May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The month is about realizing how common mental health issues are, supporting each other through them, and removing the stigma about them. A few statistics: 21% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2020 (52.9 million people). This represents 1 in 5 adults. 5.6% of U.S. adults experienced serious mental […]
Resource for Chronic Pain Sufferers
The American Chronic Pain Association site says the group has been around since 1980, but I hadn’t run across them until yesterday. I spent some time on their site and they have some really good resources as well as a long list of support groups. There aren’t any groups near me, but I think I’ll […]
Chronic Pain and Memory
This is a fascinating article with excellent sources. Chronic pain is terrible. A new way of understanding it may help. The past two centuries have produced a cascade of life-altering advances in medicine, yet we have been unable to deal with one seemingly straightforward condition: chronic pain. It affects 1 in 5 people around the world, […]
Pain Stigma
Those of us who suffer chronic pain face a great deal of stigma. This paper addresses that stigma. Pain, objectivity and history: understanding pain stigma
How Chronic Pain Leads to Anxiety and Depression
Neuronal plasticity in chronic pain-induced anxiety revealed Hokkaido University researchers have shown how chronic pain leads to maladaptive anxiety in mice, with implications for treatment of chronic pain-related psychiatric disorders in humans. Chronic pain is persistent and inescapable, and can lead to maladaptive emotional states. It is often comorbid with psychiatric disorders, such as depression […]
I’m a Mémé!
My grandbaby has arrived! So we’re short on sleep, but long on love and joy! Moving up here, the new baby and associated sleep loss, change in general — they all lead to increased pain. I don’t take any narcotic pain medications anymore because the opiates just didn’t provide enough relief to be worth the hassle of […]
Getting Better
I’ve been very busy over the last six months and had some major changes in my life that have been very stressful. As I’ve said elsewhere, my main strategy in dealing with fibromyalgia has been to reduce stress in my life as much as possible. Unfortunately, the main source of stress in my life over […]
Gratitude 26 March 2012
Today I’m grateful for MARTA, which allows me to get around without having to own a car. I’m also grateful for my wonderful pain specialist and incredible therapist.
Hope for Pain Relief
I’ve known of mindfulness practices for several years, and read Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn several years ago. It is one of the books I’ve recommended on this blog in the past. I have only recently, though, truly committed myself to […]