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PREFACE

In 2009 we published Pain Recovery: How to Find Balance and Reduce Suffering from Chronic Pain, a guide written for people suffering from chronic pain who are also experiencing problematic use of pain medications. Why, then, a guide for those who live with and care about someone with chronic pain? Chronic pain is a family disease. It is impossible to isolate the person with chronic pain from the rest of the family. When a loved one is suffering from chronic pain, his or her pain becomes your pain. This does not mean you get back pain because that person has back pain; rather, it means that your overall balance in life is greatly affected and this manifests in emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical suffering. Chronic pain can be just as mystifying and damaging to family members as it is to the person in pain.

Pain Recovery assists chronic pain sufferers in finding balance in their lives, despite their experience of pain. Family participation, education, and recovery are vital to the successful outcome of long-term recovery and change for the chronic pain sufferer. Your participation is also vital to understanding chronic pain, how it has affected you, and what your long-term solution is. This book was designed to offer a parallel process of recovery for family members—to guide you on how to be okay emotionally, spiritually, physically, and mentally while in a caring relationship with someone who has chronic pain.

We stress the importance of family members practicing good self-care, no matter where your loved one with chronic pain is with his or her treatment and recovery, if the family is to stay balanced and endure the life changes brought about by the chronic pain. We hope this book will give you the tools and guidance you need to achieve this.

Mel Pohl, MD, FASAM • Frank J. Szabo, Jr., LADC Daniel Shiode, Ph.D. • Robert Hunter, Ph.D.