By Jamie DeNovo, guest blogger
Pain, Pain, Go Away. It Seems As Though You’re Here To Stay…
If you are alive in North America, chances are you or someone you love also copes with severe pain every day. Life doesn’t stop. Work, school, home and family responsibilities, social life and even recreation are essential to maintain any kind of quality of life.
Unsurprisingly then, in a world of fast fixes, never enough time and expensive alternative treatment, pain killer addiction has become epidemic in North America and is taking a growing toll on society in every aspect from family life to school and career to crime escalation. June 2015 Time magazine called it "the worst addiction crisis America has ever seen.” Drugs such as codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine and oxycodone top the list for addictive pain killers.
While working with foremost behavioral neuroscientist, Dr. Kolb to develop processes for building mental I.M.Possible Muscle, I became aware of how vulnerable the everyday person is to having a make a bad situation worse via prescription. Many doctors have become unintentional creators of addicts, themselves being unaware of the limitations and dangers of prescription pain killers because, as opined by CNN’s Bob Beckel, “..they simply don't have the education to know better.”
According to clinical researcher, psychotherapist Eric L.Garland, “Decades of neuropsycho pharmacological research on opioids, chronic pain and addiction point to the sobering notion that, for vulnerable individuals, long-term opioid pharmacotherapy may create as many problems as it solves…
Consequently, new interventions are needed to effectively address key cognitive–affective mediators of the risk chain from chronic pain to opioid misuse and addiction.”
Ways Pain Killers Can Wreak Havoc With Your Brain
Garland’s white paper goes on to demonstrate how long term opioid use wreaks havoc with brain functions, escalating with increased use. Research reveals that long term and overuse of pain pills can:
- Lead to misuse to self-medicate negative emotions
- Transition from appropriate opioid use to misuse and addiction
- Wreak havoc with normal brain functioning
- Create hypervigilance for and sustained attention to pain, increasing its aversive quality
- Undermine your system’s ability to enjoy natural rewards like food, sex or social connection.
- Catalyze sympathetic nervous system activation, arousing heightened stress responses and of course, muscle tension.
I.M.Possible Muscle Brain Training: MORE Skills for Less Drugs
The good news, and what most doctors won’t learn from pharmaceutical manufacturers, is that behavioral science researchers are coming up with alternative multimodal interventions for healthier, long term results. The foremost of these is a cognitive training program called MORE. Initial results suggest that MORE is a promising, non-opioid option for treating chronic pain and decreasing the risk of opioid misuse.
