Hypnosis & alternatives

[Cooper27]

Hi all, I have been folowing your community for a while, but this is my first post. I have suffered with a pain condition for 7 years now, I find it hard to talk anout as it's a very embarassing condition, and I have no visible symptoms. People just know I'm on painkillers for a 'pain in my leg', but people don't seem to realise how bad it is.

I've come to the end of the latest round of painkillers that did nothing (duloxetine) and worrying that the next (gabapentin) will also dl nothing, and so I'mconsidering what else might be out there.

Have any of you ever tried hypnosis for your pain? Did it help?

Someone else also told me about a clinic that will do a full body analysis - taking bloods and testing for every known deficiency under the sun, checking for food allergies and other conditions that could cause the pai as a secondary symptom. I don't know if anyone has ever tried that out and if it helped them?

Are there any other alternatives you've tried that helped even slightly?

[earthwitch]

Mindfulness - keeps you focussing on what is around you, so you don't get tied up in knots with how your body is feeling, so helps a bit (though obviously is never going to cure your condition. I do believe though that even if a technique like this only drops your pain one point on the pain scale, sometimes that one point is the difference between coping and not coping with pain. Also, Arthritis Care run programmes for people living with chronic conditions, that again can make a little (but significant) difference - doesn't have to be arthritis. You can phone or contact Arthritis Care to find out when and where courses are being run near you.

Low dose naltrexone -(check out lowdosenaltrexone.org for more info) - used a lot by people with autoimmune conditions including thyroid and MS, but because it mucks up your endorphines (initially suppresses, then your body kicks back with increased production, which helps with pain control) it can have quite a significant impact on pain levels. Only difficulties here are that although it can be prescribed on the NHS, you have to have a doctor willing to do so, and be in an NHS region that allows it to be used for chronic pain (all low dose use is "off-label"), though there is a way to get a private prescription and pay for it yourself (see that website). Other downside is that being an opiate antagonist, it means you have to be off all opiate type painkillers before you start it, and stay off them while taking it.

Hypnosis might be worth a try (if it isn't too expensive). I would probably steer clear of any clinic offering to test for a whole load of deficiencies and allergies - these are seldom medically proven methods, usually cost quite a lot, and they will almost certainly find something that requires you to then buy lots of their supplements (that don't actually do much in the long run except deplete you of money).

I would also personally steer well clear of any of the SSRI or SNRI antidepressant medications (like duloxetine) - there is very little medical evidence that they work any better than placebos on pain (except for amitryptylline which is shown to work quite well on nerve pain for most people taking it), and they are extremely physically addictive often giving quite nasty withdrawal effects - both mental and physical.

[Cooper27 in reply to earthwitch]

Thanks, I'll look into that painkiller, but I don't think I'm allowed to leave the anti-trycyclic family. I am nervous about the withdrawal symptoms!

I've had amitriptyline in the past, taking 75mg a day, but it didn'tmake a different, so Im working my way through the rest ofits cousin drugs. Duloxetine was great for everything else, except my pain.

You're right about the price if clinics, I do worry what it would cost, and how many follow up appointments they could try to push me for!

[Madlegs1]

If you keep a diary of food and activities and pain , you will gradually build up connections. This will be far more truthful to your own situation than any 'clinic' - where I would agree completely with @earthwitch.

You don't have to be shy here about any condition-and it may help to get it out in the open. Noone knows who you are. I could have a supturating double bifurcated phlebotic insomnial dickydoo and you wouldn't know or care who I am. ( I don't - at least I don't think I have 😨)

It's impossible to give a view on medications without knowing what they are treating.

All the very best.

[Cooper27 in reply to Madlegs1]

The difficulty is that my pain is provoked - you actually have to touch the area to cause pain, so a diary doesn't work in the way it would for others.

I appreciate your comments, but I don't know if I'll ever get over the embarrassing factor!