Pain Flair Tool Kit – How to Manage Your Most Painful Moments
When a person with chronic pain experiences a “pain flair” - a period where the pain is more severe than usual - the capacity to function is significantly decreased is and can feel very demoralizing. When you are so sick and unable to think clearly, it is easy to be ruminating in a downward spiral and become stuck in that hopeless state of mind, making your pain worse than it already is. It’s important to create a pain flair plan to remind yourself of what you can actually do to alleviate any amount of pain and help your emotional state. In the beginning of the year, I decided to go back to the Lifestyle Redesign Pain Management program at USC Occupational Therapy because my pain flairs were increasing. When I experience pain flairs, I could be in bed till 3 pm – 5 pm experiencing imbalance, migraines, difficulty breathing, and muscle spasms from my head all the way down to my foot w...