Treatments

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED non-invasive and effective treatments for chronic pain

Let me start by presenting what I have discovered to be the most important take aways about treating chronic pain (based on my own personal pain experience and the research I've done while navigating these muddy waters). That is, the table below presents non-invasive approaches that incorporate the mind and body into the treatment, allowing an individual to truly heal at all levels.

Below the table, I then discuss more about commonly prescribed "traditional" treatments, including which ones I have tried and what I've leaned that brought me to create the summary table below.

The table is based on my fifteen years of personal experience and research. It's not necessarily a comprehensive list, but it's a start.
At the core of healing is the mindbody connection. Approaches like those listed below help your body tap into its natural ability to heal. But it still can take hard work.
There's NO QUICK FIX for many of us (although some people are lucky enough to eliminate their pain very quickly once they understand and accept the concept of the mindbody connection).
The healing approaches listed in the table are non-invasive and therefore have essentially no side effects as compared to "traditional" treatments such as surgery, injections, and drugs. Plus, "traditional" treatments have not been proven to be effective for chronic musculoskeletal pain (or for many other forms of chronic pain of "unknown origin" or believed to be due to structural anomalies such as herniated discs).
While I may not have a comprehensive double-blind study to prove it, I know from personal experience, and from meeting, talking to, or reading about too many people to count who have been led astray by the traditional medical model, that these non-invasive approaches are safer and more effective than invasive strategies. This doesn't mean that we don't sometimes need painkillers or shots to ease intense pain. But those are only bandages until we start to unravel the underlying causes of dysfunction in our muscles and fascia, which is ultimately driven by our brains.

Treatments: My Personal Experience

MY EXPERIENCE WITH VARIOUS TREATMENTS:

After more than two years of trying various treatments while still suffering in great pain, I finally found some lasting relief. It did not, however, come in the form of one simple pill. After the first nine months, I gained some modest relief from trigger point (TrP) injections. But the pain continued for another year and a half before I finally found the three key missing pieces that have helped me the most so far:

Knowledge that my body has the ability to heal itself (which I discovered through much reading and some amazing physical therapists)
Acceptance and understanding that my body is not independent of my mind and that the two must work together to create a healthy individual
Realization that facing emotions and past traumas can significantly reduce pain.

Ultimately, a combination of several treatments has helped me in my quest to live without debilitating or limiting pain. In the list provided on this page, I include various modalities that I have come across in my ten-plus years of healing my trauma- and emotion-fed chronic physical pain.
Click on each link for a brief description of what I've tried and which modalities have or haven't worked for me.

As a spoiler, receiving myofascial release therapy developed by John F. Barnes (JFB-MFR) and reading about the mind-body connection (via Dr. John E. Sarno and other authors) have had the greatest positive impact on my healing.

I haven't tried some of the treatments listed mostly because of cost. But it is also because I've gained considerable improvement through mind-body—based JFB-MFR therapy and because I understand that I have to address my traumas and emotions before I can continue to heal.

In sum, I have found that paying attention to the needs of my mind and body can lead to relief from pain. This approach has worked not only for me but also for many others. (See books by Sarno, Ozanich, Barnes, Tavolacci, Velicki, and Brady listed in the mind-body and the personal stories sections within the Resources page).

A note on the placebo effect: The effectiveness of the treatments that reduce or eliminate pain may indeed be the placebo effect in play. In my opinion, this inherently effective phenomenon is in many cases a good thing, especially if the treatment is non-invasive and inexpensive.

The book Mind Over Medicine by Dr. Lissa Rankin is a useful resource that looks at the placebo effect in greater detail.

bottom-line summaries of TREATMENTS I'VE TRIED OR CONSIDERED TRYING:

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My Personal Ratings Key:

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(+++) Most effective

(++) Effective

(+) Somewhat effective

(-) Not effective or hardly effective

(--) Not effective or partial negative impact

(---) Not effective and negative impact

(+/-) Unsure or some positive and some negative impact

(?) Don't know because I haven't tried at all or enough

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Click on links below for more details on my personal experience with each approach.

Surgery

Surgery (--)

Surgery fixed the neurological deficit from my ruptured disc, but likely triggered my myofascial pain

Soft Collar

Soft collar (+)

Only helpful immediately after surgery

oral medications

Painkillers (-)

Hardly worked

Oral steroid dose pack (+)

Temporarily relieved some of the excruciating nerve pain from my ruptured disc

Other oral meds & supplements (--)

Medicines (including CBD oil and CBD/THC tincture) didn't help and/or had unacceptable side effects; vitamins haven't reduced my pain

Injections

TrP (trigger point) injections (+)

Initially helpful but eventually became less effective and had unacceptable side effects

Dry needling (?)

Haven't tried but might be somewhat similar to TrP injections but without side effects

Facet joint injection (---)

Made my pain temporarily worse

Other injections (prolotherapy) (?)

Haven't tried, but don't expect to

physical therapies

Traditional Physical Therapy (PT) (--)

Strengthening didn't help, sometimes made me worse; TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) had nominal positive effect

Traditional MFR (myofascial release) PT (+)

Didn't provide lasting reduction in my pain

Other manual therapies (IMT, OMT, Rolfing) (?/+)

Haven't tried, except for OMT, which has had some positive effect

Patches/heating pads (++)

Help to temporarily moderate symptoms, but don't permanently or completely eliminate my pain

Acupuncture (--)

Tried briefly; it aggravated my pain

Chiropractic (?)

Haven't tried, but it scares me

mindbody approaches

Reading about mindbody (+++)

Very helpful

JFB (John F. Barnes)-MFR PT (+++)

Very effective

Somatic experiencing (SE™) (++/?)

Reduced spikes in my physical pain

Other mind-body treatments (++/?)Likely very effective if one is ready to treat mind and body

exercise

Movement practices (+)

Haven't tried extensively, but potentially helpful

Bicycling (+)

Somewhat helpful; psychologically positive

Dance classes (+/-)

Temporarily aggravated my pain to a small degree, but psychologically positive

Yoga (+/-)

Flared up my symptoms when I was still in a lot of pain, but I don't necessarily discredit it; a recent trial went well

Pilates (--)

Greatly flared up my symptoms when I was still in a lot of pain; haven't tried it again yet

Walking/jogging (+)

Likely helpful; jogging tolerable and helpful only after I embraced the mind-body connection and had already healed significantly; walking more tolerable

Swimming (+/-)

Sometimes slightly flares up my symptoms; good for general health

Kickboxing (+/-)

Flared up my symptoms, but cathartic

Tai chi/Qigong (+/?)

Don't know for sure yet since I recently started, but I'm able to do them and I enjoy these practices