Life and relationship issues

Problems in life can increase stress. Sometimes you can feel overwhelmed when faced with issues like family illness, money worries, work and relationship issues. This can affect your confidence to cope with persistent pain, as well as juggle other troubling issues.

Many people who learn to self-manage find they cope much better and can live life to the full. People like Pete...

Pete’s story

"My story is very typical of a person with pain. I was, like many patients, looking for that magic bullet to take away the pain. Through my early years I did not do much exercise or generally look after my body, I ate all the wrong foods and when something went wrong with it, I expected the doctor to fix me.

"One of my doctors told me I had a degenerative condition in my spine. I thought exercising might make my pain even worse – after all, the exercises I had already been given already hurt me.

"I also thought the exercises may make my spine degenerate further. This was just another reason or excuse not to exercise.

"Little was I to know - and come to learn - that to not exercise was in fact making my pain and my condition even worse!"

My Turning Point

"In 1994 I heard about something called a Pain Management Programme. It was described to me as a programme that could help me to increase my confidence and mobility, and do more things in life, even with pain.

"I thought this was finally something that could help me move on. I stayed through the programme in 1996 and since then I haven’t looked back.

"I still use all the skills and tools from the programme every day, and they are all similar to those on this website. Now I am person with pain, not a patient with pain!”

Find out more from Pete's website