The Truth About Managing Chronic Pain (w/Dr. Rachel Zoffness)

Why do we reduce humans who suffer with chronic pain to simple molecules and receptors? Pain psychologist Rachel Zoffness, P.h.D. returns to talk fibromyalgia, stomach pain, anxiety, the role of trauma, and much more. Full transcript, audio podcast, links to Dr. Z's book & our prior interview: https://zdoggmd.com/rachel-zoffness-2 Your support keeps us independent and mild-to-moderately awesome: https://zdoggmd.com/supporters Show, podcast, music, support, shop, social media, and email: https://lnk.bio/zdoggmd Key Topics: 0:00 Intro 1:14 The bio-psycho-social nature of pain: phantom limb pain, the limbic system & emotion-pain connection, social contributors 9:00 The stigma of “psychological” pain and holistic approaches to managing it 16:15 The concept of “pain volume” and how emotional states affect it 18:56 Releasing negative emotion: the idea of “tea-kettling” 26:21 Fibromyalgia & trauma, pain amplification and “central sensitization” 33:14 The importance of desensitization practices for chronic pain 36:14 The benefits and risks of narcotics, the danger of removing them too fast 40:41 Sympathetic nervous system, the interaction of trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) 47:44 Placebo & the mind-body connection 53:34 Anxiety/Depression and overmedicalization by Big Pharma 1:00:00 Non-pharmacologic treatments for pain, anxiety, and depression 1:04:06 The mind-gut connection: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, performance anxiety, and more 1:11:14 Emotional repression, fear of speaking and exposure therapy, PTSD 1:18:28 Imposter Syndrome and Dunning-Kruger effect, gender roles (vocal fry/uptalk) 1:25:00 The problem of emotional repression, and solutions 1:28:37 How biofeedback works