Question
QUESTION: Dear friend
i am writing an essay for a scientific  competetion on "Importanace of Good pain Managment " I need some material for this specially the spirtuial and psycholgical benefit one get with good pain control . i shall be grateful if u can advice

ANSWER: Hi Dr. Rustam
I would love to help you with your essay, I just don't how much I can do that through this website. I could talk all day about the psychological effects of good pain management and the psychological effects of under treated pain. People in chronic pain can become severely depressed. That starts a vicious cycle, with the depression making the pain worse and the pain causing the person to fall even deeper into depression. Depression can cause a chronic pain patient to become even further disabled.
Another big problem with under treated pain is Pseudoaddiction. Pseudoaddiction is when you have a person who is genuinely in pain that is not adequately controlled so that person does things that are considered ' Drug seeking behaviors' by most medical personnel. Pseudoaddiction is very problematic for several reasons. Once a person has been labeled as a 'drug seeker' it makes it even harder for that person to get some relief from their pain. A lot of doctors either don't understand pseudoaddiction or doesn't believe it exists. These people are not seeking drugs to get high, they are seeking some relief from their pain. The way our medical system is set up, it makes it very hard, sometimes almost impossible, for people who are in real pain to get proper pain control. Most of the people who do have their pain adequately controlled now, first had to go through a lot of time, pain and frustration before they were able to get the help they needed from the beginning. I have talked to many people in chronic pain and read many message boards on chronic pain. Almost everyone in chronic pain has done something dishonest to get some relief from their pain at some point before they started getting adequate pain control. I know the medical community wants to prevent real drug addicts from getting drugs from doctors and hospitals but they way things are set up they mostly prevent people in real pain from getting help. It seems that drug addicts are the ones that DON'T have problems getting drugs from doctors, they know how to work the system. Most people in pain do not.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions or need additional information please don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks
Tracy



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for ur reply this has really helped me
can u pl comment furthur on spitual affects of good pain relief
thank you
dr Rustam  

Answer
Hello again Dr. Rustam,
I am not sure how much I can help you on the spiritual affects of good pain control. I have not talked to many people in chronic pain about the spiritual affects of pain control. I can only tell you of my own personal experience.
My parents were raised in different religions. My father was raised a Christian. My mother was a Lakota (Sioux) American Indian. My pain management does not interfere with my father's Christian beliefs but since my pain management involves medication it does interfere with my mother's faith. According to my mother's beliefs because I take pain medicine instead of enduring the pain that has been put upon me by the will of God that denies me God's guidance and grace. I do believe that it is God's will that I am in pain but I do not believe that only through total endurance can I learn the lessons that Gods wants me to learn. I believe that it is the struggle it's self that makes me stronger. The one spiritual belief that has helped me the most is the belief that God never puts more burden upon us than we are strong enough to endure. Whenever I feel as though I can't deal with what has been put on me, I look deep inside myself for that extra strength that I know has to be there because God would not have put more on me if that strength was not there. I always tell my kids that that which does not kill us makes us stronger.
I hope that this also helps you. If you have any questions or need additional information please don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks
Tracy