CRPS is brutal. The pain is so extreme, it robs its victims of will power and desire to fight. Prescription opioids routinely prescribed for CRPS often come with serious side effects, causing drug dependency, reduced inflow of oxygen into the brain, confusion, and drowsiness. Each one of those side effects alone can kill any desire to make any effort, but those side effects usually come on top of the pain that may have been reduced by the drugs, but always present.
What does it do to the CRPS patients? They stop believing that their condition can be reversed, and they give up. Slowly, patients get used to being disabled and they surrender to a victim mentality. They know their pain is forever and they are skeptical of anything that may bring the ultimate end to their suffering.
But something amazing happens when people learn that they can take their life back and overcome their pain. Slowly, day by day, they learn how to change their way of thinking about their illness and to re-wire the brain to respond differently to events of life. The power of positive thinking and the power of determination produces amazing results!
I am deeply inspired by Kay, whose success story you can read here:
She was beaten down by the relentless onslaught of CRPS and the understanding that she would have to live with it forever. A chance encounter brought her knowledge that pain signals were generated by her brain. That was enough for her to start on the path of improvement. Empowered by knowledge and knowledge only, she was able to overcome CRPS by way of mindfulness and meditation. She still has occasional relapses, but she knows how to bounce back through meditation, and she knows that relapses are getting shorter and less painful.
This is from Kay: “entered 2022 in a better place than 2020 or 2021!”. If you are just starting on the path to end CRPS, I wish you all to say the same a year later!
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