If pain is having a significant impact on your life. Or you know someone who is experiencing it. Attending a pain clinic and establishing a pain management plan can be a real life-changing experience. Key aspects include: What is The Tame The Beast Pain Theory and how it can help. What is a Pain Management Plan? When and how is this put together?
In Part One we looked at:
The Tame The Beast pain theory.
How to know if my pain system is being protective:
How to re-train my pain system to be less protective and how to know if I’m safe to move?
You can read it here
In Part Two we:
Revisit the Tame The Beast Theory and look at the final two steps to a successful pain management plan:
Working with health professionals
The Road to recovery and
Getting Moving.
The Tame The Beast method of pain management looks at how pain scientists now view pain and use a variety of measures to treat it successfully. It highlights what protective and overprotective pain are and, critically notes the fact that if your body produces pain that is a good thing! Sound odd? It means that when you overdo something or something that triggers your pain, like an injury or illness your body will have you know straight away.
Building Your Pain Management Plan
A pain management plan exists for healthcare professionals who support people in managing Chronic Pain. Using a multidisciplinary concept. Drawing on each person's knowledge, and utilising various treatment methods. This may include medication, injections, infusions, complementary therapies, specialised interventions and strategies to provide a unique targeted approach. For this to occur we need to visit the final three stages of the Thame The Beast pain theory.
How do I know if my health professional understands modern pain science?
Ask them these questions (they should say yes to each one!):
Do you understand and believe in the bio-psychosocial model of pain?
Have you ever heard of explaining Pain?
Can you help me understand my pain system?
Can you teach me how to manage my recovery?
Can you give me skills to master my situation? (https://www.tamethebeast.org/understanding)
What Questions do those who are ready to take the journey to recovery ask?
Will, I re-injure myself?
Will I get Better?
Can I speed up my Recovery?
Is this learning all those new skills really helpful?
How Do I Help Others? (https://www.tamethebeast.org/understanding)
They state that;
‘Rest and avoiding activity and movement tend to make an overprotective pain system even more protective. The chance of ongoing pain is higher if you stop moving, your system adapts to being stationary. Exercise and movement are the best way to reduce your pain. As you load your tissues you will become stronger, and your stronger body will be more resilient to injury. Exercise and movement turn down your protection setting’.
From this they have discovered that there are two key reasons why people don’t get better;
Avoidance Pathway - simply not doing anything because of the pain
Boom-Bust Cycle - doing everything regardless of pain levels and giving up because the pain becomes unbearable.
Then it’s Tame The Beast - calm, thoughtful, persistent, gradual and measured, through careful thought, understanding and good management. This is a very daunting scenario and this is recognised. They promote the fact that it takes a lot of courage, persistence, guidance and patience to get better or at least improve. But being focused, setting goals, and trying to be optimistic about the future should all help. Having a clinical pain team and access to their pain management programmes and networks will also be of great advantage. The longer your pain has existed will also make it more complex.
Sadly there are no quick fixes. The pain system needs to be reset, this could take years. Simple things like eating plenty of fruit and vegetables and getting enough rest, learning new things and continuing to understand your pain are all anti-inflammatory. If sleep is a problem then a separate Sleep Management Plan may be needed as an early intervention. Reducing stressful situations and managing anxiety can also help. Surprisingly though many medications can slow down our recovery.
Something to Try - Movement
As we have touched on in both the ‘moving more question’ and ‘Journey to Recovery’ movement is one key factor. NHS England advocates these gentle Sitting Exercises as a simple way to start to move. All done as the title suggests by sitting down and are good starting from ‘nothing level’. The aim is to complete these twice a week, gradually increasing the number of repetitions. There are also three other exercise activities for Flexibility, Strength and Balance. As a group, these are all-around programmes to help prevent falls and improve mobility.
Pilates For Chronic Back Pain is a 30-minute class that focuses on improving the strength and flexibility of muscles that support the back. Completed regularly, Pilates is known to help with posture, balance, joint mobility and relieving stress. However, If you have back pain, are recovering from an injury, or have a health condition, speak to a Medical Professional before trying these classes. Chair-Based Pilates offers an alternative for those who prefer to or find it easier to start by sitting rather than lying on the floor.
An Alternative Approach
If Tame The Beast isn’t for you, then you could try The Pain Toolkit, highly recognised by the NHS. Pete Moore himself has persistent pain, asthma, and osteoarthritis, and has put these tools together with the help of friends, family and health care professionals. Moore gives acknowledgement to the Bradford Pain Rehabilitation Programme team and NHS Kirklees. www.paintoolkit.org
Summary
Whilst we may need to tackle many parts and components here, this is a long-term programme for most people with chronic pain, due to the complexity and prevalence of multiple medical conditions, healthcare professionals and treatment options available. There may be several things to try, BUT changing too much in one go will not give us the results we require. It’s important at all stages to allow the body to adapt to a change before assessing its effect, significance, impact or lack of impact before moving on to the next step.
*Please remember that these blogs are very real to us. We are on the same journey. It’s tough, slow and frustrating. Most of the Scenarios we face ourselves. Sometimes we find what we print useful, but at other times we don’t. However, we include it because everyone's journey is different. We have passionate perseverance to help others as much as possible. To dispose of all content would be a waste and a disservice to our readers.
The All Important Links
Tame The Beast
Tame The Beast - Understanding Pain
Live Well With Pain
Live Well With Pain - Sleep Leaflet PDF
Pain Tool Kit - Home Page
Pain Tool Kit - Patient Resources
NHS - Every Mind Matters - Sleep
NHS - Every Mind Matters - Challenges - Health Issues
NHS - Sitting Exercises
NHS - Flexibility Exercises
NHS - Strength Exercises
NHS - Balance Exercises
NHS - Chair-Based Pilates Exercises
NHS - Pilates Exercises For Chronic Back Pain
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