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[varnish]

I have shingles. Basically it hurts like hell. I have a decent pain tolerance, but this pain is not allowing me to walk for longer than several minutes.

I guess I am asking for advice on how to cope with pain that does not involve painkillers, I am on lot of those. I'm not allowed to take anymore.

This may be "too much information" but whatever. Whatever.

[Vector]

My go-to trick is meditation to improve control and focus, and then tricking myself into thinking that pain matters as a physical signal about as much as sight does--it's just kind of there.  Don't fight against it, accept it.

Source: I'm a woman who got periods so bad I pretty much couldn't do anything but curl up and cry, for a space of five years.  I'm also quite resistant to painkillers.

I'm really sorry this is happening to you.  I don't know if the above will do you any good, but I hope you find some way to feel better soon.

[varnish]

Thank you. I don't really have much experience with meditation, but I'll try anything.

I've dealt with long term pain before, from multiple surgeries and other nonsense, but when it impairs my ability to move around and function, I get so frustrated.

Shingles is one of those irritating things without any real treatment, I've learned. It has to run its course, and that's it. So I will try what you suggested, at least. I got plenty of time for it.

[Imp]

A suggestion to be 'careful' about following, but does work for me.

Your body makes endorphins, which are chemicals that affect your perception of pain.  There's quite a few things in life that influence your endorphin levels.

When I need my overall pain tolerance to increase, I try to ensure that my life is overall not too stressful, I try to get a few massages, extra sleep, extra fun and comfortableness.

When that's not enough or not possible, I turn to seriously large amounts of certain spices - like a half a teaspoon to a full teaspoon a day of these (liberally mixed with food, don't attempt to take these as straight powder! - the more you dilute these spices the less 'spicy' they're going to be in your mouth):

White pepper (it's very similar to black pepper, comes from the same plant, and you could substitute black pepper, but I prefer white pepper's taste and 'burn', which is a big part of triggering endorphin production)

Ginger (either fresh or powdered, fresh is probably more effective but it's a pain to work with - powdered is MUCH easier to mix into food, and feels less spicy on the mouth)

Cinnamon (for me, and maybe no one else in the world, dunno, I google with great skill, but I can't find any reports of this except my own experiences - cinnamon in moderately large doses is a mood lifter for me, it doesn't make me euphoric, but it's quite effective in raising my bad moods, and it seems to slightly make me feel less pain too - but pain tends to make me somewhat bad-moody, so cinnamon's part of my anti-pain spices)

Though this is pretty effective for me (about as affective for moderate pain as taking 2 Ibuprofen every 4 hours), it's possible that your body will respond differently.  Hope it helps if you decide to try it.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Try occupying your senses. You can distract yourself from pain if you're paying attention to something else fully enough. Even if it can't be knocked out of your perception entirely, you can at least downgrade it from the foremost perception.

[varnish]

I do try. Playing silly computer games, petting a dog, etc. It's ok when the pain is dulled, less so when I'm hunched over on the floor waiting for the back spasms to die down.

I am ok with eating more cinnamon. I love cinnamon!

Seriously, you are all helping a lot, though.

[Korbac]

Try occupying your senses. You can distract yourself from pain if you're paying attention to something else fully enough. Even if it can't be knocked out of your perception entirely, you can at least downgrade it from the foremost perception.

This is difficult when you're in severe pain, but it does help if you can do it. I was out today in the freezing cold with just a t-shirt for 3 and a half hours (I'm an idiot.) I was trekking with a friend the whole time though so it didn't really bother me.

In the case of shingles, reminding oneself that the pain isn't related to permanent bodily damage might be useful. I find that if I am suffering from acute pain, convincing myself it's a pointless sensation often helps me ignore it.

[MaximumZero]

I'm in constant pain from severe back problems and shredded knees. What do I use to combat the pain? Adrenaline. Get pissed that you're in too much pain to do anything, and use that energy to go do what you need to do. Get psyched up on metal. Get excited about something. Get angry. Get intense. If you do caffeine, do it about 20 minutes before you need to do something. If sufficiently amped, you'll last just long enough to get what you need done, and then you are free to collapse into a heap of pain. Use the extra energy to focus on your task and ignore everything else. This will leave you worn out and sore at the end of the day, but it's worked pretty well for me for 15 years or so. I'm not terribly mentally tough, but it gets me through the work day, and it worked when I was a full-time fighter.

(Note: This is my actual regimen. It's not satire or me being an internet tough guy. It works. Get pumped.)

[MaximumZero]

I'm in constant pain from severe back problems and shredded knees. What do I use to combat the pain? Adrenaline. Get pissed that you're in too much pain to do anything, and use that energy to go do what you need to do. Get psyched up on metal. Get excited about something. Get angry. Get intense. If you do caffeine, do it about 20 minutes before you need to do something. If sufficiently amped, you'll last just long enough to get what you need done, and then you are free to collapse into a heap of pain. Use the extra energy to focus on your task and ignore everything else. This will leave you worn out and sore at the end of the day, but it's worked pretty well for me for 15 years or so. I'm not terribly mentally tough, but it gets me through the work day, and it worked when I was a full-time fighter.

(Note: This is my actual regimen. It's not satire or me being an internet tough guy. It works. Get pumped.)

[Azthor]

I'd mostly reinforce upon Imp's and MetalSimeHunt's suggestions, respectively to the effect of your overall comfort and distraction. The earlier relates to endorphin release, as it has been said.The later is largely about cognitive dissociation, whose alternative would be MaximumZero's suggestion, namely, cognitive association. I'd sooner throw my weight behind the earlier under the prerogative of which, under most life-styles, positive distractions are much more easily arranged for (double so in cases of chronic discomfort), and often at a lesser personal cost than those intense drives required for the later.

If, nevertheless, you feel the pain remains too large a blunder upon your life quality, you'd do well to discuss it with a qualified anaesthetist, for better pain management. Though you may already be under prescripted painkillers, said medical professional may be able to arrange for more comfort, perhaps even at lesser collateral effects, after an appropriate trial period, by trying a different approach to pain management; the effectivity of different compounds does, after all, vary from case to case, as does the proper dosage.

[varnish]

Hey, I just wanted to thank everyone for saying something, no matter what. I'm starting to recover.

The odd thing about the pain is, now that it's mostly gone, I can't remember what it felt like.