Last week we looked at chronic pain - what it is, and how it develops. This week, we're going to be talking about pain management. Pain management is the main part of my day job, so I've got a lot to say about it! Hopefully, people will find it helpful.

Every time I tell someone that I work with people who have chronic pain, they want to know exactly what that means. I've been taking my time writing this blog post because it's complicated, but I think everyone should know about chronic pain whether they have it or not. Read on to find out what it is.

As a clinical psychologist, I love working with people with chronic physical health conditions. It's interesting, frustrating, difficult, rewarding work - for both me and my clients! This week, I've been thinking about the things people say to me the most often, and how I usually respond.

You only have to put the words "opioid crisis" into a search engine these days to find tales of terror, addiction and death. "NHS accused of fuelling rise in opioid addiction," "Can the UK curb the looming crisis," these headlines are frightening and would have you believe that every person who even looks at a fentanyl patch will be addicted to heroin before the week is out. Understandably, this has important implications for people who take opioids to manage chronic pain.  There are lots of things we can do about this situation, but here are three of the things that I think are important, based on my work in chronic pain services as a clinical psychologist.