Hope is healing
An important aspect of healing is regaining hope and optimism. When you are trapped without any hint of a solution, the darkness you feel is impossible to put it into words. It is inevitable that you will begin to despair and remain justifiably angry. In turn, you will have elevated levels of stress chemicals and inflammatory markers, which have devastating effects on your mental and physical health. Additionally, the neocortex of your brain (thinking region) doesn’t function well, and irrational behaviors are common.
This section allows you to share your story and give hope to those who have yet to begin the healing journey.
The need for hope
The losses and indignities of chronic pain are endless and include:
- Loss of financial independence
- No one believes you are suffering as much as you are. The more you try to explain it, the less sympathy you’ll receive.
- You are labeled by your medical providers and not given full attention.
- Your hopes are repeatedly dashed, being offered promises of relief, and nothing changes.
- Repeatedly being disappointed is a classic way to induce depression.1
- You are in pain, and the attendant anxiety is often worse than the physical pain.
- You are often on multiple medications with disruptive side effects.
- You are labeled as having “psychological issues.”
- Loss of intimacy with your partner.
- Family life becomes tedious and reactive. Joy has disappeared.
- It’s not much fun to be angry and upset all the time. You may even have forgotten what it is like to enjoy life.
The price of pain
Several research papers have documented that the impact of chronic pain on your quality of life is similar to having terminal cancer.2 Additionally, people die earlier,3 have higher incidence of heart disease, anxiety, hypertension, and diabetes.4 There is a higher incidence of autoimmune disorders5 and also a high rate of people becoming addicted to medications. It is truly a miserable existence.
But the worst aspect of it all is having no hope. For many patients, almost every doctor has told you that there is no cure and the best you can do is learn to live with your pain. An emerging diagnosis is “MUS” (Medically Unexplained Symptoms). They are wrong. Changes in your body’s physiology explain every mental and physical symptom in your body. A better and more accurate term is “MES” (Medically Explained Symptoms).
Dr. Viktor Frankl, who was an Austrian psychiatrist who was imprisoned and survived the German concentration camps, has a dramatic story about the power of hope. He lost almost all of his family. He describes unspeakable acts of horror in detail. But he says the worst part of the ordeal was not knowing if and when it would end. This is almost a parallel to the plight of someone trapped in pain.6
Abandoned
Many physicians are not comfortable treating chronic pain, and many clinics refuse to see patients suffering from chronic pain – especially if they are on opioids.7 They are taught that pain is to be managed and not solvable. However, current neuroscience research has revealed the nature of chronic pain and also the keys to treating it. This knowledge has not yet penetrated mainstream medical care, but significant changes are happening.
Hope and optimism have been documented to be important factors in healing.8 Different brain areas are stimulated, and the body’s chemical makeup is more favorable. Dr. Dantzer, in a 2018 review article, presented the data showing that hope and optimism directly lower inflammatory markers.9
I have personally witnessed hundreds of patients break free from the grip of chronic pain, and in my practice, I routinely treated the most difficult of situations. Chronic pain is a treatable and solvable diagnosis. Please share your success story and give hope to others. Hope is healing! Giving back has also been demonstrated to lower inflammation.10
References:
- Blum, Deborah. Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection. Perseus Publishing, New York, NY. 2002.
- Fredheim OM et al. Chronic non-malignant pain patients report as poor health-related quality of life as palliative cancer patients. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica (2008); 52:143 – 150.
- Smyth J, et al. Stress and disease: A structural and functional analysis. Social and Personality Psychology Compass (2013); 7:217-227. doi:10.1111/spc3.120.20.
- Cohen S, Janicki-Deverts D, & Miller GE. Psychological stress and disease. Journal of the American Medical Association (2007); 298:1685–1687.
- Song H, et al. Association of stress-related disorders with subsequent autoimmune disease. Journal of the American Medical Association (2018); 319: 2388 – 2400.
- Frankl, Viktor. Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, Boston, MA, 1959,1962, 1984, 1992, 2006.
- Lagisetty PA, et al. Access to primary care clinics for patients with chronic pain receiving opioids. JAMA (2019); 2. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.6928.
- Johnson, AC, et al. Stress-induced pain: A target for the development of novel therapeutics. J Pharmacol Exp Ther (2014); 351:327-355.
- Dantzer R, et al. Resilience and immunity. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (2018); 74:28-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2018.08.010
- Cole SW, et al. Social regulation of gene expression in human leukocytes. Genome Biology (2007); 8:R189. doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-9-r1891
Share your story of hope
Here are some of their stories.
The Pain of Social Isolation
Many people suffering from chronic pain are socially isolated. When you are trapped in pain you have a difficult time reaching out. Others do not necessarily want to interact with angry people. The problem becomes... Read More
Learning to Heal with Awareness – Gail’s Story
Gail is a woman who has been working with the DOC Journey concepts for almost a year. She had been suffering from multiple symptoms for over five years and they increased over the year prior... Read More
Depression Masking as Pain
Patient’s Letter Hi Dr Hanscom, I have been meaning to check in with you for a while now and let you know that the DOC program seems to have worked for me. My lower back... Read More
“Love Heals” – Moving into a New Life
I met Dana a few years ago after she had undergone two low back surgeries and was still experiencing a lot of pain. She engaged in the healing journey, and it was not an easy... Read More
Solving Tinnitus – The Ringing in My Ears
Ringing in your ears, regardless of its intensity, is annoying. Actually, it is more than annoying; it is relentless and wears you down. It is a relatively common problem(1), numerous resources have been directed towards... Read More
Spastic Bladder Resolved – Being with Anger
This is a letter I recently received from a young woman with interstitial cystitis or spastic bladder. It is a common condition that creates a lot of misery. I don’t have much experience treating patients... Read More
Optimizing (Avoiding) Spine Surgery
About three years ago, my staff noticed that our surgical patients who participated in The DOC Journey principles were doing much better. The outcomes were more consistent, and we were seeing fewer failures. The postoperative... Read More
How to Heal – A Patient’s Story
Essentially every person that has experienced deep healing has learned to process anger and nurture joy. It is much more than an intellectual exercise and deeper than “acceptance.” You don’t have to like the person... Read More
No More Back Pain – A Story of Healing
When I discuss the idea that you can reprogram or shift your brain circuits around away from pain, there is always a certain sense of disbelief. However, this story is a typical one with the... Read More
Positive Thinking vs. Real-time Reprogramming
You can heal by connecting to your own body’s capacity to heal. But that means connecting with every aspect of your being – including your “dark” side. It is the reason why The DOC Journey... Read More
Charley’s Story: Pain Free After 17 Doctors
This is a story of a middle-aged gentleman who became pain free using DOC Process principles. Although, he saw me primarily for back pain, it turned out that lack of sleep and anxiety were the... Read More
No More Being a Victim – Pay it Forward and Heal
Being a victim is universal because we are victims. Life is challenging for all living creatures, including humans. We are competing for resources and a lot of behaviours are less than pleasant. Humans have an... Read More
“My Way Out” (of “The Abyss”) – One Patient’s Story
This is one of many stories of hope that I hear frequently. Her story is a classic illustration of how the body can heal itself if we can get out of the way. There are... Read More
“Ritalins”
I want to introduce you to Rita who holds the record in my practice for the longest time being in pain and breaking free. She had been suffering for 55 years and was still able... Read More
“Physician, Heal Thyself” – and She Did
The solutions to breaking free from the grip of chronic pain have become increasingly clear. The answers are coming from several different sources that include the research on patterns of brain activity, the role of... Read More
Freed by Persistence and Play
I first met Mark at our 2017 three-day “Rewiring Your Brain” workshop at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. He had flown in from the Netherlands. His main problem was chronic low back pain that... Read More
28 Surgeries–”I elected to not be in pain”
For many years, I thought that for many patients there was a point of no return because the sheer magnitude of both physical and emotional trauma. I particularly felt this way with people who had... Read More
Never Too Late for Hope
This letter was sent to me by a woman that I have corresponded with a few times but I have never met or worked with. One of most powerful aspects of the DOC process is... Read More
What Makes Your Book Different?
This is a followup letter from a woman who emailed me about four years ago. I had never met her and she shared a remarkable story of recovery. Her story is one that has led... Read More
Moving Forward by Being with her Anxiety
Lisa is a 58 year old high-level professional who developed chronic neck pain about 5 years ago. It began around the time she was facing some major career challenges. The pain became severe enough that... Read More
Meditation versus Medicating for Life
This is a letter from someone who I have never met. I would encourage you to read it carefully for several reasons. The first being that this is a person who was been beaten up... Read More
“Un-screwed”–Yoga Healing Back Pain
This is a piece submitted by a reader, who has done well. It illustrates several aspects of the healing journey. The structure presented by the DOC process is a framework that organizes your thinking so... Read More
A Couple Re-united
During the last few years of practice, our team became extremely aware of the effect of chronic pain on the family and the family dynamics around pain. When a patient is in a survival mode,... Read More
Avoided a 12-hour Spine Fusion and is Free from Chronic Pain
Mark Owens’ Story This is a video that we shot of Mark Owens, who wrote the Forward of my book. I’d like to give you some additional background to his story, both from his and... Read More
How I Cured my Migraine Headaches
Migraine headaches are brutal and often incapacitating. They are also one of the symptoms of a chronically stressed nervous system. Adrenaline decreases the blood supply to the frontal lobe of the brain and when you... Read More
Chronic Neck Pain Gone – DOC Prevents Relapse
This story is from a woman, who I met at our first Omega workshop in 2013. I was holding the workshop with Dr. Fred Luskin, who is a Stanford psychologist and author of Forgive for Good and... Read More
Using New Tools to Reclaim My Life
Beginning in 2003, I suffered low back pain in the L4-5 region. I saw a chiropractor from time to time but in 2009 my treatments began to be on a regular basis and... Read More
A Little Merrier Christmas – Letting Go of Blame
People trigger each other and the closer the relationship, the stronger the reactions. When you become anxious or frustrated, you’re in a survival mode that’s impossible to control. It’s ironic that our most important relationships... Read More
Life Sentence
After my fourth L3-L4 surgery the neurosurgeon sat me down and said “…you are not going to get better but rather worse as you grow older. You have a life sentence of pain.” I’ve... Read More
Chronic Pain is Solvable -Take Back Your Life
It has been my observation that suffering from chronic pain affects almost every aspect of your life, especially trying to enjoy yourself. Every enjoyable experience is lessened in the context of pain. You may be... Read More
My Story of Hope
I had a rough start living in a chaotic household with an angry mother who suffered from chronic pain. I did not figure out for 50 years that the migraine headache I suffered at age... Read More
Healing With Support from her Community
Hi Dr. Hanscom, It’s Donna, a former patient. I just wanted to write and tell you some good news regarding my back situation. You were right about forgiveness as well as the emotional aspects of... Read More
Out of the Valley, with Dolls
When I first met Sarah, she was close to 75 and had been experiencing debilitating pain for decades. But, since her spine x-rays revealed only normal degeneration consistent with her age, I set her to... Read More
Out of the Abyss After 25 Years
I received this email from someone that I had never met. I’ve now gotten to know her and she is delightful. A physician had recommended my book and here is her story. A rough road... Read More
Remarkable Healing Stories – Dr. Bernie Siegel
I have had the distinct privilege of getting to know Dr. Bernie Siegel, who is a retired pediatric general surgeon and author of several books, including Love, Medicine and Miracles. He has looked extensively at... Read More
The Enlightenment Light and Judgment Mirror
I had a patient come into my office many years ago who represents one of the most remarkable turnarounds I have witnessed. She definitely holds the record of being in pain for the longest time... Read More
The Power of Love – Anthony
Anthony was a patient who I saw just a couple of times in his early 20’s. He was experiencing low back pain that was significantly impacting his quality of life. His MRI scan showed... Read More
The Gift of Pain – Thanksgiving 2013
Pain, The Gift That Nobody Wants is a book written by an orthopedic hand surgeon, Paul Brand. Through his work in India with lepers he discovered that the reason why they had such severe hand,... Read More
Never Give Up – Breaking Through After Six Years
Terry was a middle-aged mother of two children whom I met many years ago. For reasons that are unclear, her spine just tipped forward in her lumbar area. She came into my office severely bent... Read More
To Become Strong – “ILOHLA”
My creative artist friend, Ernesto, endured a rough couple of years and for a while he “disappeared”. The details are not important. What is important is that he is back and thriving. This piece is... Read More
My Migraines
Fourth of July fireworks I was 5 years old and lived in a small town in New Hampshire. Our house was right across the street from the town common. I was so excited in that... Read More
Can Your Body Language Change Chronic Pain?
Dr. Gordon Irving was in charge of Swedish Medical Center Chronic Pain Program for many years. His group has embraced the treatment principles of the Neurophysiologic Disorder (NPD. Although each of us have different tools... Read More
Leg Pain Gone with NPD Principles-Carol’s Story
Carol is one of my favorite patients and success stories. It is one that surprised both of us. Her turnaround occurred a while back but I wanted to make sure she was stable and ready... Read More
“Finding Health by Letting Go of Hate”
The common thread of those who successfully heal from chronic pain and other symptoms of Neurophysiologic Disorder (NPD) is letting go of anger through deep forgiveness. Anger and pain are inextricably linked. For many of... Read More
My Feet on Fire
I began my orthopedic surgery residency in 1981. I had an unusual path into this specialty in that I had completed two years of internal medicine residency in Spokane, WA prior to moving to Hawaii.... Read More
“I Am Not Letting Yesterday Ruin Today”
I had been working with Anne for a while and she had been experiencing chronic pain throughout her body for a many years. Her once productive life had fallen apart and she now depended on... Read More
Ron Salvages His Own Spine Surgery
A letter from a case manager Dear Dr. Hanscom: You may not receive these kinds of letters from nurse case managers very often. I thought I would advise you of the above captioned patient that... Read More
A New Life at 72
Crystal is a woman from the southern part of Washington. When I first met her, she was over 70 years-old and lived on her own. She had severe spinal stenosis in her lumbar vertebrae at... Read More
Motivated by “The Talent Code”
Dear Dr Hanscom, Having read (devoured actually) The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, I can now share with others the benefits I received through reading this book. The author demystified that very mysterious quality of... Read More
Bipolar Disorder Broken
Debbie was a 45 y/o woman who I had been working with for about four years. She was diagnosed with a severe bipolar disorder at age twelve. Unsuccessful Surgeries About 10 years ago, she had... Read More