Anyone else use anything that works?
I do.
2 ruptured disc.
1 bulging disc.
residual pain from a snakebite.
pain from reduced circulation from vein harvest same leg as the snakebite.
residual pain from burn skin grafts on both legs boot tops to knees.
Both shoulders in need of joint replacement.
Feet pain from type2 diabetes.
The phrase "It (pain) is all in your head" is more true than most people want to admit or even consider. The brain deals with pain exclusively. No matter what the malady or injury, pain doesn't happen until the neural pathways tells your sensory parts of the brain that "Hey, your back hurts".
In a very quick injury (like a bullet passing thru muscle at 1000'/sec) there is often no pain registered for quite some time--many people have been shot and never even realize it until blood appears) The injury happened faster than the nerves can pass the info to the brain and the brain process what happened. A comparatively slower injury, like cutting yourself with a carving knife allows the info to get passed and processed, and we feel the pain, but even then, it's not instantaneous, even tho it may seem so to us at the time.
But, chronic pain is different. We already know we have back/leg etc trouble, so we recognize it hurts.
When I was in the Naval hospital in Japan (over 40 years ago) getting my burns tended to, I was on morphine for a couple of weeks, and because it was jet fuel burns, they were unable to remove all the JP from my tissue. The docs told me I would be in pain for weeks, months, maybe even the rest of my life.
After a few weeks, an old Navy Corpsman chief came in and talked to me about pain. Told me I had 2 choices. Take pain medication to the point I was addicted to it, or deal with it within my thought processes, and if I chose the 2nd option, he would teach me how to do it. He first explained what I have typed in the first part above..how pain and neural pathways and receptors work. I will paraphrase what he said:
"We all have traumatic or unpleasant things that have happened in our lives, but we don't think about them on a daily basis. We've simply and partially unconsciously put those into a part of our brain we just just don't go to. We just don't. You can do that consciously if you really try. Replace that ought with something else to start, and soon, the thoughts of that event just won't be in the forefront of your thoughts. When you wake in the morning, the first thing you feel right now is pain. Move that pain to a part of your brain you don't access, and replace that 'pain thought' with some other thought."
It's a little more complicated than that, and it rarely works on people who are predisposed to believe it will not work, especially those who have been on long term pain medications. It is not self-hypnosis. It is simply controlling your brain pattern & thoughts instead of allowing the brain to control you.
The reason it doesn't work well on long term pain med folks is because the meds have altered how the brain works. Meds, especially opiods train the brain to expect a feeling of euphoria. They don't really stop the pain, they just trick the brain into not caring anymore that you hurt. Many Americans are psychologically addicted to the Oxys. Even tho they no longer get the rush or euphoria, the brain cells do--it just doesn't let them (the 'I'm not addicted' addict) know any more. Take their oxy away, and their personality changes..they get angry, or depressed, or do things normal people wouldn't. That's their brain reacting to being deprived of what it has come to expect.
Every morning I get up, and as soon as I start to move around (like putting on my clothes) my back starts hurting. A few seconds of thoughts and it's gone. Those thoughts of pain replaced. Those thought moved, like files moved on a hard drive to a folder I just don't access.
I do have trouble suppressing sudden onset severe pain, like dental work or dental pain. It takes a little longer to sit down and concentrate but still doable, which drives my wife nuts. I don't bother filling the pain prescription the dentist gives me and she can't get her head around what I am doing.