@dmac5 I haven't heard of that therapy. I hope that her doctors take her pain seriously and don't push the psychotherapy route on her without doing anything medically. I've been down that road, and benefited very little from things like pain therapy.

Jim

@dmac5

I had to stop writing earlier. Dinner was on the table.

I'm not sure how CRPS wound up with the label "suicide disease". It seems kind of strange.. I know that many medications carry the warning that taking them may cause suicidal thoughts. But that's generally a pretty low chance. In general, that warning is a way to avoid lawsuits.

I started taking antidepressants back in 2004, and every one of them carries that side effect. I tried a bunch of antidepressants before I found one that worked. Along the way, I did experience suicidal thoughts with one of they, exactly the way the label says. On week 5, for a week, I had very strong thoughts of suicide. Exactly a week later the thoughts were gone. So I no longer ignore those possible side effects.

Depression is almost a certainty with chronic intractable pain. I was being treated for depression quite a few years before I began feeling the effects of peripheral neuropathy. I learned that my pain and depression feed on each other. Pain impacts my depression, and likewise, depression worsens the effect that pain has on me.

Our daughter went through a period of depression in high school, and I think that living with a severely depressed father might have helped her understand what she was feeling. We were able to have some healthy conversation about it. Her depression lifted in time, but she has bouts of it from time to time. When I started therapy, she and my wife joined me sometimes, and she continued to meet with the psychologist after I moved on to another therapist.

A very high percentage of people who commit suicide were depressed or had related mental health issues. But the reverse is a different story. I don't know the statistics, but it's a small percentage of people with a mental illness who commit suicide. Certainly, it's something to be aware of, but unless she expresses thoughts of wanting to die, I think you will have a lot of things to deal with without piling on being worried about suicide.

When did you hear that label of suicide disease? I hope that it didn't come from a doctor. Maybe you read it somewhere. If your daughter hasn't heard it, my feeling is that it would surely be counterproductive, to put it mildly, to mention it to her.

Not knowing what the future holds is hard to handle. The journey to finding viable treatment can be long and full of challenges and disappointment. But hope brings courage. And courage strengthens hope.

Have a good week.

Jim

I have had CRPS for over 5 yrs so I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I have tried so many different treatments that only helped temporarily or didn’t help at all.
I was finally introduced to MFR, or Myofascial Release. It is a very specialized form of PR, but with so much more experience and specialized training.
I have been given a new lease on my quality of life since finding this type of therapy.
I would suggest to look in your area for someone who has been trained and certified by the John F Barnes treatment of MFR. Don’t accept someone who SAYS they know who to do MFR, they need to be trained in that specialty, not just regular PT.
GOOD LUCK