New member tips for pain management generally needed

Hi @Kyla , I'm sorry this is becoming so hard for you. While I understand how people might want to resist prescription drugs, sometimes they're a necessary part of the formula to keeping any sort of quality of life going. You say you need to look after yourself better - pain management is part of that. Being in constant pain results in your body tensing up or getting into odd positions around the injured areas and just transfers or amplifies the discomfort. If it's affecting your sleep as well, that will also impact on your general physical and mental health.

You may find the tips in the links that Tom has provided helpful, I certainly did. But pain relief medications often become an essential part of that package. I'm often surprised how long people are prepared to struggle on with awful pain before finally caving in. The pain meds may not give total relief (sadly they rarely do) but it may be enough for you to improve your overall health, mobility and quality of life. It's up to you how many you take, but keeping a steady dosage is more effective than "as and when" pills. I used to fluctuate mine a bit for more physically demanding days, and allow some quality rest and recovery time after (days, rather than hours). Part of looking after yourself can also mean learning the word "no". I was slow to learn this, but eventually I found it to be essential to getting by on a day to day basis, learning what my body could cope with and allowing it to recover. it may help if you tell close friends and family what you're going through, so they can help, or make allowances if you're really not feeling up to a lively meet up.

I hope this helps a bit. Keep posting on here, we all know how rubbish this can get, and there's lots of friendly advice and experience on this forum.

Drugs!!

Lol.

seriously though, see your doctor, explain in detail. I always write down what I want to say (I actually type it into my phone notebook) before the appointment because I’m always aware of how short the appointment time is and always end up getting flustered and forgetting something I want to say.

when I saw the pain clinic years ago one of the questions was what makes your pain less, and I always answered ‘drugs and alcohol!’

I no longer drink because of my current pain meds but I honestly am in agony if I don’t take them and can hardly move. It’s a fact of life that I need something to lessen my pain in order to function.

if you cut yourself you’d stick a plaster on it if needed. Same with pain, you just have to take pills.

My elderly mum is very frustrating. She often is in obvious pain and can’t move but refuses and paracetamol saying oh No it’s not that bad I don’t want to resort to pills!

I’ve been on prescription pain killers for over ten years now.