Chronic Pain Support Group
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‘Living With Chronic Pain’ by Neil Berry
Living with chronic pain is by no means an easy task but....
The following self help mp3 audio tracks have been kindly provided by Mr Neil Berry who is an NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Hampshire Community Health Care in Southampton / Hythe. He works full time with people who live with chronic pain and is a member of the British Pain Society.
I met Neil in 2006 and having listened to his CD many times,I can recommend it from experience!
Higher quality downloads and a CD are also available from Neil's website ( which is a not- for- profit website). at www.paincd.org.uk
Please turn on your loudspeakers.
Track 1: Living With Chronic Pain
This introduction track highlights the fact that chronic pain is very real whether the precise causes have been identified or not. It also explains the limitations of current treatments and emphasises the value of "helping yourself".
Track 2: Regaining control of your body
Whatever the causes of a person's chronic pain, it often leads to a reduction in fitness and flexibility and this can mean a reduced quality of life. Also, varying pain levels often lead to fluctuations in activity that, in turn, can wind up the pain. This track encourages you to gently work on reversing these trends.
Track 3: Sleep and diet
This track continues the focus on the physical effects of pain. There are no quick fixes for sleep problems just as there are no quick fixes for chronic pain. However, it may still be possible to improve sleep. As for diet, it's worth paying some attention to what you eat when your health and fitness is being challenged by pain... but there are no quick fixes.
Track 4: Medication: friend or foe?
Very few find that pain medications can turn off the pain but they can turn the volume down... for some. However, finding the right balance between benefits and side-effects can be a significant challenge.
Track 5: Setting goals
Keeping your life moving forward when you live with chronic pain can be a real challenge. This track encourages a gentle step-by-step approach.
Track 6: Managing negative emotions
Many or most people with chronic pain experience negative emotions: frustration and depression are probably the most common. This track outlines ways of dealing with these understandable but unwanted and unhelpful emotional reactions.
Track 7: Learning to relax your body
This, the first of four tracks on "relaxation" outlines why working on your ability to relax yourself may be a good idea.
Track 8: Relaxation in a nutshell
This track summarises the key ingredients that contribute to effective relaxation.
Track 9: Relaxation session: introduction
The aim of this track is to help you prepare yourself and your surroundings to make best use of the relaxation track that follows.
Track 10: Relaxation session
Here is a 20 minute relaxation session which uses a mixture of muscle relaxation and visualisation. It may help you to feel more relaxed and more comfortable. It may help you to get to sleep...