Living Successfully with Chronic Pain

Living Successfully with Chronic Pain is a handbook of real-life solutions for those who live with chronic pain. Author Ruth Stella MacLean provides techniques and practices that lead to a fuller and more satisfying life, despite the presence of pain. Often times, the person affected feels defeated. Pain takes over his life and his disposition. This book presents practical ways to move past the pain and toward a more gratifying life. Chronic pain affects the body's systems as well as one's emotional wellbeing. Negative feelings such as disappointment, grief, and depression are discussed along with ways to resolve them and move on. Pain needs to be understood and accepted, rather than fought with. The pain need not be the identifying feature of one's life, nor should it diminish it. In fact, chronic pain can be the catalyst to enrich one's life in unexpected and very fulfilling ways. Accepting the changed circumstances is a difficult process for those with chronic pain, but this guide provides the necessary insight to successfully understand and nurture the possibilities that lie ahead. This guide has input from two perspectives since MacLean has an extensive nursing career, having worked with those living with chronic pain, and she has lived with chronic pain for more than twenty years. She conveys information through personal discoveries in her life as well as her experiences helping others. The end of each chapter gives the reader a chance to consider alternative coping options and issues surrounding his chronic pain situation. In addition to being of interest to those with chronic pain, this book is a useful guide for therapists, psychologists, and health professionals, especially those involved in holistic approaches to pain management. MacLean believes that Living Successfully with Chronic Pain will guide those with chronic pain to a rewarding and purposeful life beyond the pain they face daily.