Dealing with pain, whether chronic or in the moment can be especially difficult if you want to get or stay sober. Pain can gnaw at you all the time. Having one drink, a pint or more a day to ease your pain is not going to help you. You may feel euphoria, excitement, confusion, or feel out of it like in a stupor. Alcohol may lessen the pain in the moment, but in the long run it puts you at risk for both physical and mental health problems.

Alcohol affects balance, speech, coordination, concentration, and sleep. It can cause nausea, vomiting and dehydration. It can increase your stress level and cause irritability. More severe problems can arise from alcohol such as clinical depression, high blood pressure and liver disease.

Your doctor may prescribe drugs to help with the pain. Drugs, however,must be monitored very carefully. That’s because they can lead to a roller coaster life of addiction, even when your pain diminishes. Just like alcohol, drugs can impair your health and cause: stroke, heart attack, liver and kidney problems, bone-marrow damage, vulnerability to infection, cancer and mental illness.

Since overusing alcohol and drugs can be dangerous to your health, what options exist to deal with pain? When you and your doctor have exhausted all forms of monitoring your pain, he or she can recommend a pain management clinic. These clinics can offer hope and options for pain management like meditation.

When you focus on pain you are trying to resist it. Resisting causes increased stress on your body, and the stress in turn can cause your muscles to tense. The result is more pain. One option that can help is reframing your level of pain into your level of comfort. That way your comfort is the focus, not the pain. What is your comfort level today?

Mindfulness meditation changes the way your brain perceives pain, which in turn can make it more bearable. Along similar lines to meditation is learning not to habitually panic when pain hits. Panicking can cause your body to go into fight or flight mode, and effect your body like stress. Mark D. Grant’s book, Change Your Mind, Change Your Pain is a good resource for pain management.

Now may be a very good time to stop drinking and to stay sober. Sobriety isn’t easy, but in recovery, your brain will be much clearer and more able to process and handle pain.

Evidence-based and built with passion. Our primary purpose at The Kimberly Center is to assist those who are suffering in finding recovery. Restoring a healthier, happier, more productive life, graduates of our program find themselves free from substance dependence and destructive behavior. Call us today for information: 855-4-KCENTER (855-452-3683)