Alternative Medicine Pain Management Techniques For The Opioid Addict

Posted on: 3 August 2016

Share

When you have an opioid addiction that you have worked long and hard to overcome, the last thing you want to do is put yourself in a position in which you would trigger your opioid use again. However, if you have a chronic pain condition or you suffer an injury that causes you pain, you will need to come up with an alternative means to manage your pain. There are alternative medicine treatment options and techniques that can help you better handle your pain so that you can avoid relapse. Get to know a few of those treatment options and give them a try when you experience pain.

Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care is an alternative medicine treatment that can help you with pain management instead of turning to opioids. This type of treatment focuses on the skeletal system alignment, especially in the spine. When the vertebrae are not aligned properly, the bones can impinge, block, or damage the nerves that run along them.

When this occurs, the nerves cannot send the signals that connect the brain and the rest of the body. This can mean that pain receptors that would normally trigger healing and pain-relieving natural chemical releases by the body may not receive the needed response from the brain.

A chiropractor helps to relieve the pressure from then nerves in the spine by performing manual manipulations to move the vertebrae back into place. This can sometimes provide instant back pain relief and can reduce pain in other areas of the body as well.

Yoga

Yoga is commonly thought of as an exercise program rather than a way to manage pain. However, this is not entirely the case. Yoga combines physical poses and movements with mental focus and breathing techniques that can make it a meditative way to manage pain and keep the body healthy.

Yoga poses and sequences of flowing movements are designed to align the body and build strength and suppleness in the joints and muscles. This can help to relieve and reduce pain because a healthy body recovers from injuries and even chronic pain better than an unhealthy one. These physical activities are paired with controlled, focused breathing. Meditative thought is also a part of the yoga program, during the exercises and afterwards in the final savasana (relaxation or "corpse" pose).

The meditative breathing techniques and the mental focus that yoga cultivates can help you to breathe through your pain and meditate to help relieve it. You will also be more aware of your body and the effects that certain movements and body positions can have on your body. This too can help reduce your experience of pain.

Now that you know a few of the alternative medicine treatment options that can help relieve your pain so you do not relapse and begin using opiates again, you can be sure to give them a try the next time you are experiencing physical pain from a chronic condition or acute injury.