Not positive of course, but I’ve also spent a decade looking into chronic pain and at first was strongly against the idea it could be psychological. I was wrong and accepting that has helped me get better.
Some other sources are Unlearn your pain by Sarno, and a bunch of other books.
Also there’s a lesswrong post I can’t paste for some reason but it’s called “The mind-body vicious cycle of RSI and back pain.”
I’ve got a few more bookmarks I’ve collected over the years I can dig up if you’re curious. No solid RCTs as far as I have studied but lots of personal and anecdotal evidence.
I definitely wouldn’t die on the hill that most or even 50% of chronic pain is psychological, but I do think it is a large component. I’m a fan of the bio-psycho-social model of pain myself.
Having had some recurring back spine/nerve related pain after an accident, I'm a bit dubious on the psychosomatic front.
Maybe my pain was just entirely biological because pain killers surely fixed my shit up for a few hours. While not medicated I could "choose" to ignore the pain and it would go away for a while but it would return basically any time I moved "the wrong way" or was "reminded" of my problem spots by a sharp stabbing of pain when rotating my upper torso in a specific way.
You have an injury, brain tightens certain muscles to protect them --> The muscles heal over time, but you have a trapped prior around constricting that area --> If you can't get muscles to release, constant muscular tension begins to cascade into other muscles and areas of the body.
Which implies that painkillers and muscle relaxants can relieve pain for far longer than they're supposed to last in such cases by helping to break the cycle.
Which conforms to my personal experience as well. Though I'd expect cases of chronic pain to be filtered a bit against cases where that works.
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
There’s also some evidence that stress can significantly increase risk of autoimmune disease which can make this whole argument a bit circular. We don’t have great categories yet for discerning between “real” and “psychosomatic” pain.
Even pain as a concept is poorly labeled and understood.
Personal experience with it has convinced me that’s the case.
Not positive of course, but I’ve also spent a decade looking into chronic pain and at first was strongly against the idea it could be psychological. I was wrong and accepting that has helped me get better.
Some other sources are Unlearn your pain by Sarno, and a bunch of other books.
Also there’s a lesswrong post I can’t paste for some reason but it’s called “The mind-body vicious cycle of RSI and back pain.”
I’ve got a few more bookmarks I’ve collected over the years I can dig up if you’re curious. No solid RCTs as far as I have studied but lots of personal and anecdotal evidence.
I definitely wouldn’t die on the hill that most or even 50% of chronic pain is psychological, but I do think it is a large component. I’m a fan of the bio-psycho-social model of pain myself.
Having had some recurring back spine/nerve related pain after an accident, I'm a bit dubious on the psychosomatic front.
Maybe my pain was just entirely biological because pain killers surely fixed my shit up for a few hours. While not medicated I could "choose" to ignore the pain and it would go away for a while but it would return basically any time I moved "the wrong way" or was "reminded" of my problem spots by a sharp stabbing of pain when rotating my upper torso in a specific way.
I think the idea is more like this:
You have an injury, brain tightens certain muscles to protect them --> The muscles heal over time, but you have a trapped prior around constricting that area --> If you can't get muscles to release, constant muscular tension begins to cascade into other muscles and areas of the body.
Which implies that painkillers and muscle relaxants can relieve pain for far longer than they're supposed to last in such cases by helping to break the cycle.
Which conforms to my personal experience as well. Though I'd expect cases of chronic pain to be filtered a bit against cases where that works.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link