The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life (APA Lifetools) The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life (APA Lifetools) by Dennis C. Turk

Product Description
If you suffer from chronic pain, this proven 10-step program brings hope and relief, showing you how gradual changes in specific behaviors can lead to great improvements in your ability to cope. Psychologists Turk and Winters' recommendations are based on solid research that shows what works and on their success with thousands of patients. Unlike the authors of other pain books, they promise no miracle cures, but they do help you learn "not to let your body push you around" so life becomes enjoyable again. The key lessons in this book include Uncovering some of the myths about pain and the deceptive ways it fools your body into unconstructive behavior; Pacing your activity, so you build strength without overdoing or under-doing it; Learning how to induce deep relaxation so you can begin to enjoy life again; Dealing with disturbed sleep and chronic fatigue; Improving your relations with family and friends, and soliciting support; Changing your habitual behaviors in ways that reduce pain; Combating the negative thinking that often accompanies pain; Regaining your self-confidence and trust in yourself; The power of goal-setting and humor; Dealing with the inevitable relapses and setbacks once improvement has set in; Workbook exercises, behavior logs, and suggested readings help you integrate these lessons into your daily life and learn to live well despite pain.

Product Details
· Amazon Sales Rank: #31974 in Books
· Published on: 2005-09
· Number of items: 1
· Binding: Paperback
· 203 pages

Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
"Turk's and Winter's vast clinical experience and command of the subject shine through on every page. Highly recommended." —Robert T. Cochran Jr., MD, Author of Understanding Chronic Pain: A Doctor Talks to His Patients
"The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life is the best book I've read on the emotional fallout from chronic pain. In this warm, inspiring, and highly readable work, Turk and Winter have written the ultimate guide for taking your life back from the ravages of pain. I can't imagine trying to live in pain without the wisdom contained in this book." —James N. Dillard, MD, Author of The Chronic Pain Solution and the PBS special Chronic Pain Relief, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY
"A must-read book! The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life will empower all people who must live with chronic pain by providing a commonsense approach to managing their pain and their life. The book is filled with easy-to-follow tools that motivate a person with pain to achieve a fuller life. should be read and reread by people with chronic pain as well as those who care about them." —Penney Cowan, Founder, Executive Director, American Chronic Pain Association, Rocklin, CA
"The experience of chronic pain can adversely affect an individual's level of confidence and ability to feel in control of his or her life, yet this book provides readers with a definitive course of action, which will enable them to adapt to the situation and reclaim a life worth living." —Lynne Matallana, President, Editor-In-Chief, National Fibromyalgia Association
"Drs. Turk and Winter have combined their years of expertise to help any person change from feelings of helplessness to a sense of control over their pain. The information is presented in an easy-to-understand manner that employs time-tested interventions for pain management. The useful charts monitor progress, and relevant examples illustrate each point. The title says it all!" —Robert N. Jamison, PhD, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
About the Author
Dr. Dennis C. Turk has been involved in the assessment and treatment of people with various chronic pain conditions for over 25 years. He is the John and Emma Bonica Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Research and director of the Fibromyalgia Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Turk has published more than 380 articles and chapters in scholarly journals and books. In addition, he has written or edited 12 volumes on different aspects of pain and chronic illness including Health, Illness and Families; Handbook of Pain Assessment; and Bonica's Management of Pain. He is an advisor to the National Fibromyalgia Association and the American Chronic Pain Association, both groups of people with chronic pain and their families. Dr. Turk is currently the president of the American Pain Society and editor-in-chief of The Clinical Journal of Pain.
Dr. Frits Winter is head of his own pain clinic near Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Dr Winter was president of the Dutch chapter of the International Association for the Study of Pain (1994-2002). He has been involved in pain management throughout his long academic career and is the author of several self-help books, including his best-selling book De Pijn de Baas (How to Beat Pain, 7th Edition). This book has become a standard resource in Dutch pain management programs. Dr. Winter is a teacher of postgraduate courses at the University of Groningen in Tilburg, the Netherlands, and has taught postgraduate courses at the University of Djakarta and Soerabaja in Indonesia.

Customer Reviews
Very workable program
I have chronic pain syndrome as a result of a couple of spinal cord injuries. Sometimes it is more than a bit overwhelming. The hard part is the way the pain is always there. Sometimes it's worse; sometimes it's tolerable. But, it never stops. What I have found over the years is that if you suffer from chronic pain doctors are a sorry lot for the most part. If you have a good one, you are truly blessed. The ones I encountered seem they either don't understand your suffering, don't believe the degree of your suffering, or just don't care. None seem adept at offering any coping advice beyond a shrug and anti-depressants. Almost all practice with a greater concern that the DEA is looking over their shoulder at the pain medicine they prescribe than helping you as their patient. Even pain specialists I have seen seem to be more hi tech gadget sales people than care givers. Or they are the worst of the skeptics in believing the patient. It's hard to find anybody who cares or understands what you're going through. Except you. That's what's so empowering about this book. It makes no excuses and pulls no punches about the medical profession, friends, family, and the sorry way they almost all treat pain sufferers. The emphasis here is that YOU have to seize the initiative and guide yourself down the path of getting some sembelence of a life back. What's contained here is a simple method to find the parameters you can function in as you explore what you can and can't do. There are easy to follow tips and guides that help you document your condition as you follow the program. Not only is this useful for you as a timeline to measure progress, but it provides a solid database to present to your physcian which may help him/her understand what you are going through. But, just like following a diet plan or an exercise regimen, it's up to you to follow it through. The approach isn't pie in the sky and there are no claims that you'll find some miracle cure or fix. It's an instruction manual on how to seize back as much of your life as you can from the pain that holds you down. My next visit to my Neurologist will have me showing him this book and trying to resist the urge to slap him upside the head with it. Just the first 1/4 of it has done more for me than seeing him over the past 3 years has done. Mostly, this program has given me hope. That's something he never even thought to offer.
Good basic book!
This is a really good basic book for managing pain, it helps teach you to pace yourself, accept your condition, think differently and figure out how to do things for yourself. It is like a basic workbook. It doesn't judge you and talks about the levels of acceptance.

I personally enjoy reading books that give me meaning for my experience. I have found that Kitchen Table Wisdom is a really meaningful book for me.
Highly Recommended
I am a clinical psychologist working in a multidisciplinary pain treatment clinic. In my view, this book wins best of breed for a pain coping resources self-help book. I would put it in the running for best of show in self-help generally. Dennis Turk, PhD. is a leading expert in the subject of chronic pain in general and what works in pain coping resources in particular.
Like other good pain coping self-help books (e.g., "Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You" by Margaret Caudill, MD, PhD), it does an effective job of covering the range of what has been learned on helping chronic pain patients help themselves. Important areas of pain coping resources are effectively addressed (e.g., effectively adopting the role of your own pain expert; the extremely important, but frequently overlooked, issue of pacing; learning to effectively moderate sympathetic arousal; reducing fatigue; how interpersonal factors effect pain and visa-versa; managing fatigue; changing thoughts and behaviors; maintaining gains).
Unlike other books on these subjects, this book not only provides understanding and information. It is structured as an effective self-help tool. Although I do encourage my patients to use this book as part of their treatment with me, I strongly disagree with the reviewer above who suggested that the book is not effective to use "by yourself" and should include a "user manual." I have found the truth to be quite the contrary. The user manual is right there. The book is structured into ten lessons that conclude with well-conceived exercises to effectively encourage adoption of proven resources. Many of my patients pick up the book and effectively apply it with little or no assistance from me.
For others, I often make use of the book a focus of therapy. I hasten to add that for many with chronic pain the first issue is determining if the cost of addressing/managing pain appears worth the benefit. For many gaining the motivation to help self is the biggest challenge.
If you are looking for self-help help with chronic pain, I highly recommend this book. I also recommend "Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You." In addition, I recommend this book to healthcare professionals who regularly, or occasionally, treat individuals with chronic pain, as an effective summary of current clinical wisdom on these subjects.