Pain Management

Chronic pain affects more than 50 million Americans. It can look different for everyone, “Arthritis and Fibromyalgia, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Traumatic Injury,” said Sharon Krispinsky. The symptoms can detract from someone’s quality of life. “Those are such things as fatigue, poor sleep, restricted movement, tense muscles, shallow breathing, and things like stress, anxiety, and depression.”

Krispinsky coordinates Lee Health’s Chronic Pain workshop. The free class meets once a week for 6 weeks and teaches a variety of tools to help people deal with chronic pain. “Medication is one tool, but there are others such as healthy eating, the importance of physical activity, mindfulness, pacing, and planning effective breathing techniques.”

Having a positive mindset is also huge. Krispinsky said those dealing with chronic pain have a choice to be an active or passive manager of their condition. “Active manager means that you’re engaged, you’re seeking out information, you’re still doing your activities of daily living, where a passive manager, and we all know them, are individuals who tend to isolate, they don’t seek out information and they’re not engaged in their activities of daily living.”

Krispinsky said more than 60% of participants’ report decreased pain afterwards. You can sign up for the free workshop by searching for chronic pain on leehealth.org.