it really works
I have been working through this book with a counselor who deals primarily with chronic pain patients. It is already starting to change my life, even though I am only on the third technique. After > 2 years trying to learn to live with chronic pain, I am finding techniques that are making a difference!

An essential book to help you survive
When chronic pain became my life I thought it was over. Sometimes things were so black I had no idea how I would go forth. It seems like the pain destroys everything and while it's unlikely you'll have what you once did these tips over you a chance at a life worth living. This book doesn't offer false hope or miracle cures or expensive things that you can't afford anyway. It offers tips, advice, and most of hope on regaining your life.

Don't waste your money...
This book (and another) were recommended to me by a doctor in a pain clinic. The only way that this book would ever be helpful is if someone is new to chronic pain. Being that I'd been dealing with my chronic, intractable pain for 6 years prior to reading the book, most of the information contained in the book were dealing with issues I've long come to terms with. It also very much implies that taking narcotics in any way for a long term is not the solution for chronic pain, when that couldn't be further from the truth for very many people. I was offended by the overall tone in the book that seemed to come off that all persons taking narcotics for pain were addicts, in many instances.
This book was not helpful to me. It may be helpful to you if you don't yet know how to cope with life-long severe pain. However, if I were you, I'd first research intractable pain - there are much better resources out there than this book, and most of them are free on the web.

Here's to a managable day!
Sincerely,
Chandra Welter

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.