The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain

4.6 | 2,283 ratings

Price: 11.81

Last update: 12-12-2024

About this item

A groundbreaking mind-body protocol to heal chronic pain, backed by new research.

Chronic pain is an epidemic. Fifty million Americans struggle with back pain, headaches, or some other pain that resists all treatment. Desperate pain sufferers are told again and again that there is no cure for chronic pain.

Alan Gordon, a psychotherapist and the founder of the Pain Psychology Center in Los Angeles, was in grad school when he started experiencing chronic pain, and it completely derailed his life. He saw multiple doctors and received many diagnoses, but none of the medical treatments helped. Frustrated with conventional pain management, he developed Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), a mind-body protocol that eliminated his own chronic pain and has transformed the lives of thousands of his patients. PRT is rooted in neuroscience, which has shown that while chronic pain feels like it's coming from the body, in most cases it's generated by misfiring pain circuits in the brain. PRT is a system of psychological techniques that rewires the brain to break out of the cycle of chronic pain.

The University of Colorado Boulder recently conducted a large randomized controlled study on PRT, and the results are remarkable. By the end of the study, the majority of patients were pain-free or nearly pain-free. What's more, these dramatic changes held up over time. The Way Out brings PRT to listeners. It combines accessible science with a concrete, step-by-step plan to teach sufferers how to heal their own chronic pain.

Kate

science based but easy to read

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2024

loved the humor and compassion the author brought to this topic. It is really hard to move from a position of "I have a cyst impinging on L5 and that's the cause of my disabling pain" to "yes, there is a cyst, but the source of the pain is coming from my brain" The book helped me to understand that it wasn't my lack of positive thinking or that I was just making it (pain) up. Discouraged? Nothing working for you? This process might work for you. If you live with chronic pain this is a bright light.

Say cheese!!

This book SAVED my back

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2024

This is a WONDERFUL book about the neuroplasticity of pain, especially chronic pain. Medications, scans, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, everything...... This book is really the only thing that has helped my years-long chronic back issues. It doesn't really "cure" anything physically, but in thinking about your pain differently it either lessens your pain or makes it disappear altogether. This book has been a LIFESAVER. Now instead of being convinced I'm going to just keep getting worse until I end up in a wheelchair, I now have hope! And whenever I do have a flareup, it's very minor and I'm back to normal in no time. This is a MUST HAVE book for anyone who has chronic pain that has not been helped by standard medical interventions.

Shanna Batten

Life changing book! Hormonal migraines

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2024

I have suffered from hormonal migraines for 4.5 years. I started having debilitating migraines about 4-5 days per month in 2019, so I sought medical attention. Over the next several years, I went through MRI’s and blood tests, was prescribed a couple different anti-depressants, Sumatriptan, Frovatriptan, a couple different anti-seizure medications, birth control, monthly emgality injections, nurtec every other day, and I even tried Botox for migraine once - they inject you all over your scalp and into your shoulders and neck.. super fun. For a year I did testosterone pellets that are placed inside an incision every 3 months. In addition to all the trial and error of pharmaceuticals, I was taking 600-1600mg ibuprofen daily, along with 50mg caffeine pills every two hours.

I tried acupuncture, massage, and a chiropractor. I stopped eating sweets and drinking coffee, and no more occasional alcoholic drinks. I kept a pain and medication journal. I logged every single pill I took. I wore ice hats nearly every day. I tried barometric pressure ear plugs, the Cefaly device, and the ear Zok.

Needless to say, my pain was so overwhelming and intrusive that I would literally try anything to get my life back. The interesting thing was this - the more I tried, the worse I got. The more doctors I saw, the worse I got. The more medication I tried, the worse I got. I went from 5 horrible days per month, to 25+ horrible days per month. There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t have to take medication. I just accepted it as an escalating health problem that desperately needed a solution.

I felt really hopeful this time last year when I FINALLY got approved to try Botox for migraine. The doctors kept telling me it was the holy grail of migraine management. I had to jump through many hoops and try many medications before insurance would finally approve... In the end, it didn’t work for me. It made me worse, just like everything else. And our insurance was a joke, so everything was costing us a fortune. I was overwhelmed and defeated.

In February 2023, I had upper abdominal pain. It became bad enough that I sought medical attention. We assumed it was an ulcer from all the medication. The thought of a hole in my stomach was serious enough to force me to quit all the medicine. I HAD to quit. It was TERRIFYING to quit. How could I possibly do this??

I stumbled across this book quite by accident. I normally would have thought it was not worth my time and there was no way it could help me, but I was compelled to buy it. I bought it right before the abdominal pain started, not even knowing I would desperately need it right when it was delivered.

I used this incredible book about neuroplastic pain and “Pain Reprocessing Therapy” to get me through the detox. It changed the way I looked at my pain. It taught me that fearing my pain and my corresponding hyper vigilance was creating an unending cycle of intense, REAL PAIN that my brain was accustomed to producing. I was spiraling exactly the way the book described. Our brains are powerful! We believe whatever we constantly consume or constantly tell ourselves. We believe what the doctors and experts tell us. We believe the severity of their tone, and the severity of the diagnosis. We believe that medication is the only solution. We believe our fears. And our belief has power. This book helped me to rewire my brain. It gave me simple tools to get me through the difficult process of stopping medication, which had been exacerbating my pain for years. Migraineurs know about the slippery slope of medication overuse… it’s a nearly impossible tightrope walk.

I now have about 4-5 migraine days per month (back to where I started) and for the most part they are manageable with a 50mg Sumatriptan. That was never the case before. I don’t take any other pain medication, other than ibuprofen very occasionally. That is a MIRACLE!!! PTL!!

I can’t stress enough how incredible and ground-breaking this book is - it’s so insightful, very easy to read, and would help so many people living with chronic pain. Medication isn’t always the answer! It can definitely help, but not always. In my case, almost all of it was extremely detrimental. Be cautious.

I also want to note that I started taking a DAO supplement, which has also been so helpful. I encourage all migraineurs to research histamines and their role in migraines.

I hope and pray that my review encourages you to buy this book. If you don’t suffer from chronic pain, I promise that someone you know DOES. PLEASE let them know about this book.

Kate Cohen-Posey

A Psychotherapist's Perspective

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2024

I'm a psychotherapist and I admit that I did not want to take an expensive course on pain re-processing therapy. This is a very readable book full of stories of people healing their chronic pain. It took me a bit to sift out from all the success stories the author's 5 step protocol for addressing chronic pain: (1) knowing the neuroscience of pain, (2) creating corrective exposure experiences, (3) using avoidance behaviors, (4) minimizing setbacks, and (5) understanding the healing process. These steps seem entirely doable and gave me a promising method I could use with my clients. HOWEVER, the section on "catching your fears" seemed far too optimistic as I know how difficult it can be to change entrenched thinking habits and core beliefs. This caused me to wonder if the whole approach might be as easy and effective as described in the book. Yet, the explanations of when to use "corrective exposure experiences," "avoidances behaviors," and the description of the healing process is very sound and can be applied to other disorders in addition to chronic pain.

Debbie P

Easy to read.

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2024

This book is easy to read and understand. The content makes so much sense. There’s so many people with chronic pain and I think the information in this book can help many. I keep reading and re-reading it. I highlighted so much important information. Highly recommend.

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