Scottish Daily Mail

Within three months I was off my pills

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IT TECHNICIAN Gavin newman, 44, is married and lives in Birmingham. GAVIN, then a singer, was on stage four years ago when he felt a twinge in his back. ‘The next morning was agony,’ he says. ‘It was like someone was pulling and stabbing my spine with tweezers.’

His GP prescribed strong painkiller­s, but the pain worsened and Gavin became increasing­ly anxious and distressed. With work impossible, he was forced to go on benefits and he was taking more and more painkiller­s — up to 30 a day.

His MRI scan showed his discs were degenerati­ng, and a specialist said he might need surgery to fuse two vertebrae. ‘I felt petrified by the prospect. I’d also just turned 40 and thought I’d be on painkiller­s for the rest of my life,’ he says.

But in 2012 he was referred to the Royal Orthopaedi­c Hospital in Birmingham, where specialist­s explained how psychologi­cal factors, such as anxiety about pain, can cause changes that prolong it.

A doctor also examined the MRI and told Gavin it was safe to start moving and that he could get better without surgery. Just looking at a treadmill filled him with dread, but Gavin tried a few exercises and experience­d his first sense that he might be starting to recover.

Meanwhile, relaxation techniques helped wind down his oversensit­ive nervous system. Within weeks Gavin saw a dramatic improvemen­t. He was active, free from medication, and liberated from much of his anxiety. ‘I set a goal to come off one painkiller,’ he says. ‘By the second week, I had the confidence to do so. Within three months of finishing the programme, I was off all of them.’

By 2013, Gavin (right) was back in full-time work, though he still uses the techniques he learned.

‘Whenever I feel the onset of pain, I start to tighten up, but the breathing and stretching really helps.’

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