Chronic Pain Hacker
Because Healing is Hard

Living with a life-long medical condition requires grace, gratitude, and acceptance. The ability to manage disappointments and expectations of how you thought your life would go is essential. The practice of: meditation, prayer, deep breathing, mindfulness, and exercise can reduce overall pain levels. Healing is not linear. It requires a combination of physical and mental work required to live your best life.
This is a story about a journey through rare diseases, difficult conditions, and the coping skills used to thrive, not just survive. I hope my journey can help others affected by chronic pain. We can come together all over the world and create a tribe of support, collaboration, and kindness.
This book provides practical, real world hacks for dealing with chronic pain. The following conditions are discussed: Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), fibromyalgia, functional neurological disorder (FND), psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), Non-epileptic Attack Disorder (NEAD), anxiety, and depression.
Who is Chronic Pain Hacker?


Author & Activist
Shannon Green is a chronic pain expert and support group leader for Chronic Pain Connection. Shannon is originally from Bartlesville, Oklahoma but resides in Austin, Texas with her husband, son, and fur babies. Her passion is supporting the chronic pain community and improving healthcare standards and legislation.
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Shannon believes in the power of art to clear and calm the mind. She loves creating mixed media art in her studio and making handmade greeting cards. She highly recommends art therapy of some sort even if it's just coloring in adult coloring books daily.
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Shannon is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a bachelors in Business Administration with a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Oklahoma City University. Shannon graduated from the chronic pain rehabilitation program from Cleveland Clinic that focuses on physical and occupational therapy as well as group and individual talk therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) courses were also completed by Shannon.
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Shannon is active on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & YouTube but spends most of her time on Instagram, which is the quickest way to send her a message. #chronicpain #supportgroup #pain #chronicpainconnection
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We want to advocate for the continued use of video conferencing "telehealth" appointments with doctors after the Covid pandemic. This is especially important for chronically ill folks that have trouble driving and or restrictions.
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We have a dream to see all US states approve the use of cannabis medically and recreationally as well as other countries. Cannabis has been proven to reduce pain, anxiety, and seizures. We work with a manufacturer of CBD products and we want to spread knowledge to the community, lawmakers, and medical professionals on how helpful these products are. #cannabis #CBD
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions of Chronic Pain Hacker, Shannon Green, are based on real life research and experience and should not be tried unless first speaking with a doctor or certified medical professional.
Pain Management


Tips and Tricks
Would you find it helpful to chat with a chronic pain expert who actually gets it and has been where you are in the chronic pain and illness journey? Isolation is very common when dealing with a chronic illness so we want to create a sense of community to support each other.
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It's ok to grieve the person you used to before the illness. Just remember to give yourself grace while pursuing your noble effort. Sometimes we forget this when we can't do the things we used to.
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We also focus on adding or improving our coping mechanisms with discussions on meditation, mindfulness, breath work, movement, emotion regulation, therapy, brainspotting, relationships, and spirituality. Many of these topics can ease our stress, anxiety, and depression which in turn will lower our pain levels.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) are helpful therapies to develop healthy methods to cope with stress, pain, and anxiety. They also can improve our relationships with others with improved communication skills. #CBT #DBT #DBTSKILLS
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of psychotherapy that is useful with PTSD or unresolved trauma. There is a strong link between physical pain and emotional trauma. Most people that are interviewed about their pain, can pin point the start of the pain surrounding a trauma even if the trauma is unknown in the conscious but lies unresolved in the subconscious.
For example, Shannon, had blocked out a traumatic childhood event for 35 years. After three sessions of EMDR, she was able to recall the blocked events and reprocess them in a healthy manner. Brainspotting is a therapy tool for managing pain and reducing anxiety by using fixed eye positions.
Holistic vs. Western Medicine


Products and Services
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There is more to chronic pain management than just taking medications. Most pain sufferers use a combo approach of western medicine and holistic products or services referred to as functional or integrated medicine. It is essential to know what causes our pain and what we can or can't do about it.
Chronic Pain Hacker provides reviews in her book on many holistic services such as acupuncture, massage, cupping, and dry needling. Many of these services can be expensive but with the right advice, you can be equipped with the knowledge of which services are covered by insurance and the ability to verify that the provider is billing correctly. #holistic #massage #acupuncture
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There are many topical products on the market which are helpful in reducing muscle and joint pain. They are made from natural products such as cannabis, arnica, eucalyptus, menthol, and spearmint. They work differently for each person so we encourage folks to try several brands before deciding if they are helpful. This is especially important with cannabis products that have various strengths and methods of extraction. This industry isn't regulated so it can be hard to compare product brands.