In recent monbths I have struggled more with Phantom Pain. Someone in the GP Surgery sent me this link youtube.com/watch?v=RWMKucu... but I find it does nothing expect give me a headache watching this high speed jerky clip!
Do you think it is actually useful?
You might not like the visual style, that's a matter of personal taste, but the message is sensible. Just listen with your eyes closed! Also, check out tmswiki.org/forum/, it was great for me.
Hi MichaelJH, I agree the link is a bit fast to digest , but the suggestions in it are nothing new. Pain like health issues effects people differently. It is an individual thing, what works for one may not for others. There are also muscle diseases that can cause quite debilitating pain. Another one to take care with is gouty arthritis as exercises as advised in most cases can make that worse so can many tablets cause chronic pain as a side effect. A word from a long suffering pain patient , try all possibles to find what suits you best and take care what you do if you have more than one illness. Some pain can be controlled with other options none medical . Remember the saying a little of what you fancy does you good, so treat yourself occasionally to help the mental side of pain control. Many chronic pain sufferers including myself manage the pain themselves as they know what works best. So time to begin one step at a time research what might work for your pain. You may need to stop and start drugs if you think they alter the pain. If you become too reliant on drugs they can cause other problems long term , as you say its phantom pain I am not sure whether any of the above would help you, but a thought crossed my mind maybe a mind relaxing video might help or distraction techniques , or your favourite music if you have a like. Anyway take care let me know if you have success as your experience might help others. Bye for now.
That style is often called a rich picture. some like it, some don't.
As for the content, they are broadly right. However, they always leave out the middle, what I call the acute chronic pain. The model of pain they use has the 'if it lasts more than 3 months then damaged tissue has healed and it is persistent pain' but that doesn't take into consideration that tissue damage can constantly be happening, for instance the bone on bone pain of osteoarthritis.
Some people feel pain from osteoarthritis, others not so much. But the neuroscientists have found a gene allele where if someone has version A, they feel pain from osteoarthritis, but if they have version B, they don't. The joint however is still damaged and the damage continues to happen due to a faulty immune system attacking the joint.
These lovely explanations of pain never say anything about that pain! They also don't take into account that not everyone in pain is overweight, depressed, drinks too much, smokes, and so on.
And I am sorry to hear you have phantom pain. It isn't an easy type of pain to deal with. I remember when Ramachandran devised mirror therapy for it. But I don't hear many people talking about that these days.
Gosh that video is fast … my poor brain doesn’t process that quickly!
Copping or not ? 
Bipolar or not.
sciatica... to exercise or not...
Alcohol and pain or morphine?
