Can this be true and what should we do?

[crokarls]

My dad has severe pain in the stomach area, he feels like vomiting but he can't. He also suffers from neuropathy and depression, all caused by that severe pain and that severe pain was caused by diabetes. He lost 40 kg in 3 months, no now he is doing a lot better but still when he is in pain, it is really bad. He often thinks that this will never heal, he is telling that he is going to kill himself and so on...when he is alright he knows that he has been telling stupidities. My question is: can it be that he is so used to this pain so automaticly, when it starts to hurt him a little bit, his brain generates bigger pain than he is feeling? Can it be that he thinks too much about the pain and so it starts to hurt him? Will dealing with depression lower those thoughts and pain? Please help us, because we need it. Bless you in advance P.S. sorry if i spelled something wrong, im not english

[VICourageous]

Hello!
I am active over in another area on this site, but I thought I would come over here for info. Pax gave you some great advice. There are a few things I would like to add and by all means I am NO DR. Just a woman who has experienced many different drugs in my life and now I am over 3 yrs clean & sober.
The Endorphins in our brain mean "Morphine inside" which means that some of us have a lot of natural pain relief by this transmitter or brain chem and other do not have much at all. The one thing that sticks out is his medication or opiates, if that is what he is on. You do build up a tolerance to these pain meds and we end up needing more. This is because the receptors get full. So if he just takes them now and then, he could be going through a small w/d when he stops and goes again. Also the Stomach has Receptors in there and they to get plugged..sort of speaking.When we stop these meds, our receptors in our stomach will want to clear up and this will cause some bad stomach issues. Not sure if I am on the right track here or not, but I thought I would give you a bit more insite on the opiates. Also, I had dealt with some bad stomach issues yrs later and now I take a great Probiotic. I do order it from a good source, as I had studied this for yrs now. We can develop some bad Bactria in our stomachs and intestinal that can cause some serious issues. I do NOT know any thing about his health, or how he eats, but you might want to look into that too. Other wise, I do wish him the best, and maybe he is like me, and we need to get out more and do more things with other ppl. Best of Luck!
Bless
Vickie

[Paxiled]

You inspire me.  My family and friends abandoned me when I got mental illness, I wish I had a family like yours.  All the best for the best outcome.

[Paxiled]

This is something common with anyone who suffers pain -- for one thing, some people for unknown reasons have higher pain thresholds than others, and it's well known that people who don't sleep well or enough, people who are anxious or depressed will feel worse and often fare worse with medical care than people who are not depressed.  It's also true that being in pain and sick all the time can make anyone depressed.  Since I'll never know him, I can't tell you what he's like, and since you're not him you can't tell what he's really feeling.  I can tell you that I have a pain problem due to a bad experience with a medication that wrecked my mental health far worse than it had been, and one result has been a lot of pain that has doctors often mystified, but I've also found that doctors aren't that great at what they do and are often secretly mystified.  That makes it hard to know what's really going on and what doctors are just telling us to either make us feel better or more optimistic or to just get us out of their hair so they can take more patients.  In truth, it doesn't matter if the pain is worse because he's sad, he's still feeling the pain, and unless you can find a way to alter his mental approach he's going to be this way.  My Mom suffered with cancer for several years, and before that she'd never been depressed at all, but it did get to her after awhile.  It's also true that strong painkillers can increase depression in many people, as they're downers, and taking less is better than taking more.  Life is just pretty awful at some point for all of us unless we die quickly in our sleep, and some people just suffer more pleasantly than others.  Do you think he's in the kind of shape to get happier?  To make changes somewhere that will give him some sense of positive purpose?  

[crokarls]

Thank you very much again. Yes, he is definetly in shape to get better and he is really trying. He often says, ''Sometimes I don't even know why am I sad when I have the most amazing family'' So, yes he definetly is and we are doing our best to make him better and I know it will get better, it's just the matter of time. I just think it is better that we all stay positive and we will go through this much quicker and easier. Bless you

[crokarls]

Thank you so much for this! I have one more question to ask, if you are willing to answer. He drinks a lot of medications and those are the strongest ones. Now, I'm no doctor but I know from other cases that if you drink those strongest medications they will lower the pain or make it stop. But it doesen't happen to him. We noticed that when he is calm and starts to hurt him, we give him his medications like doctor said and that makes his pain go away. But when he is depressed and starts to hurt him and we give him his meds, they won't help at all becuse he is thinking too much of the pain. That is the main reason why we think it is a bigger problem in his head. This is not exactly a question than, but more an update. Please, if I gave some more info and you know something more, please answer and thank you again! P.S. he also sometimes when he is calm tells us that he is sometimes over exaggerating

[Paxiled]

Yes, it is possible.  And it's also possible that he's feeling genuine pain.  Not a satisfactory answer, but it's the truth.  When doctors can't figure out why someone is in pain, they will often blame it on excessive firing of nerves or emotional reasons.  It might be true, might not be.  Sometimes a person just needs a better doctor.  In your father's case, if the doctors know what's wrong and say that causes this pain, then it's unlikely he's making more of it than it really is.  If they're saying they can't find a reason for the pain, then it could be what you say and it could be they've gone beyond their knowledge and ability.