How to Manage Pain While in Addiction Rehab

Recovering from an addiction is not for the faint of heart. Not only does it take a toll on your mental, emotional and physical health, but the withdrawal can also be agonizing, and sometimes even downright dangerous.

It’s one of the reasons many people fear rehab, or the process of becoming sober. They worry about the level of withdrawal-related pain they’re going to experience once they begin undergoing treatment, especially during the detoxing process.

If you have these same concerns, you’re not alone. The good news is pain management is something rehabilitation centers are well aware of, and they have certain measures in place to help you manage the pain that often comes with addiction recovery.

In this article, we’re going to give you everything you need to know about pain management in rehab to help set your mind at ease, and better prepare you for the recovery road ahead.

The relationship between pain management and relapsing

When someone is going through rehab, they can be particularly susceptible to relapsing for a variety of reasons. One of the most significant reasons is the struggle of managing the discomfort — even pain — that comes with healing your body.

Neither chronic pain nor substance abuse are static conditions, meaning they fluctuate in intensity, and they can increase or decrease based on environment and different circumstances.

Since addiction and chronic pain have such individual treatments that can either be complementary or harmful to each other, it’s best to have some form of professional treatment to help you manage both struggles.

For example, if you struggled with chronic pain before developing an addiction, you might have sought out different forms of pain management, one of which might have even been what led to the addiction, such as opioids. In a case such as this, prescribing opioids for your pain management would be inappropriate, not to mention harmful to your addiction recovery and overall health.

Information like this is a crucial part of your background, and your counselors and doctors will rely on such information to create, update and adapt your treatment plan to your specific recovery.

Benefits of rehab for pain management

Managing pain while recovering from substance abuse can feel overwhelming, but rehab centers are designed to help you manage any pain that comes with addiction recovery. Whether you suffer a form of injury, experience pain from withdrawals or are suffering from pain completely unrelated to your addiction, rehabilitation can help you.

Some people are concerned about the administration of drugs — even prescribed medication — to those who struggle with substance abuse, specifically drug addiction. But, with proper medical supervision, medication can be highly beneficial to those undergoing addiction recovery.

You might feel a little bit nervous about the type of discomfort you’ll experience if you go to rehab, but these centers are equipped to help you through this exact thing.

Detoxing is often one of the roughest parts of recovery, as the cleansing process can take a major toll on your body as well as your mind. You might find yourself in a fair bit of discomfort, but your physicians are there to administer specific prescriptions to make the process smoother and less exhaustive.

Physical pain is only one piece of the puzzle, though. Many people who have adopted an addiction often struggle with managing their mental health as well. For some, they had a pre-existing mental illness that led to an addiction. For others, they may have developed an addiction and then experienced a deterioration of their mental health.

This is where being in an official rehabilitation program is going to really come in handy. You are going to have direct, personal access to a variety of mental health professionals, therapists and counselors who are all there to help diagnose and improve your mental health not only while you’re in rehab, but long after.

Treatments for pain management will vary based upon individual needs and background, but typically they will incorporate a variety of medications in addition to the traditional psychological forms of treatment, such as counseling or therapy.

Reach out for additional support

Managing pain while in addiction rehab can seem complicated, and you might feel tempted to avoid the recovery process in order to avoid the pain entirely — but that isn’t the answer, and this is not something you have to go through alone.

The team here at Bluff is committed to helping you find a treatment plan that takes into consideration your unique background and your goals for your future. 

Our approach to integrating pain management into your rehabilitation program is focused on not only minimizing your discomfort in the present, but maximizing your comfort and freedom in the future.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, or you’d simply like more information on how we’d help you manage your pain while in rehab, send us a message today.