Why I Left My Tech Job to Work on Chronic Pain (#1)

From chronically sore to chronically curious about the mind 🧠

A “grey” matter

I had just about finished moving into my new home in the winter of 2020, when all of a sudden - my right Achilles started feeling pretty sore! For the next 4 years, I continued to accumulate weird and persistent pains in different parts of my body.

Next it was my other Achilles, then my voice, which was followed by my right shoulder, then back to both of my Achilles and then both of my hands/forearms/elbows. My body felt like a block of swiss cheese.

Beyond being well, painful, this experience changed my life.

I could no longer work out, play sports with friends, practise music, nor perform as well as I wanted to at work or in my relationship at the time. It felt like my identity was slowly being pulled apart.

Yet at the same time, I was deeply curious to understand what was going on. This introspection led to me gaining a better understanding of myself - which was key to my recovery.

So, for me chronic pain had a silver - or perhaps more fitting, a grey - lining.

Wait, why are you starting a Substack??

Throughout my journey with this condition I set a goal that when (not if!) I recovered, I would dedicate my creative and working energy toward helping address this incredibly confusing condition. Almost 1 in 5 Australian adults have this condition today! I found it painfully difficult to understand why so many people have to live with this, and it bothers me even more now I know there are ways to recover (in many cases) from chronic pain!

Recovered and ready to embark on this mission, earlier this year I made the fairly chaotic decision to leave my tech job and sell my home in Sydney; to provide the time and finances to support this mission.

This writing series is my first step toward addressing chronic pain. My aim is to demystify what chronic pain is and to connect with more people in this space - i.e. people experiencing symptoms and practitioners working in related fields. My hope is it will provide key information and ideas for those who need it to move back towards life with minimal pain.

Seems like a wrinkly topic, what can I expect?

In the Sail Health blog we will be covering:

• What chronic pain is - covering the conventional pain model, different types of chronic pain, how biological, psychological & social factors interact, key statistics and research!

• The causes of it (and other mind-body disorders) - by exploring the nervous system, pain as an alarm, how chronic brain changes occur (i.e. neuroplasticity) and how personality traits & trauma contribute

• Share actionable strategies for recovery - by going through various self assessments to build confidence this recovery approach is suitable for your chronic pain, a shipload 🚢 of valuable tools which have helped many people so far and some exercises

Additional pieces will follow, but I believe starting with the what, why and how are the key building blocks to navigating these waters.

Why should I read this

So, you might be wondering - why is this relevant to me?

Maybe,

1. I’ve already tried many things for my chronic pain and nothing has worked. Also, reading about it drains me, I already think about it all the time. Or,

2. I don’t have chronic pain, why am I even here?! And what is the meaning of life? :O

Well I’m glad you wondered!

If you’ve already tried many things but haven’t properly explored the mind-body approach to chronic pain, I encourage you to hang in there while we learn more about it and try some of the exercises. The mind-body approach we will explore is grounded in modern pain science and has helped many people recover.

A landmark study carried out in the US in 2021 showed 66% of patients becoming pain-free or nearly pain-free 6 months after starting this treatment. This is much higher than approaches like CBT and much higher (& lasting) than conventional approaches like surgery which are generally ineffective for this type of pain.

Anecdotally, I put off really learning about this space for a while as I was biased towards physical interventions; I didn’t believe the mind could cause symptoms which felt so physical. I also assumed my headspace was healthy (especially as I had already done years of anxiety therapy!) and that my body had to be at fault. It wasn’t until I fully engaged with this approach that I began to realise the cause of my symptoms.

If you don’t have chronic pain and you’re just here for vibes and to see some cute brains, I really appreciate you 💙. I strongly believe anyone with an interest in their wellbeing (that’s hopefully you!) will benefit from learning about how the mind & body work together. This is particularly the case if you have the risk factors which predispose you to chronic mind-body conditions. That is, personality traits including perfectionism, people-pleasing tendencies or anxiety and those who have a great deal of stress in their lives, careers or upbringings.

Disclaimer

Before moving forward - I’m not a doctor. Just a bit of a nerd with a blog. Please do not sue me or use these posts as a replacement for medical care.

That it’s for now folks

Next week we will be exploring what chronic pain actually is! Hope you’re as excited as I am to learn about something very close to your heart - your brain!! (Or just excited to see more brain-y puns and 👴 jokes).

See you then ⛵️