How to DEAL With the PAIN that NEVER STOPS? | Narcotic Pain Medication Withdrawal & Recovery
Channel: Starts With Me
Date: 2023-07-06

(IMPROVED AUDIO) Explore the intersection of chronic pain, mindfulness, and self-discovery in this thought-provoking podcast. Don Hunter, a psychotherapist with 40 years of experience, shares his personal story, emphasizing the importance of acceptance, meditation, and breaking free from the cycle of suffering.

Purchase Don’s Book “Chronic Pain” My Journey Here - https://bit.ly/3r90nP0

00:00 Intro 
05:16 Risk taking behaviour for teens
09:33 High school
13:11 Helping people, Transition into working in mental health & Building a career
15:58 Moral reality & Being of service to others
22:12 How to process aggression and anger
26:57 Supporting Aggressive & Traumatized Teens in Psychosis
30:51 De-institutionalization 
32:31 Humility and Learning about the Field of Psychiatry
35:50 Chronic pain arrives...
38:46 Getting hooked into narcotics to treat the pain...which made things worse...
43:11 Detox/withdrawal from the narcotics and going to the medical withdrawal unit
59:20 The Paradox of being open and sharing
1:01:00 How to live with Chronic Pain?
1:06:29 How to use Mindfulness to treat chronic pain

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Questions - hello@startswithme.ca 

my name is Don Hunter I'm a psychotherapist registered social worker in private practice I spent 12 about 40 years working in the field of mental health at different Hospitals and Clinics and started my private practice in 1987 and been doing that part-time ever since I just retired from sick kids hospital in November so I increased my private practice to three days a week instead of two but it gives me four day weekends all the time which is Lovely and so the the whole issue that we're sort of focusing on today is the is the chronic pain which started in November 1981 and  basically  it's never gone away it sort of varies and and like  with the weather it varies and with Stress and Anxiety and stuff like that it  it can make it worse  so it's trying to manage it all these years and  it's been a bit of a trip which is the look right and so yeah the book that we are talking about is chronic pain my journey my determination to work provide for my family and become the best therapist I could could be has been my greatest Ally in this battle I battled the pain frustration worry fear sadness helplessness anger and hopelessness every day it begins with an awareness of pain leading to worry and fear of how bad it will get I use various techniques to eliminate or dull the pain but they don't provide significant relief I I guess I'll read one more sentence this triggers the frustration and anger which makes the pain worse leading to the helplessness and hopelessness so I guess I thought it was a good example of how you and you comment on this throughout the book but so I've volunteered I volunteer with dying with Dignity Canada um so I do  right now I'm doing a death dialogue Group which is  interesting and that's four sessions um and  using my time has been a big issue because if I don't have something and what he said to me was that he said you need to be accountable your motivation is being accountable for something I thought that was very insightful and and that really hit home with me that I need some I need to be accountable to somebody so I'll get up and do it  because if I if I'm not the tendency is for me just to give in forget it it's too hard kind of thing all right can you I guess talk a little bit about kind of your past or your history like how you got into the field there's lots of great stories in the book about you know fighting with friends or doing perhaps risky Behavior as a teen things like that or being sucked into that with your peers maybe a bit about your family you say however in spite of my mom's empathic abilities Communication in my family regarding emotionally sensitive topics was not one of our strengths dad had a rather short fuse and you sort of go on to explain those situations um yeah I often think you hear it so much but everyone says in my family they don't talk about things these things or in my culture we don't talk about these things, the nature of humans or maybe we're changing a little bit now but it does seem to be quite common and then maybe you can tell us a little bit about yeah your childhood and Adolescence and how you got into this type of work sure  there was there was something that was attractive about that risk-taking behavior that that pulled me in and I wonder sometimes if it was more just curiosity about you know what's this all about and how how much risk can you take  and not get into big trouble but we were all sort of in that era and um we used to we would take I lived in Scarborough grew up in Scarborough