A Johns Hopkins School of Medicine survey reported that the vast majority of CRPS patients interfered with their jobs, sleep patterns, mobility, the ability to care for themselves, and their personal relationships. Learn some methods to help cope with these issues.
Coping mechanisms
It can be difficult to accept that you have developed a chronic medical condition that keeps you from returning to activities that you once enjoyed. You may feel that it is unfair how your life has changed.
Thousands of members of the RSDSA community will tell you that you can live a productive, rewarding life with CRPS/RSD. It takes some new skills, strategies and thinking to get you moving in a new and positive direction, and there are new things to learn all the time. Those who are recently diagnosed, as well as those who have had CRPS for many years, can keep improving their lives.
RSDSA offers you the resources you need to not only cope with CRPS/RSD, but to live well.
Here are a few things to consider:
Create aTeam Strategy – It takes a village to treat and live well with CRPS/RSD. The first thing to do is to put together an interdisciplinary treatment team – with you as the captain. Depending on your needs, it may consist of your family doctor, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a pain management specialist, your caregiver/s (family and/or friends) and others. The team approach gets the best results.
Seek Alternative Treatments – Not all patients can tolerate pain medications and the possible side effects. Fortunately, there other options. Seek out counselors, perhaps a psychologist/psychotherapist and a nutritionist, who can teach you new coping skills for managing and controlling pain, including:
- Distraction
- Visualization
- Meditation
- Biofeedback
- Breathing Exercises
- Stress Reduction
- Yoga
- Anti-inflammatory Diets and other methods
Learn New Ways of Doing Things – As the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. This is a good phrase to keep in mind when coping with CRPS/RSD.
- Physical and occupational therapists can show you new ways to do everything from tying your shoes to re-arranging your kitchen or workshop to make your life easier.
- Get involved with the RSDSA community. The members have come up with ingenious ways of getting around their disabilities to reach their daily and long term goals. Ask about joining a support group or our Peer-to-Peer Program.
- Get a service dog. Many CRPS/RSD patients are getting along much better with the help of specially trained service dogs, or other animals, and enjoying the unconditional love that man’s best friend brings into any household.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
CRPS has been called the “suicide disease” due to the significant number of patients that take their own lives to escape the severe chronic pain. Don’t give up hope there are alternative solutions on the near horizon!
If you are contemplating suicide please cal the suicide prevention hotline at 988 and seek help. Learn to confide in your supportive caregivers and qualified medical practitioners.