The incurable suicide disease that causes debilitating pain and can be triggered by smiling
They say laughter is the best medicine — unless it feels like a lightning bolt to the face.That’s the brutal reality for sufferers of trigeminal neuralgia, a nerve disorder so painful it’s earned a chilling nickname: the “suicide disease.”Roughly 15,000 Americans are diagnosed each year, making it one of the top causes of facial pain in the US.Here’s what you need to know about the condition that turns everyday moments into sheer agony.The condition affects the trigeminal nerve, which provides sensation to most of the face and the surface of the eye, according to the Mayo Clinic.
When it flares up, trigeminal neuralgia delivers an intense, stabbing pain often described as an electrical shock to one side of the face. It can be triggered by common actions such as brushing your teeth, shaving, applying makeup, chewing, eating, talking, smiling or yawning.Even a light breeze can send a patient into a world of hurt.“It was the worst pain I’ve ever imagined.
It was like someone taking a hot knife and putting a hot electrical wire to it,” said Ben Weiskopff, a patient with the condition, in an interview with UPMC Medicine.“Even to make eye contact with someone was hard because my eye would water and I would have spasms of pain,” he added. The unyielding pain of trigeminal neuralgia can push sufferers to their breaking point, significantly affecting their quality of life and often leading to severe severe anxiety, depression and even suicidal ideation. “I stopped going out or even being with friends.I never knew when the pain would hit or how long it would last,” Kristin L.
Fletcher, a retired attorney with the condition, told Weill Cornell Medicine. “I have a very high threshold for pain, but even I began telling myself (and several close friends) that if the meds failed and surgeries didn’t help, I would go into the woods and end it all,” she added. It’s a tragic thought that many sufferers share. A recent study of 229 adults ...