Some science to back up my “woo”

I don’t talk about this as much as I should. Mostly because I feel super woo-woo saying this, but it’s true: I healed my physical body from chronic pain using mind/body techniques. 

Now, did I engage in mind/body techniques with that goal in mind? Nope. I was just trying to survive the day. 

Was I an expert in these methodologies? Nope, I was just a stubborn person who hurt who had nothing better to do than read a lot of books and watch a lot of YouTube videos. 

Did I have any idea that the practices I engaged with would have a profound impact on my life? Also, no. I was desperate to feel better. That’s all I had going for me. 

I had my last big flare up with severe pain in 2019. It’s wild to me that a doctor once told me in 2014 that I’d always feel as horrible as I did. That I should take comfort in the idea that my pain was a "nuisance" symptom. That I should learn to modify my life in order to live with it. 

I am so glad that I am so stubborn and that I went out in search of answers on my own. 

It’s why I am SO excited for this afternoon. I’m interviewing an expert on chronic pain for my work. He studies Pain Reprocessing Therapy. According to their website, it’s an evidence-based psychological treatment that aims to change the brain’s response to pain signals. It involves techniques designed to help the brain process and reinterpret body signals accurately, thereby reducing or eliminating the pain experience.

He’s got evidence. Lots of true, scientific evidence that we can heal our bodies from chronic pain. We’ll be specifically talking about a rigorously designed randomized controlled trial with placebo and usual care comparisons and long-term follow-up indicating a large degree of long-term effectiveness for PRT!

(Not that I engaged in official PRT – just excited to learn that there may be some science to back up my WOO.) 

That’s some gold medal science right there. Stay tuned!