Patient was instructed today regarding practicing distraction technique for pain management as follows:
- Distraction is an alternative pain management technique of shifting the attention away.
- Distraction can help with masking and reducing the experience of pain, by consciously training the mind to focus on an activity, but does not completely terminate the pain.
- Practice distraction technique by listening to some soothing music or a song you like. You can start tapping the fingers with the music to keep in sync with the distraction from pain.
- Try singing along with the song, if taking the mind away from the pain is being difficult.
- Since shifting the attention from pain could be difficult when the pain level is high, start practicing distraction when the pain level is manageable and gradually move on to practicing it with high pain levels, as you gain more control on practicing the technique.
