Prolonged stress is often a major contributor to cp. The problem is that after being stressed for a long period we no longer feel the weight until it's fully lifted which requires taking some time off and the majority of us are not in a position to do that.
Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
181–190 of 249 posts
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#182[dead]
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#183What a coincidence! I’m also in Australia and have just finished a self-imposed 8 month holiday from the tech world BS you describe.
I started the holiday super jaded with the idea of working in tech forever. I spent my time on everything but tech. Recently my passion has been reignited and I’ve got more clarity around what it is about tech and my career I enjoy, and what I want from my future.
Now, I’m working on a healthcare service for chronic disease.
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#184He decided he could monetize his recovery by selling the "the cure" on a newsletter basis and using organic growth to make more money. As he does point out he is not a doctor and his solution is not backed by extensive medical studies. He could just write a document laying it all out, and letting people download it, easier for everyone. (and try to get some researchers do the chekcing). This is damn close to snakeoil…
I appreciate your skepticism.
> by selling the "the cure" on a newsletter basis and using organic growth to make more money.
I am not selling anything, the information from what is happening -> to how to recover (if it is relevant to you) is and will be freely available on this substack. It is not paywalled and I'm not intending for it to be.
Additionally where are you quoting "the cure" from? I will be sharing information for people to use to self assess if it applies to them. Recovery from chronic pain is rarely simple as your quote implies - instead it requires daily concentrated effort.
> his solution is not backed by extensive medical studies.
Please read this study from 2021: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34586357/
> He could just write a document laying it all out, and letting people download it, easier for everyone.
Readers are more than welcome to download an offline copy from their browser if they'd prefer to consume it that way.
> (and try to get some researchers do the chekcing).
This is a valid point and I'll see how I can integrate it into future pieces, even if it's just collaborating with (legitimate) researchers. Thanks.
Something to understand is until yesterday no one knew I was in this space. Me DM'ing a researcher and asking them to vet my writing would likely have at best resulted in them letting me know they're busy. That likely isn't the case anymore.
> This is damn close to snakeoil.
Happy to discuss this in more depth. I don't see which part is comparable to snakeoil.
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find CBD about as useful as a sugar pill for pain treatment. THC amongst its most minimal side effects increases my pain, not decreases it. I would suggest everyone try everything that is open to them, but cannabis is not a miracle cure for every ailment.
>I find CBD about as useful as a sugar pill for pain treatment. Same. >THC amongst its most minimal side effects increases my pain, not decreases it. I had green card before canada legalized and thc was my main go. Higher potency just meant less smoking needed. Alcohol was what increased pain for me. >but cannabis is not a miracle cure for every ailment. For me, I cant do cannabis at all anymore; but you'd be surpris…
> but you'd be surprised how effective it is as a medicine for a lot of people.
Nah, I mean even for me, it had some positive impacts, again, allowing me to eat for instance. So i'm not blind to its capacity to be a positive force for many conditions.
The problem is that it's really not a miracle cure without side effects for everyone which a lot of people are not willing to entertain. There are people who simply refuse to accept that cannabis is not always the best, or even a workable choice.
In my case for instance, despite the positive of an increased appetite, it increased my pain, it gave me heart palpitations, it gave me sinus tachyardia, etc. Despite this, cannabis users will argue with me and tell me I "must have been doing it wrong" or various other statements along those lines, rather than accepting that like any drug, the reaction and utility of it is down to the individual.
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#186tldr; Pain Reprocessing Therapy: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34586357/ As stated at the end, the authors of the study have a lot of conflicting interests.
Thanks for sharing the link - this one goes into more depth: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/...
I can't comment on the conflict of interest as I do not know the practitioners personally, but from additional/supplementary research in this space as well as the massive amount of people this work has appearerd to help recover (look at reviews/discussion for books like the 'The Way Out') - it does seem to be having a big impact.
I'm aiming to link supplementary research in follow-on articles (e.g. the relation b/w pain and injury where nociplastic pain is present, the impact of psychological factors on pain etc) to paint a comprehensive (yet digestible) picture.
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find CBD about as useful as a sugar pill for pain treatment. THC amongst its most minimal side effects increases my pain, not decreases it. I would suggest everyone try everything that is open to them, but cannabis is not a miracle cure for every ailment.
Are you talking about THC isolate? I found high THC full spectrum oils to be life changing. They don't "cure" pain, but fade it into the background noise. You can still feel it if you focus on it, but pain no longer consumes your attention. I found this to be the most debilitating problem, not being able to do anything because pain just constantly grabs your thoughts and imprisons you. Medical cannabis removes that a…
> I got my life back! I've been taking it for many years now. I don't have any side effects. I don't feel "high" etc.
That's fantastic! It's pretty much the goal for all of us right? Haha, so glad to hear it. I'm still on that road a little myself, but it is what it is.
> Are you talking about THC isolate? I found high THC full spectrum oils to be life changing.
I have tried it in pretty much all its forms. Flower, oil, lozenges, wafers, vape etc. If it has THC in any form, pain goes up. But it's not just pain, it induces within me sinus tachyardia and heart palpitations, no matter the strength or presence of other cannabanoids.
However I have just had surgery again, which should relieve some pressure on my central nervous system, so it's likely ill try again at some point in the future. There has been some suggestion that my nervous system has been misinterpreting the affects of cannabis as a "threat" effectively. But i'm very early in the stages of recovery so probably not going to diddle with it for a while.
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
> At one point I was convinced it was psychological. I ended up thinking the same thing after a prolonged period of symptoms that didnt make sense. I 100% began to think I was losing my mind and imaginging it. Turns out I had a spinal cord injury. The problem is, not knowing that for as long as I did ultimately did impact my mental health in other ways. It was nice to find out ultimately that no, I was not just going…
What were your symptoms?
It started as just pain. Mild at first, mostly in my arms and shoulders, like someone had yanked them out of their sockets. Over time, it got worse. Not constant, just... random, brutal spikes. One minute I’m fine, the next I move slightly wrong and I’m yelping like a dog, unable to lift my arms, turn my head, or function at all.
I’d go to doctors, and try to explain. "Look, I know I seem okay now, but yesterday I literally couldn’t move etc etc." Time after time they would just respond with some variant of "Patient is stressed, stress is inducing pain, patient should stress less." or "patient is overworked, should do less work, etc".
This went on for over a year. I kept having these episodes, days at a time where I was barely functional. The pain, the immobility, completely real to me, but apparently all in my mind according to my doctors. "Take painkillers/antidepressants/rest etc etc." As a result eventually, I began to wonder if maybe I had just gone insane. Maybe this was all in my head and I was just imagining being in pain.
Then things got worse. I suddenly had to pee all the time. My hands started losing dexterity. I began bumping into things, losing my balance, subtly at first, but unmistakably. It was no longer just pain, my whole body was going off the rails.
After I woke up one day, completely unable to move, I was rushed to the hospital. Same story: they told me it was stress, maybe anxiety. I snapped. I told them if they discharged me without finding out what was going on, and I was later to find out that something had in fact been wrong, I’d sue everyone I had interacted with that day. I don’t even remember exactly what I said, but I must’ve hit the right nerve, because they finally agreed to do an MRI, not to help me, but to shut me up.
The scan finished. I never saw the general staff again. Instead, the next person who walked in was one of my country’s top neurosurgeons. He asked, very calmly, if I’d please come to his office for an urgent (and free) consult, because the imaging contained some pretty serious findings that we needed to act upon immediately.
Finding out I had not in fact being going insane...I burst into tears as the news was delivered. For so long i'd just been left to think I was going mad and here I was finding out that there were in fact very real reasons for everything I was experiencing.
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find CBD about as useful as a sugar pill for pain treatment. THC amongst its most minimal side effects increases my pain, not decreases it. I would suggest everyone try everything that is open to them, but cannabis is not a miracle cure for every ailment.
I've always found strange all the talk about using cannabis to manage pain. I've smoked alot of weed, well before all those talks promoting THC for this. It was my experience, and common knowledge in my circles at the time that THC made pain way, way worse, at least in resin form. Probably simply because you'll tend to isolate things and focus on them very strongly when under the influence, it makes you notice pain m…
> Probably simply because you'll tend to isolate things and focus on them very strongly when under the influence, it makes you notice pain more.
This is a very strong contender for why it increases my pain I think, and possibly why it induces some other side effects. I'm ok with my injury and how its changed my life for the most part, but when using THC i'd laser focus in on the pain, then from the pain to the cause and from there to "how unfair it is etc."
Its hard to explain, but the work i've done to be ok with this disability is undone when I go near THC for some reason, and is when I tend to break down and lose my ability to be "stoic" about it for lack of a better word I suppose.
Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain
#190I feel you. Used to work 16 hours a day. I quit my job and started freelancing. These days, I only commit 20 hours a week to work. Still make enough to pay my bills and live a little, but I won't be getting a boat anytime soon. But with that extra time, I go to the gym, play video games, or blast the neighborhood using my brand spanking new Eric Clapton Pewder Strat.
I have 15 years in data, and 10 years in machine-learning. Back in 2016, I couldn't find a job doing machine-learning. These days, I don't worry anymore about finding work. Things have improved.