Coping with physical pain

[Conradine]

In my life I had to deal with a certain amount of physical suffering. Not an huge amount, but I had a couple injuries doing sport, tooth ace and recurrent migraines.

I developed a number of techniques to cope with pain. For example focusing on a repeatitive rhytm and mental image tend to distract from the pain, as breath control and pressing certain points on the skull and the face.

Do you ever had the need to develope similar techniques?

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Not me personally, but at my work we have a chronic pain program that teaches various techniques such as relaxation breathing, mantram, and exercise. A lot of the theory comes from a researcher named Lorimer Moseley.

[Peelee]

Chronic back pain, in addition to a couple back surgeries. I mostly just use heavy painkillers. I also foolishly married an RN who doesn't let me go all Dr. House on 'em.

[Tvtyrant]

A car accident wrecked my back and hip in January. Your body releases opiods if you excercise heavy enough, so I do hill sprints which help my hip especially for the rest of the day.

[sktarq]

okay the world seems to want to conspire to not let me reply to this point...so attempt number 3

firstly is doing SOMETHING to try and control your pain. What it is matters less than doing something. This idea and feeling that you can and are effecting how much pain you are in does an amazing amount to help to deal with mental issues that come with pain that breaks through those efforts and how your body and mind react to that breakthrough pain. Not doing anything helps you to focus on the pain and as it takes up more headspace the pain become daunting and takes over your life and...that really seems to make the pain worse. Its the inverse of "if you ignore it it will go away"....So even if it total pseudoscience if it gets you feeling better it is probably worth doing just for mental benefits.

from my end for flare ups- I find routines help if there is a flare up. The making of a cupa, sitting in certain positions (usually flat on my back on a hard floor in my case), music (I am not sonic sensitive during migraines so that helps) or stories (basically forcing myself to listen to my ears not my nerves)..some meditations ... basically learning a mental pattern that you link with your pain going down and or being able to focus beyond it.

for the more nagging constant pain issues, exercise and diet (with lots of nuts, fruits, and veggies and lower salt) seems to help a lot of people I've known... (i dealt with a chronic pain group due an ex with it and they reported pretty good success). For injury or specific medical issues a therapist should be consulted when setting up your exercise routine. And, as always, start exercise slow but regular and build up to avoid over-straining emotional burnout etc.

[Asmotherion]

i find extreamly effective to combine breath control together with causing mild pain somewere else on the body. This way an intense feeling of pain "splits" (actually my perception and focus on it).

[KillianHawkeye]

Personally, I find whiskey to be a pretty good pain killer, but it comes with its own set of issues...

[2D8HP]

Switching back and forth from painfully hot to very uncomfortably cold water in the shower sometimes helps, admittedly it's just replacing one type of suffering with another, but it seems to work.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Personally, I find whiskey to be a pretty good pain killer, but it comes with its own set of issues...

Tried the tequila plan for a while for emotional pain, same issues.

I'm in physical pain almost 24/7 (its minimal in the a.m. and increases the more active I am), going on about 2.5yrs. I'm pushing 40, had back pain off/on since I was 12, but tumbled down a flight of icy stairs, then had a horrendous stomach bug while recovering, just wrecked my back muscles. My neurosurgeon said "apparently you're just genetically predisposed to tearing muscle tissue," as a result I have scar tissue pulling L5, S1 and S2 in funny directions causing L5/S1 and S1/S2 to bulge. Sometimes I just turn or bend too quickly and want to collapse. Would not recommend.

Exercise helps, muscle relaxers if I'm in such pain that it's keeping me awake. I'm in a medical cannabis state, I make canna root tea out of my friends root balls from their grows, does wonders for physical pain and stress with very little psychoactive effect, use high dose CBD gummies to supplement the tea.

Just started a new antidepressant that's also supposed to be indicated for chronic pain sufferers, isn't really helping yet, depression wasn't great before this, now that I can't work full time, I have to actively keep myself occupied or it catches up quick.

[The Fury]

I've had stress-induced pain off and on for years now. For more muscle-related pain, I alternate applying heat and cold, I also do stretches while I can. Though I usually get odd looks.

For tension headaches I... eat a lot of ibuprofen, which I'm sure is crazy unhealthy.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

For tension headaches I... eat a lot of ibuprofen, which I'm sure is crazy unhealthy.

Ibuprofen/acetaminophen/aspirin (and alcohol FYI) all erode your stomachs mucus lining, contributing to ulcers/GERD/Barrett's esophagus and other similar issues, which can lead to stomach cancer when unchecked. Naproxen is supposed to be not as bad. Did them all for years along with years of acid reducers, nexium (which helps regrow your stomach lining, but one of the side effects is abdominal pain, ask me how I know lol). Coconut oil or a MCT supplement can have the same Healing effect by promoting healthy bacteria growth in your GI tract (my uncle did coconut oil pills for a year with great results after I went through the pharmaceutical nightmare I did).

[Misereor]

In my life I had to deal with a certain amount of physical suffering. Not an huge amount, but I had a couple injuries doing sport, tooth ace and recurrent migraines.

I developed a number of techniques to cope with pain. For example focusing on a repeatitive rhytm and mental image tend to distract from the pain, as breath control and pressing certain points on the skull and the face.

Do you ever had the need to develope similar techniques?

The only serious pain I've suffered was an eyeball injury combined with an allergic reaction to my pain killers that made the pain worse instead of lessening it. Nothing compared to war injuries or child birth.

Like many people I've always preferred dentist visits to be without anesthetics. By simply relaxing one's muscles and accepting the pain instead of fighting it, it stopped being significant; it became just a feeling. That discipline turned out to be good practice for lessening more serious pain.

[Crow]

For non-chronic pain, I just ignore it and try not to aggravate the injury too much. It helps when you realize that the pain impulse only has one level. The only thing that changes is the size of the area effected. The pain impulse itself isn't ever more or less painful.

Dealing with chronic pain is a whole different beast though; which luckily I've never had to deal with personally.

[The Fury]

Ibuprofen/acetaminophen/aspirin (and alcohol FYI) all erode your stomachs mucus lining, contributing to ulcers/GERD/Barrett's esophagus and other similar issues, which can lead to stomach cancer when unchecked. Naproxen is supposed to be not as bad. Did them all for years along with years of acid reducers, nexium (which helps regrow your stomach lining, but one of the side effects is abdominal pain, ask me how I know lol). Coconut oil or a MCT supplement can have the same Healing effect by promoting healthy bacteria growth in your GI tract (my uncle did coconut oil pills for a year with great results after I went through the pharmaceutical nightmare I did).

In truth, it's pretty amazing that I'm not an ulcer-ridden health disaster. Not just the ibuprofen and the damage that does to GI tracts, but the cocktail of health problems that unchecked stress, anxiety and depression cause. Honestly, I should not be in as good overall health as I am. I just knocked on my desk, though I don't think it's real wood.

[Jay R]

I have a mantra I try to use.

"Pain is mandatory. Suffering is optional."

I'm trying to use it right now, having just had eight teeth removed. Yes, I'm in pain. I can sit here and suffer, or I can ignore it as much as possible and post to the forum.

[No, I can't live up to the mantra either. I'm as human as everybody else, but it's a worthy goal, and a helpful focus.]

Pain is mandatory. Suffering is optional.
Pain is mandatory. Suffering is optional.
Pain is mandatory. Suffering is optional.
Wow, this hurts.

[Wardog]

What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.

Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"
Accompanies the Secret Project "The Virtual World"

Now, that would be a very disturbing thing for someone else to quote at you, but I've always found it a useful mantra to help me ignore the pain from injuries,or push through the pain barrier when exercising. I don't know how useful it would be for chronic pain though.