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Notes -
Is most chronic pain 'in our heads?'
I spent almost a decade dealing with chronic pain of various sorts. I had many diagnosis such as TMJ, Hypermobility, Repetitive strain injury, Carpal tunnel, Tennis elbow, Conversion disorder, etc. What finally ended my pain was close to 5 years of serious meditation, stretching, dance training, and most importantly yoga. Eventually I developed the ability to relax muscles at will even if they were tense from stress.
Right now 20.4 Americans experiences chronic pain(1), with more people in rural populations dealing with chronic pain than in urban populations. Early research shows that this rate has been rising over time. (2) My pet hypothesis is that over time Americans have become more stressed for a variety of factors, which has lead to an increase in chronic pain. This is also most likely linked to a lack of mobility and a sedentary lifestyle.
However, doctors are very wary of telling a patient something is 'in their head'. This isue has probably gotten worse due to the recent backlash against doctors for ignoring someone's personal experience or opinion. I'm afraid that with the current state of our culture this problem will not get better at any time soon.
The most common way to get chronic pain fixed is seems to be to look for non traditional sources of information, typically 'woo' stuff like crystal or energy healing. Unfortunately I have seen a number of chronic pain suffers fall to these types of outlooks, after 'getting in tune with the universe' seemingly healed their pain. In reality I believe that these people simply develop the ability to visualize and relax their muscles.
I think this is a highly neglected problem and something that many people do not realize because chronic pain is often not talked about, and if you do talk about it most of people will either ignore you, give trite and terrible advice, or stop wanting to listen to you. Perhaps most people innately have the ability to relax their muscles, or lose the skill over time for one or another reason.
Has anyone else experienced something similar or observed it among others?
Sources (Cant figure out how to link text from my mobile device)
1 - https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db390.htm#:~:text=Interview%20Survey%2C%202019.-,Summary,65%20and%20over%20(30.8%25).
2 -
https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/58/2/711/168526/Pain-Trends-Among-American-Adults-2002-2018
Edit: fixed spelling/formatting errors.
Can anybody else do the thing where you try to relax the all muscles in your body and you feel a buzzing, tingling sensation?
Yes, I've always been curious if there was a name or explanation for this phenomenon.
I see it discusses more frequently with regards to meditation/yoga than anywhere else. Zen Buddhism has a number of references to this if you dig hard enough.
I suspect this is not the same thing I'm describing. For me, this is not something that happens during meditation, it's something I can cause at will with no difficulty by consciously "letting go" of control of my muscles. I've been able to do this as long as I can remember. It's not a particularly pleasant feeling, a little like being electrocuted, and I can't maintain it for more than a few seconds without feeling like my muscles are going to involuntarily spasm.
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