hey @Boomersway and everyone:
this is very interesting for me to talk about. i am a bit hesitant but talking about these issues may be helpful though at the same time could be hurtful.
i suffer from what is usually called mental illness. i have my own opinions and beliefs about it that differ from what other people think though, and some of those other people being mental healthcare professionals, i could suggest that you take what i have to say with a grain of salt. others may think i’m delusional. i don’t know. maybe i am, maybe i’m not.
but the point here is that in order to talk about pain and the relief of it, i do have to consider my mental state. also, i have mentioned here before (if i recall correctly) that i arrived at having the incontinence i have (urinary and fecal) through self harm. i am in a sense as if i were two people. a victim and a perpetrator. i hate pain and self harm does bring about pain. but then life brings about pain too so ??? all i know is that i’m never happy about my pain.
when i was a kid i used to get headaches frequently and also a mysterious pain in my lower arms and hands and also lower legs and feet. this pain would usually last about a day. my parents had me taking asperin and it helped. in college when i had a couple wisdom teeth removed my dentist suggested tylenol. i found that gradually i came to needing the maximum doses.
i guess maybe in my early thirties, i realized that i was taking way too much pain medicine. i found that (i never had this scientifically confirmed) that the ginger served with sushi has an analgesic effect and that to me seems much better than taking medicine. i also found that taking a hot shower - especially if i had a headache - would help make it go away. so these two things became a good way for me to treat pain.
but the showers lasted a long time. an hour or even longer and a long shower somehow fostered my self harm and thus creating a more painful life for myself. also, with one very bad root canal, and or cavity i was given advil and or the prescription dose but i constantly feared taking that kind of medicine on a regular basis. the result was that i pretty much stopped taking the pain meds. i generally just live with the pain. i do not writhe in agony daily or even occasionally but i do have lots of pain. hips, knees, feet, and assorted things related to my self harm both physical and mental which particularly includes the distress of being incontinent.
for me, the fear of diabetes and what it can do to a body is my second greatest fear/pain. what is worst is knowing that i will live out my life with fecal incontinence which somehow seems like some kind of self punishment though why or how i don’t really know.
now that i’m bleeping old (or so i pretend), my pcp has me on diabetes med, hbp and cholesterol meds. i don’t like taking them but i do. i was also prescribed a med for depression. i am caught in a strange place where i have meds to help and they also hurt and i have a mental illness that causes pain while seeking the relief of pain.
i am telling all of this because i think that no matter how not mentally ill someone may be or believe they are, we all do suffer in one way or another at any given time so my personal experience may be of significance to others and hopefully helpuful.
when it comes to meds, if your pain is not crippling, it may be best to not take meds at all or just at a very minimal dose(s). i use hot showers and ginger but i think there are many non med options such as meditation, therapy and more. (i do not want surgery for myself even though evidence shows that it could be particularly helpful for my knees - i don’t know if i don’t want the surgery out of fear of it or due t my self harm inclinations).
i strongly recommend avoiding meds particularly if it is just to avoid pain. of course this may not apply to extreme pain but extreme pain is a very subjective thing.
i will be very happy to discuss the things i’ve touched on here in more specific detail in this or another forum thread or PM if that is preferable to you or anyone. hoping my life experiences can be somehow helpful to someone or more in overcoming their pain and suffering.
