There is no better time than now to address the body, mind, and spirit of those who are suffering with chronic pain. Our society's level of anxiety, stress, and pain continue to escalate despite an overreliance on passive, biomedical treatments that are either not helping or making matters worse for many.

Over the past several years we have seen the perfect storm of over prescribing opioids, the mismanagement of chronic pain through over dependence on the traditional bio-medical model, as well as untreated mental health disorders - especially unresolved trauma or PTSD.

As Dr. Grinstead wrote this book, thousands of people were dying every year from Prescription Opioid overdoses and so many of them were suffering with chronic pain conditions. The strategic integrated team approach Dr. Grinstead presents in Thank You Adversity for Yet Another Test is his contribution toward resolving this tragic Syndemic.

The approach described in this book was designed to help people with complex chronic pain problems, many of whom do not benefit from the traditional bio-medical model because of coexisting mental health issues, including unresolved trauma and medication use disorders. The challenges facing chronic pain patients is a synergistic treatment problem which needs the synergistic treatment solution described in this book.

Dr. Grinstead believes that "Knowledge is Power" and only when people suffering with chronic pain explore all the facets of their condition, not only biologically, but emotionally, psychologically and spiritually, will they truly gain freedom from that suffering.

Using a manualized multidisciplinary approach, this book also demonstrates how four complex chronic pain patients progressed through treatment. It describes their levels of functioning at the beginning, some of the key work they did throughout the book, and then the significant improvements they experienced in all the quality of life domains as a result of completing their treatment journey.

Thank You Adversity For Yet Another Test, includes Dr. Grinstead's personal and professional chronic pain journey. It outlines what he has learned from his experience in research and writing, as well as conference presentations. Teaching thousands of healthcare providers on how to work more effectively with chronic pain patients using his evidence-based Addiction-Free Pain Management(R) (APM(TM)) Treatment System is part of his life's mission - Teaching People How To Help People. All this has culminated in the book you now hold in your hands. Please use it well and share it with others who can benefit from its message of hope and healing.

Reviewers agree.

For all the focus on reversing overdoses and expanding treatment options for addiction, there remains a gap and confusion on what to do about chronic pain. In Thank You Adversity for Yet Another Test, Dr. Stephen Grinstead has stepped ably into that void.
Harry Nelson: Author of The United States of Opioids and From ObamaCare to TrumpCare: Why You Should Care (2017), which both grew out of his advocacy work as a healthcare regulatory lawyer.

As a person who has managed a pain-centric chronic Lupus illness for most of my life, I instantly connected with Dr. Grinstead's perspective on pain and adversity in his new book. I hope anyone living with a chronic pain or chronic illness picks up a copy of this book.
Kelli Roseta: Award-winning blogger, lupus lobbyist, and Creator of More Than Lupus