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A review by amandakitz
The Pain Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Life by Dennis C. Turk, Frits Winter
3.0
The best thing I can say about this book is that it had some good strategies and still was insufficient. Based in CBT, much of the focus was on noticing and challenging patterns of thought and behavior paired with other more physical therapy practices like gradually increasing physical activity.
I was disappointed by the failure to address trauma that often causes or is caused by chronic pain. While CBT as a modality is very helpful initially for simple anxiety or depression, it is not sufficient to address trauma or more complex conditions. Trauma in relation to pain was hardly mentioned, much less properly addressed. Given that chronic pain can often result from traumatic experiences, whether that's the 75% increase in likelihood of endometriosis among women who experienced severe childhood abuse or the PTSD from a car accident that caused the initial back injury, it is irresponsible to fail to engage with trauma in a book published by the APA for dealing with pain.
I was also quite disappointed by the fatphobia in the physical activity section. Each person's body is different and there are numerous medical reasons for someone to be overweight outside of their control. Additionally, even without a medical condition, many studies have shown that weight and BMI are not valid indicators of health. To include the word "obesity" and treat weight as part of the problem not only shows a lack of familiarity with that research but is incredibly harmful to people with eating disorders and people whose trauma includes dealing with constant shaming and fatphobia. This makes the book inaccessible to a large number of people experiencing chronic pain.
Overall, I would be hesitant to recommend this book for a few reasons, but with those things addressed/removed, it could be a very helpful resource.
I was disappointed by the failure to address trauma that often causes or is caused by chronic pain. While CBT as a modality is very helpful initially for simple anxiety or depression, it is not sufficient to address trauma or more complex conditions. Trauma in relation to pain was hardly mentioned, much less properly addressed. Given that chronic pain can often result from traumatic experiences, whether that's the 75% increase in likelihood of endometriosis among women who experienced severe childhood abuse or the PTSD from a car accident that caused the initial back injury, it is irresponsible to fail to engage with trauma in a book published by the APA for dealing with pain.
I was also quite disappointed by the fatphobia in the physical activity section. Each person's body is different and there are numerous medical reasons for someone to be overweight outside of their control. Additionally, even without a medical condition, many studies have shown that weight and BMI are not valid indicators of health. To include the word "obesity" and treat weight as part of the problem not only shows a lack of familiarity with that research but is incredibly harmful to people with eating disorders and people whose trauma includes dealing with constant shaming and fatphobia. This makes the book inaccessible to a large number of people experiencing chronic pain.
Overall, I would be hesitant to recommend this book for a few reasons, but with those things addressed/removed, it could be a very helpful resource.