Many chronic pain patients suffer from something called central sensitization.

I do, though didn’t really know about it in detail before finding a clinic that treats those patients.

I did 3 weeks at Mayo hospital’s pain rehabilitation clinic to run their program for patients that are all specifically central sensitization. You go in a bit blind not knowing what the program is, intentionally on their part.

It is run by several world class cognitive behavioral therapy doctors, and a team of nurses and physical therapists that work with you daily. It is… aggressive. You have no option to not do physical therapy or cardio, of which there is 2 hours and over 20 exercises to do every day. No matter how you hurt or feel. People who were there were all objectively seriously injured at one point and had like me real issues and real disabilities. The most empathetic thing that could do for you is to not acknowledge your symptoms and just make you do it.

They also took all and I mean ALL medications. Couldn’t have miralax. No advil. No gas medicine from the gas station. Nothing taken for symptoms. You could take things prescribed for conditions like aside reflux disease or insulin for diabetes, but nothing for how you felt.

So imagine having to do 2 hours of intense exercise, giving up all medications in about 3 days time, and doing things cold turkey for 3 weeks without any room to tap out. On top of that it is 35 hours a week of lectures on various topics related to the condition of centralized sensitization, chronic pain stress management, biofeedback, depression, anxiety, and skills to better enable you to live life.

They even held 1 hour sessions a week with family to summarize key lectures and give Q&A for them to help the patients be better supported in this weird chronic pain thing most families don’t understand.

It’s intense and not for everyone, but I went from being unable to do any physical activity, even walking the dog while I was taking pain medications and muscle relaxants etc. I went from that to biking 10 miles a day, at a 3:45 minute mile pace. I started their reconditioning program at 1 lb dumbbells doing curls for ten reps. I am now, 8 months after the program, curling 30 lb dumbbells and doing my own 2 hour workouts every week day.

I am still in incredible amounts of pain. They could not and will not fix the underlying causes physically or biologically.

However, they change patient lives with the CBT focus on how to live a more function filled life with chronic pain. They make us more active and better able to live a life worth living, within the constraints of moderate, sustainable, and adaptable.

Anyway, it changed me life and I would recommend it to anyone if they are in the long term battle with chronic pain. I saw specialists and got dozens of medications and scans for things. Surgical procedures, injections, blocks… you name it.

Only this worked to give me part of my life back.

Good luck to you

What does that have to do with the comment I was responding to then?

If your portfolio was a Fidelity target date fund, it would not be impacted by the local industry you mention in your post.

I also happen to know more about the details of how our retirement fund recommendations to clients works at Fidelity… because I worked there for the last 5 years.

You are showing the results of poor selection on your part.

If you were alive in 1960s America, you would have seen no seat belts, significantly lower life expectancy, children still dying to smallpox and polio, and if you are ethnically from the Middle East; everyone in America would have hated you. Race riots were a massive thing in the 60s, police brutality was rampant against people of color. Even the FBI was trying to suppress race progress.

You have presidents for decades trying to create racist drug politics to entrap only non-white non-affluent people into cyclical prison systems.

You have so much hidden then, that happens today, but it was both hidden and far far greater.

The ideal doesn’t exist at all and more so for someone like yourself.

9mm? 1 round? Nah.

Where do we draw the line between the two?

Is there any line they could cross, any at all in the future, where the label changes in your mind?

There is a reason they call it the strong force.

Get stronger or eat wall.

I would love if you could explain the connection between these two things.

I have my macroeconomics books from college at hand, so so please take your time to be detailed as I won’t dislike reviewing my notes.

Narrator: there is nothing about spending 0.001% of GDP on foreign aid that is of significant impact to inflationary pressures, and OP is speaking out of their ass. To the point where when they fart it sounds like a god damn jazz band.