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Where Does It Hurt?: Life With Chronic Pain - A memoir
The true experts when it comes to understanding the problem of persistent pain, its impact and potential solutions, are those challenged by pain who take on a journey of discovery and manage an often remarkable recovery. Here is a book written by such an expert.
--Lorimer Moseley, PhD., professor of clinical neurosciences and chair in physiotherapy at the University of South Australia, Adelaide.
Why do some people continue to feel pain long after they've healed? How can people feel pain from limbs that have been amputated? And what makes people with horrific injuries sometimes insensitive to pain? The truth is that pain is far from straightforward, and most of what is now known about it has only recently been discovered. Part memoir, part medical investigation and part manifesto for non-medical cures, Tim Atkinson's candid and revealing memoir about his own experience of living with chronic pain will help start a conversation one the subject of this medical mystery.
But although “Where Does it Hurt?" is about life with chronic pain, it is anything but a misery memoir. After all, some people (22% of men and 12% of women according to Kinsey) actually enjoy it, and they're in the book as well. There have been huge strides in pain science in the last five years and the plethora of pain books testifies to an insatiable market. But there is a need for a book by someone with their own story to tell, an "expert" as the world's leading pain scientist Professor Lorimer Moseley says. And after twenty years suffering constant pain from chronic arthritis Tim Atkinson is certainly that.
Chronic pain has been called 'the silent epidemic' and affects more than two fifths of the UK population. It has been declared a disease in its own right by the World Health Organisation. Tim Atkinson's account of a life lived with chronic pain and his attempts to kick a dangerous opioid addiction is a moving story of a personal struggle shot through with the latest science. And with a happy ending!
--Lorimer Moseley, PhD., professor of clinical neurosciences and chair in physiotherapy at the University of South Australia, Adelaide.
Why do some people continue to feel pain long after they've healed? How can people feel pain from limbs that have been amputated? And what makes people with horrific injuries sometimes insensitive to pain? The truth is that pain is far from straightforward, and most of what is now known about it has only recently been discovered. Part memoir, part medical investigation and part manifesto for non-medical cures, Tim Atkinson's candid and revealing memoir about his own experience of living with chronic pain will help start a conversation one the subject of this medical mystery.
But although “Where Does it Hurt?" is about life with chronic pain, it is anything but a misery memoir. After all, some people (22% of men and 12% of women according to Kinsey) actually enjoy it, and they're in the book as well. There have been huge strides in pain science in the last five years and the plethora of pain books testifies to an insatiable market. But there is a need for a book by someone with their own story to tell, an "expert" as the world's leading pain scientist Professor Lorimer Moseley says. And after twenty years suffering constant pain from chronic arthritis Tim Atkinson is certainly that.
Chronic pain has been called 'the silent epidemic' and affects more than two fifths of the UK population. It has been declared a disease in its own right by the World Health Organisation. Tim Atkinson's account of a life lived with chronic pain and his attempts to kick a dangerous opioid addiction is a moving story of a personal struggle shot through with the latest science. And with a happy ending!
249 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 13, 2021
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Tim Atkinson
26 books20 followersTim Atkinson is a teacher, author and award-winning blogger. He was born in Colchester, brought up in Yorkshire and now lives in Lincolnshire. Having studied philosophy at the University of Hull he worked variously as a filing clerk, lay-clerk, chain-man and school teacher. He taught philosophy at a boys' grammar school and psychology at a girls' high school and is now a full-time writer. Among his books are the novel ‘Writing Therapy’ (2008) and ‘The Iliad: A Study Guide’ (2017). He also edited the new writing anthology ‘Tiny Acorns’ (2010).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 24, 2022
Tim has arthritis. It was diagnosed when he was a young man in his twenties and it means that he endures constant, chronic pain and will be on a cocktail of drugs for the rest of his life. This is Tim's reflection on his uneasy relationship with his body and specifically his pain and an exploration of what, if anything can be done that doesn't involve an increasingly difficult dependence on drugs.
Tim explores pain from all angles and speaks to other people about their relationship with it in order to figure out how he feels and what he wants to do. As this is a personal memoir, he takes great care to point out that pain is an extremely personal (and therefore tricky to treat) experience and what may or may not work for him, may not be for you, but it does give you options if you are a fellow chronic pain sufferer. It's lively and engaging and well researched and gives you lots of places to start doing your own investigating if you're reading it because you want to explore or understand your own relationship with pain.
Tim explores pain from all angles and speaks to other people about their relationship with it in order to figure out how he feels and what he wants to do. As this is a personal memoir, he takes great care to point out that pain is an extremely personal (and therefore tricky to treat) experience and what may or may not work for him, may not be for you, but it does give you options if you are a fellow chronic pain sufferer. It's lively and engaging and well researched and gives you lots of places to start doing your own investigating if you're reading it because you want to explore or understand your own relationship with pain.
November 22, 2021
As a long term sufferer of chronic arthritic pain, I am keen to read any thing that might help with my condition, so when I spotted Tim's new book I got my creaky hands on a copy straight away.
As with all Tim's writing, this is a thoroughly engaging, interesting and laugh out loud funny look at the world. He takes us on a journey through pain, it's almost a study of pain in all its forms.
By the end I was waiting for the answer to be a strict diet or some kind of supplement I hadn't tried, but as Tim points out, as he winds through chapters on BDSM and cold water swimming, the answer is unique for us all. And the answer is in our brains.
Thank you Tim!
As with all Tim's writing, this is a thoroughly engaging, interesting and laugh out loud funny look at the world. He takes us on a journey through pain, it's almost a study of pain in all its forms.
By the end I was waiting for the answer to be a strict diet or some kind of supplement I hadn't tried, but as Tim points out, as he winds through chapters on BDSM and cold water swimming, the answer is unique for us all. And the answer is in our brains.
Thank you Tim!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews