Pain... It's All in Your Mind

 Greetings,

My last post was about COVID vaccines and my personal journey through having the vaccine. I will be continuing to have the vaccines, of all kinds, not just the COVID ones because they are good for protecting the body, regardless of their side-effects, and that was some time ago. I simply have not had anything to write about since then, nothing which I thought my readers of this blog would find helpful or useful. Today, I have.

How many times have you been told that your fibromyalgia (FM) is all in your mind? How many times have you been told that your chronic pain was all in your mind? In these instances the individuals were using the statement to pass the buck, to place the blame elsewhere or simply discredit feelings and sensations that you knew you were actually having. I have news... in a way they were right.

Pain does come from the mind, but it does not make it any less real. If you are having problems grasping this concept, I recommend watching any one of the many videos on YouTube by Professor Lorimer Moseley. HERE is one to get you started. He is an Australian who studies pain and its effects on individuals, and how it works, recognised internationally for his work. His research is revealing, and it is most useful to individuals who live with pain every day of their lives. Once you have had a listen to Professor Moseley, I would encourage you to read on and see what this revelation has done for me...

If my pain comes from my mind, then I am in partly responsible for the outcomes of this sensation. This is the case because I have active control of my mind, I am the person who decides what I do with my mind and what I think about. Yes, we all get distracted and we all get led off on our little adventures, but if you can control your mind, you can control your pain. Let me say that again, if you can control your mind, you can control your pain.

This is a skill and like any other skill it takes practise. You can practise through simple things like remaining on a particular topic and not being side-tract when you are thinking about a thing. You can practise by focusing on each individual part of your body and feeling each individual part of your body and then pushing them away. These are practising actions of mindfulness, not in the Buddhist, Dalai Lama, monkish sort of way but in an active form.

If I am actively doing something that I enjoy, my pain levels reduce a lot. I do not feel the pain, because my mind has been taken elsewhere, I am focused on something else. The more that we can find the triggers to these removing our thought patterns away from the pain that we are feeling, the less pain that we will feel. Of course, this works for me. 

I find if I focus on my pain, I end up in a spiral downward which just ends up in more pain. If I can stop the spiral, by distracting myself from the pain, by doing something active, or even something else that I have to focus on, the pain reduces and the spiral doesn't get a chance to start.

Why would I bother to seek out methods such as these when there are drugs available to dull my pain? I have more of a fear of drug-dependency than I do of pain. I would rather save the drugs for some time when I really need them than use them for chronic pain conditions. I would also rather have pain than have the fog associated with having enough drugs in my system to dull my pain. I have been here before and I did not like it at all. I don't want to be hooked on that sensation a person gets when the drugs hit their system. I would rather have the pain and feel alive than be pain-free and in some drugged up, semi-comatose, unable to think, state.

The problem is that our bodies get used to the presence of drugs, so they get dependent on their presence, and they get tolerant of them, so they have to be increased. I have topped out one of mine, so my doctor has had to move on to another one which will work with the one that I am using. This is the reason that I am doing my best to find other ways of dealing with my pain. Activity helps, especially if it is an activity that you enjoy, because you will want to go out and do it. Research, and work on your mind helps, but it is all hard work. The alternative, I believe, is worse.

Cheers,

Henry.