Dealing with Chronic Pain

[Hawk]

Many men on the forum complain about chronic pain. Now and then, groundbreaking information erupts.  So it is with pain.  Pain has been treated much the same way for several decades.  Doctors have literally little to no training.  If they have any training, it consists of a few lectures.  That is beginning to change due in part to Rachel Zoffness, MS, Ph.D.

I will post a link to one of her many podcasts and her Pain management Workbook but first, a few key points.

Tissue might send signals to the brain, but pain is a construct of the brain.  The brain decides whether to send a pain signal, the intensity, and the duration of that signal.

Pain, especially chronic pain (either lasting three months OR longer than expected healing time), tells you little to nothing about the degree of damage or trauma in tissue.  Examples are victims in wars and accidents where their brain does not send a pain signal because other brain processes are determined to be more critical at the moment.  The opposite occurs with phantom limb pain.  Your brain has been stuck in sending pain signals to a limb for so long that sometimes years after the limb is removed, you feel pain in a limb that is not even there to send a signal.

On a smaller scale, we have all found injuries while in the shower (bruises, cuts) that we never felt because our brain did not prioritize the pain signal at the time of injury.  She often tells of the documented accounts of a man who mistakenly thought he shot himself with a nail gun but did not.  Yet, he was in excruciating pain. Another thought he did NOT shoot himself with a nail gun but did.  He embeded a nail in his jaw.  He felt no pain and little discomfort.

For those who experience pain, and trust me, most of us will before we leave this life, or for those who have a loved one in pain; this book is a must.  You will find it on Amazon.  There are links on these podcasts.


This is the one I recommend, even though
 it is audio only.  It is more focused on just pain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZdtrY8NuUc

A little more technical podcast with Rachael Z hosted by another doctor. Covers pain, stress, depression
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mn9QMTmRDM
 

[Curvekiller94]

Thank you for the info hawk