Pain Relief without Alcohol, Cannabis, Drugs, or Medication
Often, pain has a purpose — it can alert us that we've sprained an ankle, for example, or that a tooth has a cavity. But for many people, pain can linger for weeks or even months, causing needless suffering and interfering with quality of life.
When you’re in pain, life is harder. Pain can make it hard to focus, hard to accomplish tasks, and hard to be happy. It can lead to irritability, worry, and hopelessness. When you’re in pain, it can strain relationships and limit your ability to function. It can feel like you’re barely making it through each day. It’s no wonder that people get desperate for relief.
Did you know that the opioid crisis started because doctors, in an effort to relieve patients’ pain, prescribed opioid medications, telling patients that they were safe and non-addictive? It turns out that opioids are extremely addictive – and expensive. And when someone becomes addicted to the medication and can no longer access it, some people turn to heroin as a cheaper option when desperate for relief.
But did you also know, that not only are opioids addictive, they also affect the pain transmitters in your brain, making you less able to tolerate pain? They lower your pain threshold which makes it so that you feel like you need relief sooner than you did before you started taking them. This has perpetuated the cycle of addiction for many who have used opioids to treat pain.
Other people turn to substances like alcohol or cannabis. Most people don’t know, though, that alcohol actually inhibits your body’s immune system and your ability to heal from injuries (not to mention increasing your chance of injury). And cannabis simply reduces your ability to perceive pain.
But why intoxicate yourself when there are healthy alternatives? And lots of them. Let’s look at some non-substance ways to relieve pain.
16 non-substance pain relief techniques
If your pain has overstayed its welcome, here are 15 techniques to control and reduce your pain that don't require medications.
Cold and heat
Heat and cold treatments are still the cornerstone of pain relief. Cold reduces inflammation, which can be painful because the accumulation of lymph fluid stretches your muscles and skin where they aren’t used to being stretched. But did you know that inflammation is actually good for you, even though it’s painful. Inflammation is your body’s natural way of stabilizing injured bones, muscles, and tissue, increasing blood flow to the area of injury to bring healing, and activating pain receptors to let your nervous system know to produce healing responses – all good things! But if the pain becomes unbearable, a cold pack can help.
Heat increases blood flow to the heated area, bringing blood cells that act to heal and prevent infection. Heat also relaxes muscles. Tense muscles increase pain, so relaxing your muscles can reduce your pain. Try a hot water bottle, electric heating pad, a hot bath or shower, or a hot tub or sauna.
If you use a hot or cold pack and it doesn't reduce your pain, ask a physical therapist or chiropractor for their versions of these, which can penetrate deeper into the muscle and tissue.
Deep breathing
Remember the movies and TV shows where they showed couples practicing “Lamaze” before childbirth? (Or maybe you went to Lamaze classes yourself.) It teaches moms how to make it through one of the most painful experiences there is in the most natural way possible. It focuses on breathing and relaxation – and it works. When you breathe slowly and deeply, it sends a signal of calm and relaxation to your brain and spinal cord (your nervous system). Deep breathing is not just a distraction technique, it’s a biological mechanism that changes how your brain responds to pain. Our bodies naturally tense up when there is pain, but tension can create even more pain. Breathing can relax your muscles, reducing the pain you’re experiencing.
Vocalizations
Moaning and groaning have a purpose in pain management. It’s not just a way to express that you are in pain, making noises that vibrate your vocal chords actually sends a relief signal to your nervous system and increases the production of serotonin, the “happy” neurotransmitter.
Exercise
You may have heard the phrase “motion is lotion.” Movement plays a crucial role in interrupting the cycle of pain and reduced mobility that can accompany pain. It stimulates blood flow, makes muscles more flexible so that moving doesn’t hurt as much, and strengthens weak areas to reduce stress on joints and muscles. Try moving around periodically throughout the day or schedule some time to go for a walk, do some gentle yoga, or get your heart rate up a bit with some swimming or biking. Any movement is better than none.
Physical therapy or occupational therapy
Physical therapists guide you through exercises designed to preserve or improve your strength and mobility. Occupational therapists help you learn to perform daily activities in ways that don't aggravate your pain. Learning how to move the right ways can make a huge different in your current pain and prevent compensating with other areas of your body which can increase your chance of injury to those other areas. Here is a physical therapy office we work closely with because of their emphasis on the mind-body connection.
Chiropractor
A chiropractor is trained to apply pressure to joints where this is misalignments, stiffness, or muscle imbalances to restore proper alignment and reduce pain.
Mind-body techniques
These techniques, which include meditation and mindfulness, restore a sense of control over your body and reduce the "fight or flight" response, which can worsen chronic muscle tension and pain. Find meditations for pain on YouTube to get started, or learn about mindfulness in this article.
Yoga or tai chi
These two gentle movement practices incorporate breath control, meditation, and gentle movements to stretch and strengthen muscles to manage pain.
Biofeedback
This is a fancy word for being able to visually see the effect of your pain on your heart rate or blood pressure through a graph or animation on a computer screen. It involves connecting to a computer that monitors the physiological response of your body while you learn how to regulate your body’s responses through relaxation and breathing. Watching and modifying what your body is doing gives you a degree of control over your body's response to pain. This is a simple, effective technique that, once learned, can be implemented without the visual feedback. If you’re interested, contact Oakwood and ask about HeartMath, our biofeedback service.
Sound therapy
Studies have shown that music can help relieve pain. Calming or happy music signals your body to produce endorphins, neurotransmitters that boost mood and relieve pain. And not only music, but other sounds such as ambient sounds (like rain, a campfire, or crashing waves), sound frequencies, and binaural beats. Try them all out on YouTube or an app like “Calm” or “Breathe.”
Therapeutic massage
Not just an indulgence, massage can ease pain by working stiffness out of muscles and joints, relieving stress and anxiety to reduce tension and pain, and creating a competing sensation that overrides pain signals.
Turmeric
This spice, common in the middle east, has an active compound with strong anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce stiffness and pain. It also is part of a delicious curry.
Topical pain relief
There are a variety of topical analgesics that can help soothe and numb pain for everything from tooth aches to muscle soreness. They work by reducing inflammation, numbing the area, or creating a counter-irritant sensation. There are even natural substances that have analgesic effects, for example: peppermint can relieve headaches, frankincense can help joint pain, and rosemary helps improve circulation to injured areas, and a steeped tea bag can relieve tooth pain.
Acupuncture
Accupuncture is a nontraditional technique that uses hair-thin needles to stimulate nerves, muscles, and tissue that leads to the release of pain-relieving neurotransmitters like endorphins and serotonin.
Supportive Brace
If your area of brain is appropriate for a supportive brace, this instrument can provide support for joints and muscles and limit excessive movement to reduce strain on an area of pain. A brace can also provide compression to reduce your body’s need for swelling and inflammation (which is the body’s natural support brace).
EMDR
Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy technique that has been shown to help relieve chronic pain. It acts upon neurological processes to reduce the body’s nervous system response to the pain. If you’d like to see if you’re a good candidate for EMDR, contact us to schedule an appointment.
This is undoubtedly not the full extent of ways to relieve pain, but it provides a sampling of what can be done outside of using alcohol or other drugs – or even medications.
It’s also noteworthy to mention that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Maintaining a healthy weight, eating nutrient-rich foods, stretching, moving around, and increasing muscle strength can all contribute to injury prevention, making it so that you don’t experience pain in the first place.
If you’d like help navigating chronic pain (or another chronic health condition), we have therapists that can help. Call our office or get matched with a therapist right on our website.