Mastering Chronic Pain by Dr. Swidan and Dr. Bennett goes into detain about the different types of chronic pain and how it can impact a person’s life. Many times people with constant pain remove themselves from life because they cannot bring themselves to deal with both. The book gives us an alternative to deal with it. For the most part, pain is masked by meds and physical therapy. Their book is grounded in functional medicine. They believe you can retrain your brain to give your body the chance to really heal.

I have been living with constant back pain and although I do not give onto it, I can see why some people would just either become addicted to drugs or just keep to themselves. I found myself going from doctor to doctor to try and find relief. The last orthopedist I went to actually told me to stop going to doctors and to look further into other natural remedies. have found many of the book’s remedies interesting and have started to incorporate them into my lifestyle.

I wand to thank Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this pre release.

"Mastering Chronic Pain" is by Dr. Swidan and Dr. Bennett. Although I don't have chronic pain (knock wood) I know some people who do. In some ways this book was rather eye opening - I know for one of my chronic pain friends that she will often retreat from everyone (emerging six months later) while I have another friend who will last minute change plans. I know from both of these friends it's not because they're being mean - but because day to day things change regarding their physical and mental capabilities. "Mastering Chronic Pain" rather spelled out some of their issues ... but also gave advice ranging on a variety of things - ranging from how to boost (naturally) better/deeper sleep along with chemicals the body naturally generates. It also stressed social interactions (which I found interesting as one of my friends is a natural introvert and being extroverted is just difficult for her even on a good day) which boosts chemicals in our bodies. My one complaint - though it's understandable - is that a lot of information is repeated (keep a journal, deep breathing) but I'm sure that's because not everyone will read the book from cover to cover and will probably skip. The last section sums up all the information given in one nice section. While some people might regard this book a bit as new age mumbo-jumbo, if adding a handful of nuts to morning oatmeal and eating that instead of a doughnut helps your body feel better, why not try it? Overall, I found this an interesting read.