, or other
painful conditions. People contending with chronic pain
often spend considerable time, energy, and money
searching for answers and visit multiple doctors, trying
anything to find relief. When the source of pain is
unclear or difficult to diagnose, their experiences are
additionally frustrating, exhausting, and depressing.
This book offers a hands-on approach to improving life
with chronic pain, whatever the underlying cause. As a
sociologist, psychotherapist, and someone with firsthand
experience with chronic pain, the author understands the
challenges that accompany pain and has devised realistic
strategies to fare better. Paintracking provides a
systematic method that empowers individuals to navigate
the otherwise overwhelming array of treatment options
and incorporate the effective ones into their lives for
continued, incremental progress. Its cornerstone is a
self-study tool that enables readers to improve. Readers
are instructed on how to track and interpret their
experience, whether using a pen and paper or the online
tool offered as a companion to the book. By cultivating
awareness of how their body responds in different
situations and to different therapies, readers will
become capable self-advocates, able to make informed
choices. Written in clear, understandable prose and
filled with sociological insights, therapeutic lessons,
practical tips, and empathy, this book offers realistic
hope to individuals who often feel hopeless in the face
of confusing, debilitating pain.
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