The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain Paperback – August 23, 2022

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.

TL;DR: If you suffer from chronic pain, read this book and try doing the mental exercise it describes for a few minutes each day. This reduced the neck pain I had for 5 years by 80% in a single month, and 7 months later, I'm still feeling good. (Also, as a complement, dry needling is wonderful for relieving muscle tension.)The Long Version:5 years ago I started having nearly constant pain in my neck and upper back, likely caused by some combination of bad posture with working on a computer and aggravation from weight lifting. The pain was normally more annoying than really bad, but occasionally worse to the point where it was hard to focus. I would avoid doing certain activities and exercises because they made the pain significantly worse afterwards. In addition to using every ergonomic device known to man, I also tried a lot of different treatments, including massage, chiropractic, physical therapy, and even ablations where they surgically burned off nerve endings in my neck, but never got great relief. After 3 years, the pain got worse, which really had me worried.Finally, I found something that significantly helped. My new physical therapist started doing dry needling on me, and this was really helpful for any pain related to muscle tension, and would usually give me 3-4 days of relief before the pain reverted to its usual level.Then last December, I read this book and learned about the difference between how your brain processes short-term pain (like spraining your ankle) versus chronic pain (such as my neck pain). It completely shifted my mindset, and I started doing the simple mental exercise it teaches for a few minutes a day. Within a month my pain was consistently 80-90% better, to the point where most days I'm nearly pain free and can do activities I never would have before (e.g. going on a 7 hour hike with a full backpack and feeling no pain at all, whereas before I would have been hurting). I've done almost nothing else (no massage, no chiro, just a dry needling session every few months), and I feel good. And while my back and neck pain were often worse during stressful times, that's not the case anymore. I was actually going through an unusually stressful time, but my neck felt better than it had in years.I've waited half a year to make sure that my pain didn't come back before publicly recommending it, but now that I'm still feeling good, I want to get the word out. While obviously there's no guarantee that it'll work as well for anyone else, for me it was an answered prayer and felt nearly miraculous, and it was the easiest and cheapest thing out of everything I tried. Highly recommended.UPDATE: 1.5 years out, I have no pain most days and have been able to resume weightlifting, which I previously quit because it would aggravate my back. My brother also read the book and within a week of practice had a significant decrease in the lower back pain he’s had for years.