Psychache scale

hello,

I am probably breaking the rules but this is my version of the Holden psychache scale that he used in this paper Development and preliminary validation of a scale of psychache.
By Holden, Ronald R.,Mehta, Karishma,Cunningham, E. Jane,McLeod, Lindsay D.
Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, Vol 33(4), Oct 2001, 224-232

I modified it from the original to suit my needs. You can get the original scale by getting the article. Here is also a blog I wrote on the research article (click here)

PS blank

Blog of the day 2 Jan 19

Pain is gonzo, like totally out of control. Since lowering my mood stabilizer, pain flares have been increasing and harder to control. They also last longer. Had enough of this shit. Fuck. Now question is who the fuck do I tell and beg them to kill me or treat me? Not looking for more pain meds (though wouldn’t mind an increase) but mood needs to be controlled before I have to go back to hosp. Not sleeping, feeling depressed then wired so I am up 20 hours. If I sleep during the day it is my crash. Nerve pain right now is nuts. Bones are killing me, all of them in my ankle and foot. I am scared this is will be it. See psych on Friday and tell her I want to try one anticonvulsant again. Not ideal but shit something needs to be tried. The mood stabilizer I am on was the last of the last. I am fucked if I have to play trial and error again. But pain feeds mood and mood feeds pain so…hoping psych can be my gatekeeper (she is better at it than my chickenshit pcp).

Saw therapist today. Found out my private insurance mh benefits suck so will be staying on Medicare as he is planning on not being a provider of the private insurance. I will be billed $10 then when he leaves them, probably whatever the 20% Medicare doesn’t pay. I am glad this sort of worked out. I just got to change insurance with my psych since it is a new plan. Fun new year shit to go through. Lease my prescription coverage is the same for now. I goofed on the T. I could have had it refilled before the new year but because my sleep cycle has been awful. I never checked it or made note of it. If I made a mental note, haha it went out to pasture. I am glad I got a planner because I am writing it on paper. Helps to see it more. I use my phone calendar a lot but it connects to Big Brother so I rather have paper. I tried to see how much my pain meds would cost but the pharmacy won’t know unless they run it through. So got to wait till next week.

I wanted to write this earlier but brain was mush and pain was just starting to get ugly. I am so tired and hope I sleep tonight. Supposed to snow tomorrow. Just a coating so not bad. My mother wanted me to do an errand for her but it can wait till Friday when I am out again. Be easier for me.

I have been sending my BFF in Canada vids of me being a goof. She loves it. Then her hubby asks why she is laughing. Man it is gonna be weird seeing her in person one day. She loves my accent. I honestly didn’t think I had one. But I played what I recorded today and oh my god. Too funny. I’m glad I can laugh at myself.

Today is transition day 92. Voice is changing. Face is not as smooth as it was so maybe hair is coming (fingers crossed). I shaved my moustache a couple weeks ago and it is just coming in. Don’t know why the sides are thicker than the middle. Weird. I also noticed my sweat is smelly. Got to remember to wear deodorant. I don’t use it much because I am in the house but lately with stupid heat system, I am either too hot or cold. I woke up a couple times so hot I thought I was on fire. Hate winter. Think I got to open the window. Maybe that will even things out. I need a cold room to sleep. Here is a pic of two kittens. One is ginger and the other is black. The ginger has its paws around the black kitten’s head, like it is hugging. The black kitten face is like I know now let me go. Perfect depiction of my BFF and i. I love that pic. One day when we see each other we will make it. Haha

New Year 2019

I may throw in some goals but I really don’t expect them to come to fruition. I’ve been having a hard time sleeping past few nights. Pain has been making sleeping at night impossible. So I sleep during the day to wake up at night to stay up all night. Fun cycle.

Last night I was trying to sleep. I would slightly doze and then wake up in pain, either my foot or ankle or hip. 3 am my hip was hurting because my body was one way and it wanted to lay flat rather than on my side. Had to use a heating pad which needs replacing because it is worn out. It doesn’t get hot like it did only on high setting. So I had this on my hip. And waited for pain to calm down. Then put of the fucking blue, my foot/ankle explode and I am instantly suicidal. Like I want to kill myself right this second. I didn’t know how but as I lay there immobile, I thought of ways. And I swear if I could have moved and acted at that moment, I would have. I was so pissed off. I was a lot of things i don’t remember now nearly 24 hours later. I took an ativan when these thoughts and impulses passed and I could move my hip without screaming. I think I might have taken another pain med too because I was in pain. Around 6, I took 1 neurontin hoping for an hours sleep. It never came. My brain was just fantasizing all these things I had to do today and just wanted to say fuck it and sleep. Did I do that? No.

Around 1030 I got up to start the day. I had to cook 6 pounds of chicken wings for my sister’s party. I had two glasses of coffee before I started. I had to cut the chicken, wash, then cook it. It was falling off the bone when it was done and it was way too early for people to come in. So it just sat on my sister’s counter because my mother had to use our oven for her stuff.

It was a good party. I had two glasses of spiked eggnog. Hoping that would dull the physical pain. Nope. I had stuff to eat. Talked with my cousins. The pain started to get worse. I could barely walk. Noises were affecting me severely. Like I couldn’t handle the loud talk of anyone or the screaming of the two babies or my cousin playing something on his phone. It was just making pain worse. I left. I said happy new year good bye. I got upstairs and didn’t know if I was going to make it. I thought the eggnog was going to come up. I took some zofran. I was late with my meds so took them. I could not lie down. It cold in my room and my foot was so swollen my slipper made an indentation mark. And it was ice cold. Turn on broken heating pad! Luckily it never got painfully cold but did get painfully hot. I am still trying to sleep and failing. I should be tired because I technically have been awake since 30 Dec 7pm! I am not fucking tired. I should be. And after this, I am shutting off the lights and trying for sleep. I realized I probably been having problems because I turned up the heat a degree. Bad choice. I need cold. I should have known when I was sleeping with just my sheet on it was too hot in my room.

I don’t have any 2019 goals like I said. I wanted to end my life 24 hours ago and it is still fresh. I emailed my psych but she is out of office until Wed so probably not going to get a response. I don’t need the hospital. I really just need to stop having flares or have meds to control flares. And then longer I don’t and the longer they last, I am going to be a suicidal maniac. I am hoping it was just the stress of the holidays but I got huge financial worries this month. I got to pay for my meds which I knew but still impulsively bought shit off Amazon. I won’t know what anything costs until later today, I hope. I still won’t know if my therapist is a provider until I see him Wed. And then I will probably need to decrease our sessions because I can’t pay for them. Fun pit in my stomach right now. And then I worry my pain meds won’t get covered or T. We’ll see. I need a refill sometime this month. But if it is really expensive, I don’t know if I can afford it.

So more stress = more pain. Lovely cycle.

About suicide hotlines: My thoughts

About suicide hotlines: My thoughts

some hotlines: Crisis text line 741741, National Suicide hotline 1-800-273-8255, Trans Lifeline 877-565-8860, Trevor Project for LNGTQ 866-488-7386

After a 9 year old that came out as gay to his friend and then killed himself, there has been an increase in sending out the suicide hotline numbers. While I know that sending out and calling does help people, there are other that feel too hopeless and alone, maybe feeling ashamed, maybe feeling no one will understand, and therefore won’t reach out.

One thing that is often said in hindsight of a suicide is why? Why didn’t I see the signs? But knowing the signs are not enough. Often when confronted, people with suicidal thoughts or maybe even planning a suicide, will deny it. It is a sensitive issue. A private issue. I know when my best friend told me at the age of 11 to seek help, my response was “I am not crazy”. With stigma, it is hard to approach someone who is suicidal. Often, there is the thought, no way this person is thinking of suicide, not my child, friend, co-worker, etc. They may deny it and say they don’t because it is against their religion or maybe the person who asks, frightens their friend or family member for fear of being stopped or if they do say yes, the person who asks responds with “don’t do something stupid” or “I will kill you if you do this”, which further alienates the suffering person. I’ve had this experience from two different people. I’ve never understood this logic. I still don’t.

My point of all this is people who are depressed ad suicidal need to feel safe in order to talk openly about their feelings. Often calling a hotline takes a lot of effort to even pick up the phone or dial the number. It is so scary because they are afraid they will be turned away and that holds people back. Or maybe they have phone anxiety like me. The Crisis Text Line is super for those people. But it is still scary to admit they are having suicidal feelings. They don’t know what will happen when they call or text.

In this case of this little boy who apparently was bullied, I don’t know if he would have had access to a phone to reach out and seek help. We often think those under the age of 10 cannot think about suicide but the numbers are growing. I know when I was eight I started having suicidal thoughts and made my first attempt at age 10. I didn’t tell anyone about this besides my best friend. He was probably sick of me talking about it so told me to reach out and then I shut down. I stopped talking about it but the thoughts were still there. When I was 12 I did reach out to Samaritans. I talked to a nice British speaking lady. I was very scared to call. I never had another good experience calling a hotline again. I was often rushed off the phone once I mentioned that I was suicidal.