I am often asked whether those who developed CRPS at the site of injury (type 2) have lesser of a chance to overcome pain. After all, past injury may be the real source of chronic pain, right? Truth be told, our bodies are designed to self-repair. Absolute majority of injuries eventually heal, so if the doctors tell you that the location of injury looks healthy now, your chronic pain has the same chance of recovery as if it happened without injury (type 1).
Dr. Michael Moscowitz developed severe chronic pain after the waterskiing accident and injury. Not exactly CRPS, because it did not exhibit the more physical symptoms like swelling or skin tone changes, but it was spreading to the rest of his body, very much like CRPS. For 13 years he tried every mainstream and alternative treatment out there, nothing helped. Being a trained neurologist, he finally decided to try neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to change itself. He visualized the image of pain signal appearing in his brain and focused his mind to paint the image of that signal trace in his brain shrinking. Slowly, the pain started moving to a different area and finally shut down completely. He invented a process of re-wiring his brain.
He tried his method with Jan, a nurse with lower five discs in her spine severely injured. She was on high doses of morphine for 10 years, unable to move without severe pain. She was suicidal. Visualization method freed her of pain in a year and a half, despite injury so severe that surgery was deemed impossible.
Since then, Dr. Moscowitz successfully used his method on dozens of patients. You can read his story in more detail here: The Moscowitz Approach.
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