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I suffer from chronic pain (pain 24/7, or at least when awake, varying degrees from bad to terrible terrible pain) and have done for 10 years now. To answer yo

I suffer from chronic pain (pain 24/7, or at least when awake, varying degrees from bad to terrible terrible pain) and have done for 10 years now. To answer your question: no. I do know that my tolerance for pain is significantly higher than most people. I still feel the constant pain from when I wake up to when I fall asleep. Its a horrible thing. It affects my mind when I am trying to write code just like it would your mind. I have had all the best medical treatment possible. There is nothing they can do, so I am voluntarily now off all opioids and other analgesics. I would rather be in pain and have as clear a mind as possible that be high and in less pain ... also the cycle of taking opioids -> tolerating them -> needing them but not getting much benefit -> going off them -> withdrawal -> going back on them ... is not pleasant. The only way to "win" is to ignore it. To go on with life as if I was not in so much agony. The moment people stop and give up, they are destined for a life of being bed ridden, unemployment, hooked on drugs and even more pain (less exercise, less social contact etc. leads to more pain). Ignoring it takes an incredible amount of mental discipline. Plenty of people with chronic pain end up bed ridden, unemployed and sometimes suicide. I have considered an electronic implant after my docs suggested it. For my specific case its very much experimental. It would cost me a fortune with no guarantee of success ... and always a chance of something bad happening. I don't want to pay for the privilege of being the lab rat so the surgeon can write a paper about me in a medical journal. I will wait and see how this tech develops. When there is a 75% chance of it working I will go ahead. Until then I would rather not have to sell my house. (throwaway account)

silencio 12y ago
> Ignoring it takes an incredible amount of mental discipline. This is such an understatement. I don't have 24/7 pain but I have nerve pain that is not very responsive to anything. I can live with the little twinges but if my legs feel like they're on fire, I can barely focus on personal tasks (eating, sleeping, showering, getting out of bed in the first place...) let alone any work. I cannot even begin to imagine what I'd do if it was significantly worse. I live my life the best I can, but I find myself getting more and more angry, leading to more pain, leading to more anger... there is not even an experimental treatment for my problem, which I'd happily go for. It's only pretty much taking whatever I can tolerate to take the edge off the worst pain for a few hours at best (where it's meds like anticonvulsants and TCAs, not as much opioid use), or something with a side effect that helps - getting really high so I stop caring, or making me really sleepy so I can rest. Add CBT for anger and whatever non-drug options are out there, and it's just workable until this fixes itself eventually, hopefully.
- throwaway91214 12y ago
  hang in there friend.
senorprogrammer 12y ago
As someone with chronic pain, nope, I don't think one builds up a tolerance to it. Instead, I think I'm lucky in that the severity waxes and wanes. Below some threshold it recedes from being pervasive, going into the background and I have to go consciously looking for it to see if I'm still feeling it. Exceed that threshold and it's always there, front and centre, just pain. At that point, as throwaway91214 says, I consciously try to ignore it. When it exceed the next threshold, life pretty much stops for awhile until it recedes again. Those are the sleepless nights and long, minimal days. (I use the notion of thresholds for simplicity, it's perhaps closer to an exponential scale). I've had mine for about eleven years. Such is life.
- throwaway91214 12y ago
  I am the same. I can ignore it until a certain level, then I just have to stop being productive and ride it out. The trick is to not worry about the effect stopping to ride it out has on your life. Worrying about not working/playing/socializing because it might annoy a boss/client/girlfriend/family/friend or because it will mean less money/friends/etc. Edit, and hang in there friend. I don't know about you but for me its unlikely to ever get better. I am not an optimist, but there is still a lot of cool shit in this world to enjoy. We are lucky to live in the age we do.

silencio 12y ago

> Ignoring it takes an incredible amount of mental discipline. This is such an understatement. I don't have 24/7 pain but I have nerve pain that is not very responsive to anything. I can live with the little twinges but if my legs feel like they're on fire, I can barely focus on personal tasks (eating, sleeping, showering, getting out of bed in the first place...) let alone any work. I cannot even begin to imagine what I'd do if it was significantly worse. I live my life the best I can, but I find myself getting more and more angry, leading to more pain, leading to more anger... there is not even an experimental treatment for my problem, which I'd happily go for. It's only pretty much taking whatever I can tolerate to take the edge off the worst pain for a few hours at best (where it's meds like anticonvulsants and TCAs, not as much opioid use), or something with a side effect that helps - getting really high so I stop caring, or making me really sleepy so I can rest. Add CBT for anger and whatever non-drug options are out there, and it's just workable until this fixes itself eventually, hopefully.

throwaway91214 12y ago
hang in there friend.

senorprogrammer 12y ago

As someone with chronic pain, nope, I don't think one builds up a tolerance to it. Instead, I think I'm lucky in that the severity waxes and wanes. Below some threshold it recedes from being pervasive, going into the background and I have to go consciously looking for it to see if I'm still feeling it. Exceed that threshold and it's always there, front and centre, just pain. At that point, as throwaway91214 says, I consciously try to ignore it. When it exceed the next threshold, life pretty much stops for awhile until it recedes again. Those are the sleepless nights and long, minimal days. (I use the notion of thresholds for simplicity, it's perhaps closer to an exponential scale). I've had mine for about eleven years. Such is life.

throwaway91214 12y ago
I am the same. I can ignore it until a certain level, then I just have to stop being productive and ride it out. The trick is to not worry about the effect stopping to ride it out has on your life. Worrying about not working/playing/socializing because it might annoy a boss/client/girlfriend/family/friend or because it will mean less money/friends/etc. Edit, and hang in there friend. I don't know about you but for me its unlikely to ever get better. I am not an optimist, but there is still a lot of cool shit in this world to enjoy. We are lucky to live in the age we do.