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Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

sailhealth.substack.com

11–20 of 249 posts

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#11
As someone who had years of undiagnosable pain and after many years (and more than one doctor trying to suggest it was all in my head) I just want to say to anyone reading who has it -

Don’t let yourself be gaslit that it’s all mental. It seems some do have that, but there are also many hard to diagnose and completely valid physical health conditions that cause terrible chronic pain. And don’t give up on trying to find out what they are. Once I did, I was able to largely manage mine, and more importantly, to stop constantly questioning my own sanity.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#12
post #10

> Before moving forward - I’m not a doctor. Just a bit of a nerd with a blog. Please do not sue me or use these posts as a replacement for medical care. unnecessary disclaimer here. when it comes to chronic pain treatment doctors are mostly useless or even harmful, proposing surgeries or drugs that will do more bad than anything else because they have no interest in learning how to customize their approach and will p…

Heavily agree much destruction has come from overprescription. With this note I'm just seeking to cover my bases and be transparent with readers who don't know me.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#13
post #10

> Before moving forward - I’m not a doctor. Just a bit of a nerd with a blog. Please do not sue me or use these posts as a replacement for medical care. unnecessary disclaimer here. when it comes to chronic pain treatment doctors are mostly useless or even harmful, proposing surgeries or drugs that will do more bad than anything else because they have no interest in learning how to customize their approach and will p…

It's not unnecessary to tell people you aren't a doctor when people may reasonably believe you are a doctor in the absence of such a disclaimer.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#14
I make an app called Reflect [0] that’s designed to track things like chronic pain and help you get to the root cause with self guided experiments. I’ve used it for my own pain symptoms, especially joint pain. Happy to answer any questions. Wish you the best on your journey.

[0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638...

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#17

As someone who had years of undiagnosable pain and after many years (and more than one doctor trying to suggest it was all in my head) I just want to say to anyone reading who has it - Don’t let yourself be gaslit that it’s all mental. It seems some do have that, but there are also many hard to diagnose and completely valid physical health conditions that cause terrible chronic pain. And don’t give up on trying to fi…

Would you mind sharing a little detail about what the physical malady turned out to be, and why it took so long to diagnose?

Sounds like an interesting medical mystery.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#18

>Pain Reprocessing Therapy I asked chatgpt to explain this to me and it did a poor job. Generally speaking in my friend group. Chronic pain used to be opiods; though long ago medical cannabis came along. I couldnt tell you how many people i know who arent stoners who got into the cbd thing and fully got off opiods. 1 addiction for another, but at least cannabis has far less negatives. >If you don’t have chronic pain…

> The problem, CBD never fixes the pain. ~8 hours later you need more.

100%, medication plays a great role in providing comfort and support but it can be ineffective (and often harmful) if relied on solely for recovery from (neuroplastic) chronic pain.

> There's no business case for solving chronic pain

It seems some parties may be incentive aligned (e.g. insurers in Australia) - though I'm still navigating this space to find an approach which makes solving the root cause viable. Keen for your thoughts.

> 1.

Sorry to hear about your friend. This is often referred to as a structural diagnosis - i.e. where a knowledgable/proficient doctor has diagnosed there is legitimate tissue (nociceptive) or nerve (neuropathic) damage.

> 2.

Yep! This is what the series will be targeting, data points to a substantial percentage of chronic pain sufferers solely (or partially in comorbidities) being impacted by psychological disorder (otherwise known as neuroplastic pain / TMS / and a few other names!). There are a lot of causes and factors which have been shown in research to date, but largely it's adverse childhood experience, stress, personality traits, and more.

Will check out that vid!

> 3.

Related to this, there is an exercise called somatic tracking which has helped many people (including myself) - during it people often notice pain shifting throughout your body. This was a big turning point for me seeing how my mind behaves in real time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw1D_UvzIDA

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#19

I make an app called Reflect [0] that’s designed to track things like chronic pain and help you get to the root cause with self guided experiments. I’ve used it for my own pain symptoms, especially joint pain. Happy to answer any questions. Wish you the best on your journey. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638...

Amazing, I'll take a look at it.

Thanks!

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#20

As someone who had years of undiagnosable pain and after many years (and more than one doctor trying to suggest it was all in my head) I just want to say to anyone reading who has it - Don’t let yourself be gaslit that it’s all mental. It seems some do have that, but there are also many hard to diagnose and completely valid physical health conditions that cause terrible chronic pain. And don’t give up on trying to fi…

Technically it is an experience that is internal to the nervous system... but a doctor telling someone that it's imagined because they can't identify the root cause is criminal!! If we have to make something up about it we're literally better off calling it a demon.
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