Rehab With Pain Management
Recovering from drug addiction can be made more difficult when patients experience chronic pain. Such discomfort may result in the patient backsliding back into addiction as a means of making the pain go away. However, using pain management medications places the patient at risk of developing a physical dependence for the medication even when guidelines for proper use are observed. Using pain management techniques that do not rely on medication helps alleviate chronic pain experienced during drug rehabilitation without creating the risk of replacing one addiction for another.
Types of Pain Management Techniques
Some examples of pain management techniques that do no rely on medications include:
- Meditation. Focused meditation helps boost a patient’s ability to manage pain and alleviate the intensity of the pain experienced.
- Acupuncture and massage therapy. The use of acupuncture lowers chronic pain by stimulating endorphin release, and massage therapy boosts a patient’s dopamine levels. These biochemicals help alleviate pain and have a positive overall effect on the patient’s mood.
- Exercise and aqua therapy. Physical exercise such as yoga or Pilates helps strengthen muscles and promotes general physical health. Exercise also helps relieve stress. Aqua therapy is particularly helpful to patients who are suffering from disorders that affect their neuromuscular or musculoskeletal systems. Doing the therapy in water helps lower inflammation in these areas that may be responsible for causing pain.
- Nutrition. Drug addiction may cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies that impair their body’s natural ability to heal from the ravaging effects of addiction. Eating nutritious food helps boost the immune system and the body’s natural ability to manage pain.
Keys to Successful Pain Management
Because each patient is unique, it is necessary to tailor pain management programs to each individual’s needs. Physical therapy may be necessary for some patients, but unnecessary for others. Some patients may require the use of pain management medications such as opiods or non-opiod analgesics, while others do not. Factors that should be considered before formulating a treatment plan involve the severity, frequency and duration of pain, outlining interventions needed to promote comfort as well as overall quality of life.
It is also necessary to consider other factors such as age and type of pain experienced. This is because managing pain experienced by children and teens may require a different approach compared to managing pain experienced by adults or the elderly. Determining whether pain is physical or psychological in addition to being acute or chronic is important in formulating a pain management plan that is effective. Drug addiction may often cause sleep disorders that impair a patient’s ability to stay healthy. Sleep deprivation may sometimes contribute to chronic pain experienced during recovery so restoring a patient’s normal sleeping patterns may help lower chronic pain experienced.
No pain management technique is perfect, and successful treatment is often determined by how closely the treatment plan addresses the individual needs of the patient. Adjusting pain management methods throughout the treatment is necessary in order to yield positive results.