Book excerpt: A practical, effective, and inspiring guidebook for dealing with chronic pain • Explains how to reduce pain’s grip on the body and mind by changing your personal reaction to pain • Presents successful strategies from the author’s 25 years of coping with her own pain • Includes 55-minute CD of author’s key techniques for controlling pain In 1989, following surgery for a back injury, Jan Sadler was left in constant pain, with no hope of any further conventional treatment and no adequate prescription drug therapy. Rather than settle for a life of chronic suffering, she gave up her career teaching English and began an investigation into the self-treatment of her pain. Building on her skills as a teacher, she incorporated the pain management techniques she discovered into programs that would help other sufferers learn how to cope with pain and find truly effective relief from its debilitating effects. Sadler shows how we can reduce pain’s grip by changing our personal reactions to the pain we are feeling. Chronic pain keeps our attention fixed firmly on our anguish, which then feeds the painful reaction back into our perception of being in pain, creating a vicious cycle. By allowing our reaction to become one of relaxation and acceptance, the pain is dramatically lessened, both by the absence of a negative perception and by the infusion of relaxation into the point of pain. In Pain Relief without Drugs, Sadler provides easy-to-use self-help techniques that offer support and understanding in breaking pain’s cycle--from relaxation, visualization, and breathing techniques to setting goals, building self-esteem, and coping with pain flare-ups. The author’s 25 years of coping with her own pain and 16 years of teaching pain management techniques result in a book that is filled with practical activities and possibilities for a better life. The book is accompanied by a 55-minute CD narrated by the author of key techniques for controlling pain.