Does anyone struggle with chronic pain?

wanderinghorn

And do you eat things that are not good for you to help ease the pain (at least for a while). It does actually make me feel better to eat things like pasta, bread or pizza during these times. Maybe it is because I am so nausiated with the pain and the carbs help with that? If you have conquered this, can you please give me some pointers? Thx!

kasmir8199

I get headaches daily. Really bad ones at that. My neurologist could only pinpoint something wrong behind my eyes (hypertension localized to the area around my optic nerve). Sometimes eating seems to sooth it, but it doesn't make sense to me and it has become an awful way for me to cope with it. I now try to only manage it with mild meds (Tylenol, Advil, etc.). I've found that even my prescriptions cause me to have the munchies. I also try to get that "runner's high" that you get with a lot of exercise. It helps a great deal. THAT science I DO understand.

Buccinator

I have an autoimmune disease (undifferentiated connective tissue disease, which my doctors think will later turn into lupus) and maybe another autoimmune disease. They haven't quite made up their mind yet. I've been sick for three years. And haven't been on anything for these problems for three years. I went to The Mayo Clinic a month or so ago and they've supposedly sorted me out and I should be starting medications soon, so hopefully that will help. When my joints and bones hurt really bad I crave dairy. Like, I kinda sorta had FOUR string cheese, two yogurts, and a Laughing Cow wedge yesterday. :ohwell:

And when my pain is really bad it makes me sick to my stomach. The pain is so intense I vomit, I pass out, the whole deal. So far I haven't had that while on my whole eating healthy/exercising thing, but I do get a LOT worse in the fall and winter, and I was doing REALLY, really well this summer (Started here the last week of August.) and for the past two weeks or so I've been in absolute agony. Not as bad as usual, but I'm afraid of what lies ahead.

I think it's up to you. You're the only one who knows what is going on with your body. If your body is okay, stick with the healthy stuff, do the exercise. If you're not feeling well and the only thing your body will accept (When I'm queasy the only thing that sounds good is cheesy bread!) is something against the rules, then do that. But as soon as you're feeling better, right back to it. You're different from everyone else. No one says "Hey, you're fine, you've gotta eat this and this and lose all this weight in this amount of time." You're dealing with a health issue here and that affects the diet.

That's how I do it anyway.

Sorry that was long and rambly. A lot of that was really stuff I needed to tell myself. I'll go be a crazy lady somewhere else now.

anvy0530

I don't know that I have conquered it but I'll tell you what works for me. I don't know the nature of your pain but mine is from fibromyalgia and I have suffered from it for about 5 years now. For a while, I actually had a handicapped parking placard, because walking was so painful. I, too, filled up on starchy foods and told myself it made me feel better. I honestly don't know if the carbs made me feel physically better or I had just soothed my emotions with them or what, but I thought it made me feel better for a while. A lot of stuff happened and...to make a really long story short...I nearly died and my pulmonologist told me I had to walk for 10 minutes every day. At the time, this was very painful for me but I did it (I had nearly died of blood clots in my lungs and the movement keeps the blood flowing). I slowly worked up the amounts of exercise and I also found an acupuncturist to help me with my pain and those two things worked wonders. In about 5 months, I went from being almost incapable of walking to jogging short distances and I came off ALL of my pain medications. I also found that the starchy foods I thought helped me with the pain, really only gave me a short buzz and then I ended up feeling worse than before. The bad food was a band-aid I slapped on the problem instead of dealing with it. Once I got my treatment working, I found that I didn't need those foods so much. Yes, I still crave them. Yes, they are still the first thing my mind turns to when I have a flare up. But I do not automatically reach for them. I, instead, do things to help my body. A lot of my pain is muscular, so I will take a warm bath with bubbles & relaxing music. My pain is also triggered by stress so I make a point to exercise daily for stress relief and have learned meditation techniques that also help keep me in-tune with my body. I haven't seen my acupuncturist since I moved out of the country earlier this year, but I used to make an appointment with her if I was having a flare up - now I just have to make do with massage and yoga.

I don't know if any of this helps you at all - as I really don't know what kind of pain you deal with. But I would suggest you try to do something soothing for yourself instead of eating junk foods. Good luck!