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Living with chronic pain can seem impossible. After all, who can stand a life full of constant agony? But if you’re living with chronic pain, you aren’t alone. It’s something that affects a huge number of Americans. The National Institute of Health estimates that 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. So finding an effective system of chronic pain management is an issue that a lot of people have on their minds.

The problem is that chronic pain is such a difficult thing to manage effectively. There are many different conditions and diseases that lead to chronic pain. And there are few methods that have been proven to effectively treat it. So that makes it difficult to find a way to manage it well. Luckily, there are a few things you can do. But first, let’s look at what chronic pain is, how it’s usually treated, and what you can do to manage it more effectively.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is a hard thing to define as a medical condition because it seems to be different for everyone who suffers from it. With that being said, doctors typically define chronic pain as any severe pain that lasts longer than 3 to 6 months.

But within that wider umbrella term of “chronic pain,” there are dozens or even hundreds of different conditions that range from rheumatoid arthritis to herniated spinal discs. And that means that there is no single answer of how to manage chronic pain effectively. Obviously, chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia needs to be treated differently than the chronic pain caused by an injury.

But, regardless of which type of chronic pain we’re talking about, many modern healthcare systems struggle when trying to treat it. And in fact, sometimes the best methods we have for treating chronic pain produce their own sets of problems.

How Is Chronic Pain Treated?

There are a few different ways that chronic pain is typically treated, but none of them are known to be especially effective. Things like antidepressants are usually prescribed for diseases like fibromyalgia but oftentimes patients report that they don’t do much to control the pain. Other conditions like RA are treated with anti-inflammatory drugs.

But often doctors prescribe opioid pain relievers for chronic pain, which produces a number of problems. For instance, in America, it’s estimated that 1,000 people a day are treated after overdosing on prescription opioids. And the number of people who die every year from those overdoses continues to grow. In addition, as many as 2,000,000 Americans may be dependent on painkillers.

Part of the reason that doctors continue to prescribe opioids so extensively is that there simply isn’t much of an alternative. There are no drugs that relieve chronic pain as effectively and reliably. And in addition, only a relatively small minority of patients ever develop an opioid dependency from the drugs they are prescribed.

So doctors are faced with a serious dilemma when it comes to chronic pain management. Do they prescribe opioids, which are often the only way to relieve their patients suffering, knowing that it may contribute to the opioid abuse epidemic? It’s a decision every pain management doctor has to make on their own.

And it’s one that patients need to grapple with too. When it comes to chronic pain, sufferers are left with the choice to take powerful and possibly addictive opioids or to turn to other methods of chronic pain management that may not be as effective.

Chronic Pain Management

While opioids are the most effective way to relieve chronic pain, they aren’t necessarily the best method for chronic pain management. When it comes to managing pain for a long period, there are a number of things you can do that can help with chronic pain without powerful painkillers.

For starters, there is meditation. You’re probably already thinking that the idea that just “meditating” can actually reduce the horrible pain you feel on a daily basis is ridiculous, right? But while it might sound crazy, it’s actually backed up by science. In a recent study, researchers found that subjects could reduce their pain by 57 percent just by practicing mindfulness techniques.

Meditation is known to reduce stress, and stress is a significant factor in chronic pain. So it may be that managing your stress can actually be a pretty good method of chronic pain management.

And in the same way, living a healthy lifestyle will help you manage your pain. Smoking and alcohol both contribute to pain and regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of pain you feel on a daily basis. Finally, maintaining a healthy diet is vital to keeping your body in the best shape you can and limiting your chronic pain.

Obviously, there isn’t much you can do to really “fix” your chronic pain, which means that for as long as your condition exists, your focus will have to be on chronic pain management. It’s a tough lot in life, which is why finding someone to talk to and a supportive network of friends is so important.

So tell us in the comments, what is living with chronic pain like for you? How do you manage it? Let us know.