Day: 10/27/2015

And the disabled get screwed again…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/social-security-advocates-shrug-budget-deal_562fee63e4b0c66bae59fd2c

The bill comes with a host of provisions that tweak disability insurance, and it eliminates a program that allowed 20 states to award disability benefits to some applicants without an independent medical evaluation…

The Social Security provisions, which take up more than a third of the bill’s text, save about $4 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (For some perspective, disability benefits are expected to cost the federal government roughly $144 billion this year.) Congressional aides said the estimated savings come from the medical evaluation requirement that slightly delays new benefits for some people…

http://oig.ssa.gov/audits-and-investigations/audit-reports/A-01-12-11218

SSA’s Single Decisionmaker (SDM) model authorizes disability examiners to make certain initial determinations without requiring a medical or psychological consultant’s signature…

Refurbished McDonald’s comes ‘pre-vandalised’ with spray-painted graffiti

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3290439/I-m-not-lovin-Refurbished-McDonald-s-comes-pre-vandalised-spray-painted-graffiti-factory-theme-locals-aren-t-happy.html

The ‘ghetto’ fast food diner has met with the disapproval of some residents in the upmarket town in London’s commuter belt who claim it looks like a crime scene…

The Futility of Modern Fears

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-futility-of-modern-fears

“The memory is very vivid because if you experienced something bad, you don’t want to experience it again, so you don’t want to forget it,” Burnett said. “The memory system really kicks it up a gear to make sure that this bad thing isn’t lost.” …

Your memory system includes memories of physical pain, too. Chronic pain is the unbroken loop in the nervous system that keeps these pain memories alive and current, just like PTSD keeps memories of trauma near the surface, instead of in the past where they belong.

“As a child, you’re constantly learning and experiencing new things, and you get a more realistic world view and learn that things aren’t frightening,” Burnett said. “As an adult, if you continue experiencing and learning new things all the time, you can stop being afraid.”

Well, I wouldn’t go that far, to say you can stop being afraid. I will always be afraid of bugs, no matter how much I learn about them or how many times I photograph them. I hope my exposure to bugs lessens my fear (and the pounding of my heart when I encounter one), but it’s an automatic response that I cannot control (only try to manage). Kinda like my pain.

Pain patients attacking other pain patients

http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=12307#comment-11975

painkills2, on October 26, 2015 at 7:10 pm said:

Instead of seeking relief from the constant pain, try seeking pleasure to distract yourself from it. I know it’s hard to feel pleasure when it seems like the pain is all that exists, but remember, there is a fine line between pleasure and pain. All you need to do is find a way across that line to find those precious moments of pleasure. And if you can find enough pleasurable moments every day, you can make it to the next day.

Pain patients often feel guilty for feeling any kind of pleasure, like it means their pain isn’t real. We’ve been called fakers for so long that shame is our constant companion. We should all let go of the shame and find pleasure whenever we can.

Instead of asking, “What will relieve my pain,” ask yourself: “Where can I find some pleasure?”

RSD_Lady, on October 27, 2015 at 1:25 am said:

Do you really think that I don’t try to find distractions that are pleasurable and focus on good things like my 12 year old son who means the world to me? Do you think I purposely focus on the pain? There is no polite way to say this but you must have a couple of screws loose and obviously you do not experience severe debilitating chronic pain because if you did you would never make a remark like the one you posted. The best analogy I can give you is being held as a p.o.w by an enemy force. After they beat you and beat you and beat you you just pray that they kill you so that the suffering will finally end. Put that in your pipe and smoke it like my grandma used to say.

painkills2, on October 27, 2015 at 2:38 am said:

I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to the pain patient who has no insurance and can’t afford to treat his pain (and is contemplating suicide). I guess it’s not surprising that patients with access to doctors and prescription medications can’t really understand what I’m talking about. Privilege is often blind — put that fact in your pipe and smoke it.

I’m curious, what benefit do you get out of calling me crazy and questioning my pain? Or how I choose to manage it? I don’t know why some pain patients feel compelled to pick on other pain patients, but I’m downright tired of it.

Do you wanna have a contest to see who’s suffered the longest? Who’s done the most research? Who has the most experience? I’ve logged 30 years as an intractable pain patient, how about you?

As a pain patient, you have a right to be angry. But as a human being, you don’t have the right to treat other people like shit.