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Nancy Darling, Founder 1step2life

I have done a LOT of reading about pain and parenting kids in pain. These are summaries of some of my favorites.

Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation

This is a fantastic paper by Benore, Fahrenkamp, Zhakunets, & Banez (2020) on how pain rehabilitation works in children. One key point: function comes before pain reduction. If you wait until your pain goes away to start doing things, your pain tends to get worse. But if you start doing things, the pain tends to decrease over time. We were very fortunate to work with the Cleveland Clinic Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program when my son’s pain was at his worst. The 1step2life app is very much grounded in their approach.

Tyramine

Following a low tyramine diet has been absolutely critical to our family. The three posts we have on this topic are among our most popular. Here are the key points to pin to your refrigerator.

A Rescue Plan

It’s hard to think clearly when pain spikes. Planning ahead and assembling what you need will make it easier to cope when things get tough. This template will help you get started.

1steplife YouTube: Pain Education 101

Chronic pain is fundamentally different than acute pain and it needs to be treated differently. The 1step2life YouTube channel has videos about how the nervous system works, the logic pain rehabilitation, and a video for children and adolescence about chronic pain.

Blog Posts & Essays

Acute Pain Protects Chronic Pain Harms

It’s hard to believe that pain is ever good. But it is. A friend developed a condition where she was able to move her lower body, but couldn’t feel pain and had no sensation. The biggest danger she faced was injuring herself because her warning system – pain – didn’t work. Chronic pain, on the…
Are you drinking TOO MUCH water?

Hydration is important for everyone. Folks with chronic pain get really tired of being asked if they’re drinking enough water. I know my son does. But how much too drink is a more complicated question than it first appears. And important enough to thinking about before rolling your eyes when asked – when more time…
Are migraines caused by an echo in the brain?

Many types of pain – including migraines, amplified regional pain syndrome, and fibromyalgia – are caused by a failure of the nervous system. A negative spiral Acute pain protects us from tissue damage – we pull back from flames because we feel pain. Unfortunately, this healthy system can backfire. Many chronic pain conditions are caused…
Learning Biofeedback Doesn‘t Have to Be Hard

Biofeedback is a set of techniques that allow you to exert conscious control over what are normally involuntary biological functions. For example, consciously slowing your breathing and heart rate are common forms of biofeedback. With more practice, you can learn to increase circulation in your hands and warm them up. You can become more conscious…
Assemble A Rescue Kit For Your Next Pain Spike

I walked into my son’s room this morning – it was immediately obvious it was one of ‘those’ days. Light sensitivity. Migraine spike. Fog. You know the gig. So I asked my usual self-care questions: Did you take your rescues? Water? Salt? Magnesium oil? Daily meds? “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.” No eye roll (thank…
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Biofeedback: A Skill Not A Pill

Biofeedback is a skill, not a pill. Unlike medications, it is something that you need to practice between sessions and learn to make it effective. I’ve heard people only try it once or twice and then give up because they got a migraine anyways. It’s not something that works right away. You need to practice…
Get Help To Learn To Help Yourself

Friday, after an appointment with my psychiatrist at Emory, it occurred to me that this month marks 13 years of therapy and treatment. I would almost describe those 13 years as an “After” period, denoting a new phase in my life, because it has been so transformative. Before I finally reached out for help, I…
How can you use biofeedback?

Biofeedback has many potential applications. Short term, you can embed breathing and conscious relaxation and bodily control into your everyday life. This changes amygdala functioning to reduce pain and can help you foster mindfulness. I combine biofeedback with meditation and sometimes binaural sound to manage my migraines. I can only rarely get rid of them,…
Weighted Blankets: For Better or Worse?

Like many people over the last few years, I invested in weighted blankets for members of my family. I’d read they are particular good for improving sleep and reducing anxiety. Because I had always slept markedly better with heavy quilts, that made sense to me. I followed the guidelines for buying them: 5-10% of your…
The Importance of Sleep

Why is Sleep So Important? Sleep is your body’s way of letting the brain rest. Getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night has a number of positive effects: improved concentration, metabolism, immune system functioning, reduced depression, and inflammation. Lack of sleep can block signals in the nociceptive pathways, which increases the perception of…
What is biofeedback?

Biofeedback is a technique used to train yourself to control your body’s functions. Examples being your breathing, heart rate and tempurature. It’s really great for handling chronic pain. With practice it can be used to help identify what is causing your pain and I’ve even been using it to help turn off migraines when I…
Biofeedback: Another Tool in Your Kit

Chronic pain is something that can be treated in many ways. When I first got migraines, they were sudden and devastating. Within six months I went from perfectly healthy to migraines that lasted days to a week at a time. They were incredibly painful. I was unable to move and barely even able to go…
The Three Components of Action

Physics has gravity (it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law). Psychology has learning theory. The basic ideas behind learning theory are deceptively simple: If you are rewarded for something you will do it more often. If you are punished for something, you will do do it less often. If something bad is happening…
Making Change Happen

Last year, I wrote an essay called What’s Working? A 5-Minute Exercise for a Better Life for Psychology Today. Although everything else seems to have changed since last year, the ideas in that essay have not. Today, I want to talk about using it to take a few steps forward that will make your next year better. …
The Habits of Pain

It’s hard to find that balance between pushing too hard and giving up. But if you want things to change, laying down new habits is a start.
Walking Dogs In The Rain

People who write love songs about walking in the rain don’t live in Ohio. In December. I do. I’m just going to say, cold rain is not my idea of romantic. Or comfortable. Miserable. It does come to mind when I think of the word ‘miserable’. I bring this up, because I was thinking about…
News 5 Cleveland Talks About 1step2life

We were very excited that Taneisha Cordell of News5 Cleveland, an ABC affiliated covered the development of 1step2life. Development of the app was inspired by my son, Sean’s, struggles with intractable persistent pain. He talks here about his struggles and how 1step2life has helped him feel empowered to take back his life. For their full…
504s & IEPS: Children Have The Right To Go To School

Although there are many things about living with a chronic condition that are tough for children and their parents, school is one of the most frustrating. This is a brief introduction to IEPs and 504s – the two major legal mechanisms governing the provision of educational services to students with disabilities in the United States.…
Tiny Steps Towards Reducing Stress

Some days are worse than others. That’s just how it works. You can wake up today feeling refreshed and inspired to put your best foot forward. You can do all of your recommended exercises, eat all the “right” foods, think all the “right” thoughts, and still have pain flare-ups throughout your day. We can never…