Ask Lemmy

26875 readers

1898 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

How do you perceive pain meds and treatments internally on the deepest levels of your psychology? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is mostly intended as a question for people with severe chronic issues of a magnitude that significantly alter their function to the point of relying on others for basic needs. However, anyone is welcome to reply. From personal experience this type of pain is hard to describe and hard for others to understand, especially the psychological side.

So I'm asking because I really don't understand how cannabis works for anyone as pain relief. I have also been on most available opioids and they largely have no effect. They only impact my focus in such a way that I do not care about doing anything or about the pain. It is like they impact anxiety, but that does not do anything for the underlying physical issue. In some cases like tramadol, I get so disconnected from my typical self awareness that I could spiral into a dumber version of myself like being in a figurative pit I cannot escape.

Seriously, I use a few games and the times it takes me to complete harder levels to gage how pain or meds are impacting my cognitive function. Long term I use the scope, depth, and my project completion capabilities to gage if I am acting like myself long term. This is what has pulled me off of several meds long term; I simply was not myself in capabilities. The meds made me care less about the pain, but I am interested in a more productive life, not caring less about the thing that is ever present. The only drugs that made the pain go away are the kind that require constant monitoring in the Intensive Care Unit in a hospital.

Am I an outlier here; simply more self aware of the way pain treatments alter the mind and only indirectly impact the real issue? Does caring less satisfy your needs? Is anxiety a large part of your functional life?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

So something I tell my patients after they have had a surgery is that our goal with pain killers is to make the pain bearable rather than gone. Paracetamol is a great painkiller and helps opioids to work better. It's also non addictive and provided you don't take more than the packet recommends very safe.

For chronic pain the current thinking is it's multifactorial, but basically your brain gets set with your pain threshold too low, there is also a huge psychological element to pain and therapy or things like CBT can be hugely beneficial.

For me paracetamol and codeine have been enough to manage all the pain I've had, the worst being when I fell off my bike and smashed my ribs (pretty sure I didn't break any), luckily I'm in the 90% of people who can metabolise codeine to something more useful. Didn't make the pain go away but meant I could breathe a full breath without flinching. Codeine at lower doses just makes me a bit drowsy and slow. Good for getting to sleep.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I take naproxen daily for knee pain. I don't think it helps but i keep doing it. Now I've developed terrible stomach pain from ulcers from the naproxen. I use thc cbd most evenings, helps some with the pain but mostly distracting and let's me relax a bit. I'm not good at using stronger pain meds- on the first dose i get itchy and irritable when it wears off. The last time i started taking a half dose twice as often to avoid that feeling, couldn't remember what i had taken when, and decided i should probably avoid them. Pain sucks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Pain does suck.

We've moved away from nsaids (naproxen and ibuprofen) because of the stomach ulcers. If it doesn't help try taking regular paracetamol instead it might help a bit and won't mess up your stomach.