pain Archives - Back in Control

The Tragic Decline of Luigi Mangione: Pain, Isolation, and the Human Survival Response

posted in: Recent, Stage 2, Stage 2: Step 1 |

Luigi Mangione’s transformation from a promising academic star to an alleged murderer encapsulates the interplay of evolutionary instincts, physical struggles, and societal pressures. His story is cautionary, revealing the deeper mechanisms of stress and anger rooted in human survival instincts and their misalignment with modern life. The Evolutionary Roots of … Read More

“Our envy of others devours us most of all”

posted in: Recent, Stage 4, Stage 4: Step 4 |

What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary – property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell … Read More

“The Abyss” – Honour your suffering

posted in: Recent, Stage 1, Stage 1: Step 1 |

Objectives: Honor your suffering. You are trapped by physical and mental sensations without an apparent way out. You feel extremely isolated but many people in this hole (The Abyss) are also suffering badly. You are not alone. Your rightful frustration (rage) fires up your symptoms even more. Systematically learning and … Read More

Your Hand Stuck Over the Stove

posted in: Recent, Stage 1, Stage 1: Step 1 |

I often encounter a perplexing situation: A patient experiencing severe chronic pain on my spine intake questionnaire rates him or herself as a zero on a 10-point scale with regards to anxiety, depression, and anger. They may have even undergone multiple failed spine surgeries. Yet upon further, almost intrusive, questioning … Read More

How Many More Neck Surgeries?

posted in: Recent, Stage 5, Stage 5: Step 5 |

One middle-aged patient sought me out in Seattle from the East Coast for a second opinion regarding his neck. He had been disabled since 2001 with chronic pain over most of his body. He had at least 10 additional symptoms of burning, aching, stabbing, and tingling that would migrate throughout … Read More

My Call to Action

posted in: Recent, Stage 5, Stage 5: Step 3 |

Jean was a 48 year-old woman who came to me from a neighboring state for a second opinion. She filled out an extensive spine pain questionnaire, which included many questions about her quality of life, in addition to a history and diagram of the pain. She was a healthy physically active … Read More

Romanticizing Pirates – Normalizing Suffering and Abuse

posted in: Recent, Stage 4, Stage 4: Step 4 |

Each year we return to Italy to spend time with some of our close friends. My wife lived there for seven years and is fluent in Italian. For me, it is a wonderful experience, as we get to enjoy Italian culture at the ground level. One trip was to the … Read More

Married 40 years – What Worked?

posted in: Stage 1, Stage 1: Step 1 |

My brother and I attended a small private college in England in 1975. Over the last 43 years, about 25 of us have enjoyed getting together for reunions. This weekend we had our eighth one. We always have a wonderful time and it’s remarkable how we still think we all … Read More

The Gift of Pain – Thanksgiving 2013

posted in: Stage 4, Stage 4: step 5, Stories of Hope |

Pain, The Gift That Nobody Wants is a book written by an orthopedic hand surgeon, Paul Brand. Through his work in India with lepers he discovered that the reason why they had such severe hand, facial, and foot deformities was that the bacteria resided in sensory nerves and destroyed protective … Read More

A New Life at 72

posted in: Stage 6, Stage 6: Step 2, Stories of Hope |

Crystal is a woman from the southern part of Washington. When I first met her, she was over 70 years-old and lived on her own. She had severe spinal stenosis in her lumbar vertebrae at multiple levels. Stenosis is a condition where bone and ligaments grow around the spinal canal … Read More