Emotional support and coping skills are crucial to chronic pain management. Many patients with chronic pain are also depressed, some severely like Wood, because of years of suffering and loss. They may be unable to work, facing financial crises or have lost relationships, children, their house or car due to the pain. Antidepressant medication and counseling will help them cope with these changes. Men can't be fathers and women can't be moms if they are in pain.
Chronic pain affects the whole family.
Staff at the Pain Clinic address these social and emotional issues as an integral part of their treatment program. Pain is very problematic, it is a physiological signal they have to get used to. In a big way, I help them readjust to life with pain. The Grand Traverse Herald. All rights reserved.