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Written by Cindy Perlin
https://www.paintreatmentdirectory.com/posts
Alternative Chronic Pain Treatment Blog
My blog is about safe, effective treatment of chronic pain. It can be found on the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory website, which also lists alternative pain treatment providers and natural pain relief products. The blog currently has more than 220 articles, most written by me. It also has guest bloggers who are experts in specific therapies for chronic pain.
The blog is for pain patients who are looking for alternatives to drugs and surgery for relief of their pain. Too often, the treatments offered to pain patients by conventional medicine do more harm than good, provide inadequate pain relief, and/or keep patients stuck in their pain because the treatments manage symptoms but do not get to the root cause of the pain.
The blogs sometimes focus on innovative and little-known therapies for pain, such as neurofeedback, kratom or microcurrent therapy, or on the best treatments for specific conditions, such as back pain, fibromyalgia, neuropathy or migraine headaches.
Why I Write My Blog
Forty-four years ago, I hurt my back while running to try to get in better shape. I stopped running based on a doctor’s advice, but the pain got worse and worse until I was in so much pain 24/7 that I could not function. I had to drop out of graduate social work school and could barely function for the next 3 ½ years. I was unable to find a doctor who could tell me what was wrong or how to fix it. One doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, told me there was nothing he could do for me. He said that I could be like that for the rest of my life and needed to learn how to live with it. I considered suicide.
Luckily, I stumbled upon a solution. A friend suggested that I read a book about the mind/body connection. The book mentioned biofeedback, which uses sensitive electronic instruments to measure physiology and teaches the patient how to control bodily functions. Within a day my pain levels were reduced by about 50%. Fear was a big part of what was driving my pain and I now had a tool I could use to empower me to get better. I was able to eventually get back to work and finish my degree.
A few years later, I had foot surgery for a bone spur. After the surgery, the pain got worse and worse to the point that I could not walk or stand without being in agony. Again, doctors could not tell me what was wrong or how to fix it. Biofeedback and other mind/body interventions were useless for this pain. It took me 14 years before I eventually found a solution—a type of deep bodywork called Rolfing. Within two sessions, I felt like I had a new foot.
I felt passionately that it should not have taken me or anybody else so long to find a solution to pain problems. I left my social welfare administrative position with New York State and started a social work practice focused on helping people with chronic pain and illness. This was and still is very satisfying work, but I became very fired up about doing more to help pain patients when they began dying in great numbers from their treatment—opioid painkillers that led to addiction and overdose.
I decided to write a book, The Truth About Chronic Pain Treatments: The Best and Worst Strategies for Becoming Pain Free. Although my book got very good reviews it, very disappointingly, did not become a bestseller. I decided to start my Alternative Pain Treatment Directory website to reach more people and began writing my blog about four years ago.
The Benefits of Writing My Blog
I write a blog every week. In researching material for my blog, I have learned so much. I have had many more pain challenges over the years, but now the knowledge, skills and resources I have accumulated (including products and connections to providers) have allowed me to address any new pain issues quickly and effectively. It has also helped me to better help my clients who have chronic pain.
In addition, I have been able to educate many pain sufferers around the world on the options they have for pain relief. In my travels across social media, especially on Facebook and Reddit, I have found many pain patients who are suffering terribly because they have been told by their medical providers that their only options are drugs, surgeries and injections that don’t give them the relief they need. I can now refer them to a readily available resource where they can find the information necessary to reduce their suffering.
This has been a labor of love for me, with emphasis on both labor and love. It isn’t always easy to find the time to keep up with writing the blog and the other tasks needed to keep the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory going, but I do love being able to help fellow travelers in this way.
More from Cindy Perlin:
https://www.paintreatmentdirectory.com/posts
https://www.facebook.com/altternativepaintreatment
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-perlin-lcsw-4863b15
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