Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

> Don’t let yourself be gaslit that it’s all mental.

I agree, though this is a very difficult subject. Often, the people who would benefit the most from psychosomatic interventions are often the most resistant to accepting those explanations. Meanwhile, many of the physical chronic pain sufferers I know have desperately tried various mind-body programs (without success) because they will try anything that might help.

If people match the description of the author of this post and blog, where the pains are widespread, vague, and popping up around different parts of the body without explanation then you really should explore psychosomatic explanations like this author did.

However, I’m growing weary of the trend of people who fit this description starting newsletters they want you to subscribe to (like this one), writing apps they want you to download/buy, and making comments implying that they know better than doctors about chronic pain (while putting an obligatory “not a doctor” disclaimer juxtaposed to their comments complaining that doctors don’t know what they know). I think it’s great when people share their experience, but it’s getting tiresome to see it productized and generalized as a more universal explanation.

EDIT: Another trend in this space is to productize by building an audience (please subscribe to my Substack) and then introduce the monetization plan later: A subscription app, an e-book, a partnership with some product. It’s possible this person organically decided to quit their job, sell their house, and focus on writing a no strings attached Substack blog series to share information. However, I’ve seen this play out across enough health influencers that I recommend everyone stay cautious about people who claim to hold some information that will change your life but they need you to subscribe first. Be careful.

> Western medicine “can’t treat stress”

This is false. Therapy is designed to do just this and it’s readily available in different modalities that have been trialed and studied. You can book an appointment with a therapist today and start working on techniques to build stress resilience and stress handling techniques

> but Eastern medicine definitely claims to be able to. But then so do various nebulous “alternative medicines”.

Much of the allure of so-called Eastern medicines is the feeling that it’s ancient, semi-secret knowledge that is mysteriously superior to modern medicine. There are a lot of herbal medicines that kind of do something, but the effects are small and often prone to rapid tolerance build up and side effects. A large part of the efficacy is getting the patient to believe that the medicine and/or practices are a cure for their ills. Feeling like you’re tapping in to a mysterious ancient solution to stress will encourage a very strong placebo effect, which can actually reduce the stress.

Similarly, when we do randomized trials of medicines for depressive disorder it’s incredible how much the placebo group improves. When people have been told they’re receiving a treatment, it usually helps to some extent even if the treatment does nothing at all!

Hi Dan, I wanted to share a few links to articles on pain and circadian rhythms that I wrote during my PhD. Would love to connect if you have any questions.

[0] Circadian rhythms and pain: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01497...

[1] The disruptive relationship among circadian rhythms, pain, and opioids: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/1...

[2] Circadian rhythm disruption exacerbates pain behavior in male mice: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03064...

I’ve been struggling with chronic pain for almost eight months. It started when my orthodontic treatment caused the root of one of my teeth to break—it had already been weakened from a previous injury. The extraction was straightforward and only took 10 minutes, and I had an implant placed (with a temporary crown attached to my braces). Healing went smoothly, and the CT scans looked fine.

But soon after, I developed constant headaches that never went away. At first, I assumed they were related to the procedure, but everything had healed well, and multiple check-ups didn’t reveal anything. Since then, my braces have been removed, but the daily headaches persist. Occasionally, I also feel a strange “foreign object” sensation around the implant site.

A follow-up CT scan of the implant showed perfect integration with the bone. I’ve also had other tests done, including a head MRI. Medically, everything appears normal.

It’s getting really hard to manage—painkillers don’t help at all. Has anyone experienced something similar or have any idea what to try next? I’m even considering having the implant removed, despite there being no medical reason for it.

Most people are familiar with the Peter Principle where it talks about people rising to their level of incompetence.

But I think there's still plenty more that makes it worth a read. For example, something along the lines of, sometimes a man will pop an antacid and lament that their illness is negatively affecting their work, when in fact the causality is exactly reversed