Coping techniques for chronic back pain

• Try putting yourself in a relaxed, reclining position in a dark room. Either shut your eyes or focus on a point.

• Then begin to slow down your breathing. Breathe deeply, using your chest. If you find your mind wandering or you are distracted, then think of a word, such as the word "Relax", and think it in time with your breathing...the syllable "re" as you breathe in and "lax" as you breathe out.

• Continue with about 2 to 3 minutes of controlled breathing.

• Once you feel yourself slowing down, you can begin to use imagery techniques

Some specific imagery and chronic back pain control techniques that you might find helpful include:

Dissociation for chronic back pain — Try and mentally separate your painful body part from the rest of your body, or imagine your body and mind as separate, with the chronic back pain distant from your mind.

Sensory Splitting for chronic back pain — Divide the sensation into parts. For example, if the chronic back pain feels hot or tingling to you, focus on the heat or tingling and not on the hurting.

Altered Focus for chronic back pain — Focus your attention on non-painful parts of your body (hand, foot, etc.) and alter sensation in that part of the body. For example, imagine your hand warming instead of focusing on the back pain.

Anesthesia for areas of pain — Imagine an injection of numbing anesthetic (like Novocain) into the painful and surrounding areas of your back.

Analgesia for chronic back pain — Imagine yourself getting an injection of morphine into the painful area of your back. Or, imagine your brain producing massive amount of endorphin (the natural pain relieving substance of the body).

Transfer for chronic back pain — Produce altered sensations — heat, cold, anesthetic, etc. — in a non-painful hand, then place the hand on the painful area. Transfer this altered sensation into the area back pain.

Age Progression/Regression for chronic back pain — Use imagination to project yourself forward or backward in time to when you are pain-free or experiencing much less back pain. Then suggest you act "as if" this image were true.

Symbolic Imagery Imagery to reduce pain — Imagine a symbol which represents your chronic back pain (such as a loud, irritating noise or a painfully bright light bulb). Gradually reduce the irritating qualities of this symbol (e.g., dim the light or reduce the volume of the noise), thereby reducing the pain.

Positive Imagery for chronic back pain — Focus your attention on a pleasant place that you could imagine going (the beach, mountains, etc.) where you feel carefree, safe and relaxed.

Counting for back pain episodes — Silent counting is a good way to deal with back pain episodes. You might count breaths, holes in an acoustic ceiling, floor tiles or even mental images.

Pain Movement — Move chronic back pain from one area of your body to another, where the pain is easier to cope with. For example, move your chronic back pain slowly into your hand, or even out of your hand into the air.

Some of these techniques are probably best learned with the help of a professional, and it usually takes practice for these techniques to become effective in helping alleviate chronic neck pain and back pain. It is often advisable to work on pain coping strategies for about 30 minutes 3 times a week. In time you will find that the relaxation and chronic back pain control become stronger and last longer after you are done.

Sometimes, after you are good at using the techniques, you can produce chronic back pain relief and relaxation with just a few deep breaths. You can then start to use these techniques while you are engaged in any activity, working, talking, etc. With enough experience you will begin to feel a greater sense of control over the chronic back pain and its effects on your life.

By: Andrew R. Block, PhD
June 13, 2000