Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

I’ve been dealing with chronic reflux for about 8 mos now. On PPIs and they don’t seem to do much. But once I get away from my typical routine of work/dadding then all the symptoms vanish, even to the point of being able to eat foods that are not good for reflux: spicy things, tomatoes, a bit of coffee. In my case, this is absolutely a downstream symptom of something mind-body. Already been scoped and got a diagnosis of visceral hypersensitivity, which is medical speak for “nerves in esophagus are too sensitive.”

The question of why is out of scope.

In this case, docs just don’t know why. (I think it kinda pisses them off not know, tbh). And finding out is not really in their wheelhouse.

I’ve made some life changes (new job) to see what happens here. But I also have to be prepared for the possibility that it doesn’t fix it. Been working through The Body Keeps The Score as well.

Looking forward to seeing what the author discusses here.

> For the next 4 years, I continued to accumulate weird and persistent pains in different parts of my body.

Anyone who is accumulating weird pains in random, different locations should definitely pursue some of these alternative explanations. Another sign that these techniques are appropriate is if the pains come and go depending on your mood or situation (worse when working, disappear when doing something fun) or are prone to suggestion (someone talks about their back pain and then you have back pain for the following days or weeks).

However, I’m also getting tired of the people who benefit from this techniques deciding that their explanation for chronic pain covers everyone. It’s a huge trend in parts of tech Twitter right now to apply these theories to all chronic pain. A small number of people who had unexplainable pain and addressed it through meditation, therapy, and similar techniques are now pushing it as a far more universal explanation. It really needs to be applied to the appropriate situation, not used as a universal treatment for chronic pains.

This parallels similar trends with topics like PTSD, where a smaller group of people have benefited from therapy that addresses past trauma and now they’re trying to export the theory that past trauma and PTSD is the explanation for all psychological ills. Again, matching the right treatment to the condition is critical and being open-minded is important, but beware of people who are preaching that doctors are misinformed and you should subscribe to their app, blog, newsletter, or course instead.

Not OP but similar story with someone I know. Five years of many specialists that always ended in "all the tests are negative so it must either be fibromyalgia or psychological." Doctors never helped but eventually they empirically found that abilify and rexulti in very low doses (ie: half the minimum) made it just go away. Empirically based on the reaction to various medications it was probably some type of dopamine imbalance or issue. There's other case studies of similar reactions to abilify and chronic pain but not many.

Extra fun fact, a deep research AI nowadays will actually suggest this as one of the treatments given a few paragraphs of information on the symptoms/medications tried/etc.

Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I have the _exact_ same issue as you since 2 years. It was much worse than what you described 2 years ago. Now it's just very annoying.

The diagnosis I got from my therapist is PTSD from my chikdhood due to the strong connection between stress and body.

The only thing I found that alleviates my symptoms short term is lots of Buddhist meditation (1-2 hours per day).

I wish you all the best and thank you so much for sharing.