I got the newsletter today, and was so surprised, after all these years, to find out your name is not Mike!

And, I'm sorry I have not replied to your PM yet - the cold weather and after holiday slump has me in a funk.

Sorry to hear you're feelin' blue. Thing is, while we're busy (or not so much) spinning out the narratives of everyday life in our heads, we all seem to be compelled (guided is too gentle a word) by expectations formed many years ago, and then, points on the calendar then come around in turn - each associated with various memories and resulting expectations - and we're triggered just like the 24-hour electo-mechanical timers that may control outdoor lighting and the like. Christmas is often a killer, ditto the B-day of a dearly departed. The idea [easier said than done] is to recognize those expectations for what they are, the desire that things be other than they are. And the more we struggle with this, the worse it gets. That's emotional pain: as simply as I can make it.

And for what it's worth, physical pain is just the same, if not easier on the whole to adapt to. Really??? Case in point: the classic image of the kid, wincing and contorting his body at the prospect of getting a vaccine. And what he doesn't realize is that it would be so much easier if he just yielded to the needle! And even the most intense flair in my personal experience - "CAN" be handled the same way, be aware of it, sure, but let it just pass through without resistance, and it will do you no harm. And surprisingly easy to pick up too, the hard part is remembering in the moment to keep that frame of reference!

So, to finish off on a quirky note, but directly in response to your post, my name really "is" Mike, which I've been called since birth. It was emblazoned on everything from my knitted Christmas stocking to the top of my hand-written elementary school report cards. My mom wanted me to be named a “Jr.,” I suspect as a statement to her father’s mentally ill younger brother, who, following what I understand were many years of travail, became outraged by my parents’ marriage and demanded of his brother (my grandfather) “How dare you pollute the [family] line with Jewish blood!” whereupon all ties were forever broken. ;.. ( And to distinguish me from my dad, I was called Mike, as an homage to my paternal grandfather, who had been born Mikhail Mikhailovich - under which he landed at Ellis Island as a babe-in-arms and later joined the Army in WW-I, spending almost all of his life simply called Mike.

Mike

Got the email from JB a little while ago, the article in the RSDSA Review that I had been asked to write ABOUT THIS FORUM is now on the RSDSA website, specifically on the Resources page, where it's listed under the heading Communities and Blogs:

Author: Franklin Michaels, Jr.
Title: NeuroTalk’s RSD and CRPS Forum: An Online Community with Valuable Resources
Source: RSDSA Review: 2012 Vol. 25, Issue 4

So have at, recognizing that it reflects nothing more than my personal perspective over at least eight years of active (although at times intermittent) participation on this forum as well as its immediate predecessor, on "BrainTalk."

See me with any questions.

Mike

PS And constructive criticism is welcome!

Mike, my name is Mike or Michael too. Just call me Jim.
Middle name, you see?

That's a great article! Without the forum, I would go crazy. So many people without the disease are clueless and just treat you so rudely.

Mike, fantastic article -- congratulations!!

Only one small point to make -- we don't limit NeuroTalk only to patients or their caregivers. Anyone is free to join our community, but obviously most people here fall into one of the two categories you listed in the article.

Thanks for the kind words about NeuroTalk and the wonderful people that go to make up our community here. If you don't mind, I think I'll highlight the article (and link to it) in a blog entry from Psych Central.

Best,
John

Thanks Mike for the article. I just printed out, will have Suzy read it.

Dear John -

Thank you for your kind words. And my apologies on my misstatement on the conditions for membership: I clearly should have sent out a draft copy for your review, for which I apologize. As well as sent you a copy of the final article once the link was up as I had intended to . . .

Thanks again,

Mike

Thanks! Your comments means a great deal to me. I was concerned that I might seem too personal, more about my response to the forum and what it meant to me, than - perhaps - the forum itself. But then I realized that I had no knowledge of the forum except in terms of my experience with it, and that was the only way I could write about it with any hope of authenticity.

Your comments - in a similar vein - support that decision. Thank you again.

Mike