Is Suffering a Habit?
Just like all habits, we can make sure it serves us instead of hurts us.
When Alan Gordon was in graduate school, he began to experience debilitating back pain that lasted for years. He underwent countless treatments to no avail.
Today, Gordon is pain-free — and he claims he was cured by his mind.
No, he didn’t heal himself with some psychic, new age quackery. He did it by changing how he thought about his pain.
Gordon is now a psychotherapist and author of The Way Out, which describes Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), a mind-body protocol that reduced or eliminated chronic pain in a surprising number of patients, according to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry.
Not only do his fascinating insights offer a new perspective on managing chronic pain without popping addictive pain pills or undergoing dangerous, often ineffective surgery. They also may shed light on coping with other forms of suffering.
What if the same framework Gordon uses to treat chronic pain can also help us cope with other forms of discomfort, like a difficult relationship or stressful situation?
What would be possible if we didn’t have to suffer unnecessarily, neither physically nor emotionally?
