7. Walking If you are capable of walking and if you enjoy it then walking briskly for at least 20 minutes (35 minutes is better) can also have pain-killing effects on body. If you don’t walk and it is something that is possible for you, then you might consider working on building this habit into your daily routine.

8. Sleep or meditate This technique is probably most useful with milder forms of pain, although with some practice it can become beneficial to more severe pain. Sometimes pain may be too great for this technique to work, because you may not be able to achieve a sleep or relaxed state, but even a semi-sleep or semi-meditative state can be useful too. Lie down, close your eyes and do deep breathing exercise to every part of your body beginning with your head and work down to your toes. Then either try to go to sleep or just meditate. When we sleep body repairs and heals itself. A short period of sleep can often give miraculous amounts of pain relief. If sleep is not possible then just continue deep breathing and think relaxing thoughts. Don’t allow yourself to think about what needs to be done, your problems, or anything else. Focus completely on your breathing. Repeating some form of mantra may be helpful to keep mind focused.

9. Nurture Your Soul Feeding your soul has a positive effect on your overall well-being. If your overall well-being is feeling better, then impact of pain will not be as powerful and disruptive. It will make you feel more at peace with yourself and world. Do daily activities that are food for your soul, such as getting in touch with nature, writing, reading, singing, a hot bath, special time with loved ones or whatever it is that is nourishing for you. The things that make you feel whole, alive and one with universe (or God) is your soul food.

10. Express Your Pain Verbally Most of us know that it is beneficial to express our emotional feelings and detrimental to our well being to let them build up. This can also apply to our physical pain. Physical pain and emotional pain are intertwined on a deep level. If we are enduring physical pain you can bet that there is some emotional pain brewing in back ground and vice-versa. Therefore, expressing your physical pain verbally can provide us with some relief. So let it out. Tell someone understanding and compassionate how awful it is and what it feels like. Vent, vent, vent. If you don’t want to verbalize out loud, then try writing it down on paper without censoring yourself.

Sometimes you may need to do all suggestions above to get relief or you may only need to do one or two. It varies from time to time. The degree of relief that I can achieve with these techniques varies from time to time, but majority of time I can get enough relief to function. At times I can do all of above suggestions and I can completely turn around my pain including a migraine. At other times, I will only cut my pain in half or almost eliminate it and then at other times relief may be minimal. It depends on factors such as what was trigger, how long did I wait before doing technique, what cycle of month am I in and how intense trigger was.

In 1991 more than 60% of individuals admitted to traditional treatment programs had been in treatment before and more than half of those repeating were being admitted for third time. About half of these were drinking again within one year. (Grinspoon 1996) Unfortunately this is a common scenario in treatment in general. Relapse is expected, common and usually norm. Most people are not successful in long -term recovery. In a four year study of 922 men only 28% refrained from drinking for six months after treatment. After one year 21% remained abstinent and after four years 7% remained abstinent. (Rand Repot 1990) It is only a small subgroup of people who are helped by 12 step programs and traditional treatment. Obviously traditional treatment is missing a very large piece of puzzle. Traditional treatment could be more successful if it implemented a holistic approach to addiction and address issues such as hypoglycemia, food allergy and nutritional deficiencies.

I know from personal experience that this is true. As a chronic alcoholic I entered traditional treatment and although some of it was extremely helpful, it could not help with intense depression, anxiety, confusion, irritability and nervousness that I continued to have that was putting me at high risk of relapsing. After a year of pure misery and “white knuckling” it, which had left me hanging by a very fine thread, I discovered a book that changed my life. After finding a doctor who was knowledgeable in this area, I learned that I had numerous food allergies, chemical allergies, hypoglycemia and vitamin and mineral deficiencies. It was when I addressed these issues that my life really changed. I discovered that my eliminating sugar and wheat from that I could eliminate my disabling anxiety and depression. By treating all my allergies and addressing my hypoglycemia and deficiencies and changing my diet I was able to turn my mental health completely around and I was no longer “white knuckling” it to stay sober. I have been sober for 13 years and don’t attend any AA meetings.