memes

It’s chronic, and it’s a nuisance; so it certainly counts.

I’ve had mine since I was probably a teenager. My 9-year-old has it too. He and I are not sure how he got it, and I feel bad for him having to deal with it so young.

Some days are better than others, in so far maybe I’m busy enough to not think about it. Other days, it’s front and center (like right now) and feels louder than usual. It’s the same feeling as with my chronic pain (broken elbow never quite healed right and constantly hurts).

This is like when someone tells a depressed person 'just dont be sad' but I've had tinnitus for over a decade, mine could potentially be minor.

Dedicating a good amount of time to telling myself over and over that the noise didn't exist in my head really helped my ability to deal with it. I don't ever think about it or notice it unless someone says the word tinnitus and my brain keys in on it. If you haven't heard about it before, the drumming on the back of your skill trick is also a real (if very temporary) fix for me and a lot of other people I've talked to.

I'm lucky to have both.

The pain gets worse every year, but I've been dealing with it for closing in on 50 years so... meh I'm mostly used to it.

The tinnitus has a similar timeframe but seems to be getting worse MUCH faster. And is so much more distracting and ruinous to quality of life.

They may be related: https://www.vice.com/en/article/vvb99x/now-we-know-what-causes-tinnitus-that-never-ending-ringing-in-your-ears

Chronic pain and tinnitus, the incessant ear ringing that affects up to 30 percent of the adult population, may share a common source, new research shows. The finding may bring millions of people who suffer from both conditions a step closer to finding relief.

Most people don't really understand arthritis and how many types there are. I sure didn't at first. I dealt with the same thing in my early 20's when diagnosed as well.

I feel you so much. I have migraines since I'm around 8 years old. Back then, in the late 1980's many doctors were of the opinion that children do not have "Headaches". And they told us so repeatedly.

Today sience has caught up on this fortunately and when my niece started to have bad headaches at around 9 years old, there were whole protocols of diagnostics and treatments available.

I was just lucky that my mom had awful headaches as a kid as well that went away with her first prefancy (typically for migraines to start or end with a big hormone change) and she never got diagnosed with migraines, but she still knew how it feels and that I wasn't faking for more attention as the doctors said.

I'm still unconsciously scared that doctors won't believe me and I make a plan before every appointment of what to say, so they will believe me. Its not rational, but I still can't shake the feeling.

As a 17 year old, I unfortunately can relate.

I went and took maternity pictures with my wife yesterday and she was having so much fun. I didn’t complain because I didn’t want to ruin it, but I was so mad at myself because it was all I could focus on.

I’d forget for a second and make a joke to make her laugh and then right back into focusing on the pain.

I’m about burned out with it. I’ll have a good week followed by three months of nonstop misery. I can’t take pain meds because I’m a former addict. I’m terrified to have surgery for that reason.

I don’t know. Sorry to put this here. I wish I were better at suffering in silence. I know I’ve gotta be driving her crazy groaning all the time. I try not to, which makes me super aware of it. It sucks.

It is what it is and we get what we get, but damn I wish I could get some real relief. I’m feeling alright at this moment because I’ve had 4 12% alcohol beers, but when I wake up in the morning I’ll probably spend the first 5 hours of my day wishing I could just be unconscious.

Some of the anti-depressant meds affect things like GABA or norepinephrine (so an SNRI as opposed to SSRI), so it's not just the anti-depressant angle, as they're often used in much smaller doses than when used for depression.

It's pretty fascinating stuff - I just learned about the norepinephrine angle recently. The thinking is that chronic pain causes people to become more sensitive to small pain signals - their nervous system is over-sensitized to pain, and these meds help with reducing the signaling/response to signals.

If you're curious, lookup gabapentin (it's been around for at least 30 years) or tramadol (an SNRI), which has also been around a long time.

I have genitofemoral neuropathy. This is a totally accurate description. The location of the pain sometimes causes me to kick into fight or flight without awareness. I take Neurontin just to keep the edge off and reduce the reaction to the pain. Sometimes I think my pain is only a 4 or 5, but my blood pressure reading will prove otherwise. It’s oddly tolerable at times, and “lock myself away from the world so I’m not a total asshole” other times.

Panic attacks? Too much caffeine? This happens to me when I’m going to sleep, it’s really frightening. If you have any insight let me know.

¿¡Por Qué No Los Dos!?

I suspect that I have Ehlers Danols. I have an appointment with a new doctor next month to look into a possible diagnosis. When my wife first found out about EDS and said she thought I might have it I was just like "whatever", but then the more we looked into it the more my entire life made sense. I'm not saying I hope I have EDS but it would be really nice to actually have an explanation for the constant pain and unstable joints.

Yeah when I first started hearing the ringing, I thought my life was gonna be awful from that point on and I just wanted to give up. Now I hardly notice it most of the time but it's still pretty annoying when I do notice it and I'd love to hear silence again.

I was born with this shit, idk what silence really sounds like :(

Meh. I'm used to it.

I'm sure you already know the dangers, but please be careful with ibuprofen. I was taking a few normal doses a day for a few weeks... It starts to make the world weird. Likely a mixture of the pain I was in, but my eyes and brain were having extreme difficulties just functioning after the 3rd week. Ended up having to just suffer with the pain till my tolerance (and side effects) wore off.

Absolutely agree. I find that marijuana helps. It's not actually a good painkiller per se. Like at all. But when you're more relaxed and chillin, it makes it a bit easier to live with the pain. Not for everyone though, but beats the risk of opiate addiction.

Way too fucking accurate. I feel that my prescriptions don't do shit or make me miserable anyway with side effects.

Meh, everything I've read says that people dealing with chronic pain really don't get the high like someone without chronic pain.

Having dealt with significant chronic pain for 30+ years, even the stronger drugs (like the oxy family) don't do anything other than let me go about my day (though those do make me tired when they wear off).

When my friends or family without chronic pain take similar meds for something like post-op, they're all kinds of wonked out - they get sleepy, disoriented, goofy, etc, at smaller doses than I take.

I don't feel like that from the meds, just reduced pain, same with the people in my pain management group.

I'd say the greater risk is in these people, who only need it for a short time, so they do experience that "everything is alright" effect.

There's some fascinating research these days, into how GABA works, and the interactions with dopamine and norepinephrine. Should help us understand these things better.

I got medical marihuana for my constant migraines. A sufficiant dose to be effective for the headaches made me high as a kite 24/7. No pause, no sobering up in between. No way to function as a human being any time of the day or week or month.

After trying around with several different strands, dosages, applications for months, I gave up and rather live with the pain. At least I can be myself sometimes.

Otherwise your suggestion is absolutely valid. There are plenty of chronic pain patients that become addicts to one thing or another because of that.