Diversion (or Recreational) Therapy and Pain Management.

I can't really think of a better place to put this. I was initially going to put it in the Maine sub, but this seems like a better choice. **What is Diversion Therapy?** It is an activity, often recreational, that takes puts something other than your malady at the center of your attention. This can be anything from arts and crafts to religion, from playing music to hiking, or all sorts of other activities. It goes by a few names, but the objectives are the same. Your brain has a limited number of things that it can pay attention to and you can overwhelm the negative by doing something positive. It isn't permanent, but it does provide a temporary respite. **Who uses Diversion Therapy?** It is used in everything from nursing homes to pain management, mental health care to the justice system, or even in educational settings. It has a wide variety of benefits. **Why do I Mention Diversion Therapy?** I have found it is very effective for pain management. I can involve myself in some activity that requires concentration, such as writing or playing a musical instrument. I didn't know it had a formal name, or that it has actual clinical value, until I decided to start researching it. I noticed that I'm forgetting to take my opiates as often as I am allowed to - provided I'm too busy to stare at the clock. My scheduled dose is every four hours. I'm also allowed a 'bolus' (Dilaudid, up to 4 mg) every two hours. When I am distracted, when my attention is diverted, I sometimes go as many as 6 hours without taking my pain meds and take no bolus. There's the Law of Diminishing Returns and it is certainly in effect. The efficacy is much lower when the pain is at an acute phase. When the pain is acute, I can sometimes get some result by first spending a few minutes in meditation. After that, I can distract myself with conversation, laughter, or some sort of activity. Then, it has some effect. They use a pain scale where they want you to assign a pain value from 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain of any kind. (At my age, a 0 simply doesn't exist. I've been pretty rough with this body.) When the pain is above an 8, it is less effective - or at least it is more difficult to distract myself from the pain. However, when it is effective it is really effective. An activity that takes more concentration seems to have a greater affect on the pain. It also comes in handy when I am performing a new task. Because of my injury, I am still using aids for walking. If I concentrate on the walking with crutches, I start to make mistakes. That is particularly dangerous, as a fall has good odds at causing serious re-injury or aggravation. If I am talking while walking on crutches or with my walker, I am more fluid with my motions and have much better results. **Why am I Mentioning This?** I tell you this because, while it seems obvious when pointed out, it is actually something that few people take advantage of. The risks of opiate addiction are quite real. It is much easier to not divert your attention and just take pain medication to manage the pain. This is an alternative that can be used to reduce your intake and lower your risk of addiction. It has results that vary and the many things that impact it are too long to list - and I'm pretty sure they will vary significantly per person. I sometimes do the multiplication tables in my head, often to a triple digit number. That is surprisingly effective for me, but I am not sure how such would work with other people. It is there. It is a tool that you can use for all sorts of things - even if it is just to forget about your ex, help alleviate the symptoms of depression, or to reduce stress. It is an overlooked tool and, from my experience, is actually one of the easiest tools to use. So, I'd like to make y'all aware of the benefits. If you want, you can use a search engine and find quite a bit of information about it. There are not (from what I see) many scholarly articles on the subject and the Wikipedia article reads like an advertisement. But, there are some studies that have been done and they seem to confirm the efficacy in a variety of clinical settings. It also seems to be a bit sneaky. I don't realize it is working (as much) until after the fact, or when I stop and think about it. After a good bout of guitar practice, I'll stop and think to myself, "Holy balls! I actually didn't even really hurt during that - even though I had my left toe tapping!"