Getting into a bad accident can leave you with long-term pain that can be hard to handle. There are many ways that people choose to manage the pain that they feel. Some of the ways are healthy and some are not. Choosing the right form of pain management for you is important. Below are a few examples of the many ways people manage their pain after they have been injured in an accident.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy can be a great way to treat an injury after an accident. A professional massage therapist will help you to push yourself so that you rebuilt muscle, joint strength, and flexibility in a safe, controlled way. He or she will be able to give you exercises that you can do at home to make the healing process go as quickly as it possibly can.
Fortunately, health insurance companies cover many physical therapy treatments. You will need to have your doctor give you a referral for the physical therapy if he or she thinks that you need it for the treatment to be covered though. There are times when the insurance networks are limited and you can only go to certain physical therapists to have the treatment covered by your insurance company but you can simply call the customer service department to find out which companies are in your network.
Water Aerobics
Believe it or not, working out in the water can greatly reduce pain after an accident. When you work out in water, you don’t need to move around the entire weight of your body. The water helps to displace some of the weight and makes it easier for you to move. Water aerobics allow you to rebuild your muscles and help to provide less pressure on your joints and tendons. It’s best to start off slowly when taking water aerobics to ensure that you don’t overexert yourself though.
A Change in Diet
What you eat has a huge impact on how quickly your body heals. Certain foods, such as sugar and refined grains can cause inflammation in the body, which can actually increase the pain that you feel and slow down the healing process. It’s best to eat a diet that is rich in vitamins and nutrients and in its rawest form possible. Eat all of the colors of the rainbow and keep refined grains to a minimum if you want to ensure your body heals as quickly as it possibly can.
Prescription Pain Pills
Prescription pain pills can be great to use when you are in a lot of pain after an accident. The only downside to the pills is that they can often be very addictive. You need to pay attention when you are using pain medications on a regular basis. Be sure to only take them as the doctor prescribes and if you notice that they aren’t working for you anymore, you need to let your doctor know. He or she may need to up the dose or may need to find a different treatment option for you.
If you start to feel that you cannot control how often you take the medications or that you constantly crave them, try to wean yourself from them as much as you can. Talk to your doctor about the way that you are feeling and he or she should be able to walk you through the process of weaning yourself from the medications in a healthy way. Stopping the medications suddenly could be dangerous so talk to your doctor first.
Massage Therapy
When your muscles feel tense and tight, it can cause strain on other areas of your body because they try to overcompensate for the injured areas. Going to a masseuse on a regular basis can help with the management of pain from an accident. It’s important to let the masseuse know ahead of time that you have been involved in an accident recently so that he or she can give you the proper attention in the area that is injured without causing more injury to it.
Alcohol
Unfortunately, another popular form of treatment for pain after an accident is alcohol. Many people start self-medicating with alcohol after they are injured because it’s easy to get a hold of and very affordable. They don’t want to risk doing anything illegal and figure that they aren’t hurting anyone by numbing the pain they feel with alcohol. Using alcohol to mask the pain that you feel from an accident is never a good idea. It can lead to you becoming addicted to alcohol, cause major damage to your body, and even cause death depending on how much you drink.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture can be used to help ease some of the tension in your body after an accident. Acupuncture uses small needles that are placed in strategic places throughout your body to release toxins and ease aches throughout the body. Many people assume that acupuncture hurts but the truth is the needles are so small you hardly even feel them. An acupuncture appointment often takes very little time and can make a huge impact on the way you feel when everything is said and done.
If you are finding it difficult to manage your pain, the first thing you need to do is go and talk to your doctor. The doctor may be able to help you learn more holistic ways to treat your pain that may make it more tolerable. You don’t want to self-medicate because you could overdose or cause more damage to your body than good. Many people end up exasperating their injuries when they self-medicate because they get to the point where they can’t feel the injury at all and end up making the problem even worse accidentally.
It will take time to overcome an injury. You need to be patient with yourself and take your time so that you don’t hurt yourself even worse. Try to use the most holistic forms of treatment that you can so that you lessen the chances of you becoming addicted to anything and so that you have long-term pain relief rather than just temporary relief.
