Management of pain
One of the main problems in any treatment regime for long-term pain is how to manage the emotions of the person who feels the pain. If the mind is on your side, you can endure quite serious pain with calm acceptance. As evidence of this, you only have to watch sports where competitors play through the pain to win. In times of national emergency, people perform sometimes extraordinary acts even though badly injured. In different cultures, religion and other socially accepted practices inflict what Westerners would consider pain. But such “injuries” are accepted and embraced willingly.
Cognitive behavioral and other psychotherapies are increasingly training people to live with pain. The first step is to abandon fear and to accept the way the body now moves and feels. If every move is anticipated with a flinch, this concentrates the attention on the expected pain. You have to learn to move within the limits imposed by your body, accepting the discomfort that goes with those movements. While you are learning, the use of tramadol or an equivalent is useful, but it should only be short term. You need to learn how to live with the pain. If you are doubtful, consider the potential alternative of a life addicted to painkillers.
