Hola,

Wanted to share a couple of thoughts on things that helped me improve and the reasons why I think they did. Sorry if this reads kind of half pseudoscience/half subjective experience, but it's all I got

The current accepted, generally agreed upon consensus is that RSD is a neurological disease with tangible physical symptoms. This seems to be fairly commonly accepted on this board, and certainly in the medical community. Based on my own experience with RSD, I wanted to extrapolate a little bit on what this has meant for me.

Bear with me for a second while I put in a little bit of context to what neurological actually means, and quote some blasted Wikipedia:


Neurology: the branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the nervous system. (Neurology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

So what's the nervous system actually do? Well, it coordinates voluntary and involuntary actions and transmits signals to and from different parts of its body. (Nervous system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

To sum up the current definition: RSD is a disorder of the nervous system which results in a variety of painful and debilitating symptoms.


For us humans, the nervous system is first and foremost the spinal cord and BRAIN, which passes signals to all parts of the body to keep things working (and in the case of RSD - to keep things NOT working.)

So, oddly speaking, several years ago I gradually came to the conclusion that RSD is LITERALLY in my head. After all, that's where my brain is, (the last time I checked.) AND... the brain is the control center of the nervous system. And unfortunately, my nervous system was on continuous high alert because my BRAIN kept sending pain signals to all parts of my body.

HOWEVER. The last thing anyone EVER wants to hear is "this is all in your head." It's demeaning, dismissive, and beneath it all - frightening. Many if not all of us have heard this exact comment from countless doctors over many years and even DECADES before even getting to the RSD diagnosis. I was "accused" that my "Type A" personality was the cause of RSD, even though it was triggered by surgery with no previous health issues.

Now for the ironic part - What if it IS true? What if RSD IS in our heads? Not in the context that anyone is sitting here consciously CAUSING THEIR OWN PAIN/RSD - that's ludicrous. But nonetheless, medical professionals are telling US, the patients, that RSD is a neurological disease. Perhaps that's why physicians (emphasis on physical) are having a very difficult time diagnosing and treating it(?) Hmph.

SO - I found that all kinds of CONSISTENTLY APPLIED brain stimulating and nervous system calming stuff like meditation, visualization, mirror therapy, self inquiry, being in nature, etc was helpful in improving the RSD symptoms I was experiencing. Because these things helped remap the wiring of the brain differently from its previous "all hands on deck fire fire fire" mentality. So, in scientific terms: the super awesome news I was applying is described as "Neuroplasticity." (Neuroplasticity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)


But overall - so what? Neuroplasticity and meditation and mindfulness and visualization techniques yada yada yada - this is all stuff that has been discussed on here before and all over the internet. The general benefits of meditation and mindfulness have apparently been verified through scientific study. But why does it seem to be more effective for some people and not so much for others?


Well here was the kicker for me: Once I REALLY accepted that RSD WAS in my head - I mean really and truly and authentically didn't just THINK it but KNEW it after lots of personal experimentation - THAT gave me the power to change it.


Nothing happened all at once; not even close. I had to gradually convince myself through lots of "tricks." Two that were especially helpful to me (again these are not new, but I found them really helpful):

Trick 1 - I stopped calling my pain "my pain." Calling pain MY pain identifies it with ME. When I stopped calling it "my pain" and started referring to it is just "this pain" or "the pain," it depersonalized it, and made it more manageable.

Trick 2 - (for localized symptoms) Started pretending to love the affected limb. Talking to it. Massaging it. Breathing into it. Visualizing it doing athletic fun positive activities. Treating the friggin' thing like royalty. After all - it's just a temporarily attached object; not me.

What I found, subjectively speaking, is that my brain cannot and will not disassociate itself from something unless it actually KNOWS it can. That's why I wrote this post - maybe another brain or two could free up a little bit from digesting this. (?!)
(Or maybe I'm nuts)