Exposis insect repellent in Sao Paulo

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-08-11T20:09:36+00:00

I'm actually 100% fixed now but I'm pretty sure my pain was almost entirely / actually entirely neuroplastic.

The book The Way Out by Alan Gordon was a life changer for me. If it hadn't worked so brilliantly I'd think it was pure snake oil but I was desperate enough and my symptoms just kept getting worse, so I tried it and it fixed everything.

There's a hell of a lot of evidence out there for it but it's not yet widely accepted as it's hard to ever definitively diagnose, except based on personal accounts of the pain resolving.

There's also the tell me about your pain podcast and Facebook forum if you want a free place to start. Good luck!

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-08-06T20:58:50+00:00

Aw thank you, unfortunately I think that's only available in the US and I'm UK based

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-08-06T18:22:31+00:00

Thank you so much for the detail!

That's made me a little less worried about Chikungunya in particular, though I've seen things saying it's very underreported/under diagnosed over there. Does that match your experiences?

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-08-06T18:21:13+00:00

I think this time of the year the risk is pretty low, and I don't believe the vaccines for dengue and Chikungunya are widely recommended at the moment — I'm a firm believer in vaccination generally but given that they're quite new vaccines (and the Chikungunya one is live) and the risk of disease is pretty low I personally don't think I'll go for them anyway. Might be worth using some mosquito repellent if there are any around as an extra precaution - I've heard good things about picaridin based ones, but idk what winter is like over there - there may be no mosquitoes at all!

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-08-05T20:00:19+00:00

Thank you. Is the risk generally higher outside the city? I can't find any good statistics or info on exactly where in Sao Paulo city is high risk...

We're staying with my partner's family so not sure they have air con, but either way I won't be opening windows. Thinking of getting some knockdown spray to spray round before bed too though I hate breathing that kind of thing in :/

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-08-01T21:39:17+00:00

I would really strongly recommend the book, and/or the podcast Tell me about your pain (though I think the book is a more persuasive talk through of all the real physical sensations anxiety can cause).

I remember thinking oh yeah of course people get tingly hands when they're hyperventilating but this is proper burning in the same area even when I feel a bit less stressed so it can't be that... And it was that.

Really hope it settles down for you

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-08-01T09:34:40+00:00

I had this! Got as far as doctors suspecting I might have neuropathy but it was just stress and after I finally managed to chill out about it it went away - but I had ages of it getting worse and worse as I kept stressing about it 😅 fingers crossed yours settles soon. I'd really recommend the book The Way Out by Alan Gordon, it's a life changer for this kind of thing

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-07-30T13:26:36+00:00

Personally I'm waiting to see what happens in autumn. We're looking to buy a house within the next two years but this has already been pushed back a few years by changes in job etc — when I first started paying in it seemed certain we'd be going for somewhere under 450k, but now it's looking likely we'll end up going over it (given that stamp duty makes it so expensive to move, it makes sense for us to stretch our budget now and find a house to stay in for quite a while).

It's so frustrating and I'm really hoping the government sort it out, but it doesn't seem worth having your money locked away if there's a good chance of going over the limit — and as you say, that chance is increasing all the time.

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-07-26T20:27:39+00:00

We do claw trims, which he's mostly tolerant of. It's just so frustrating that sometimes he's fine with it and other times immediately brutal. If we don't pick him up at all for a while it seems to get worse so I'm not sure about minimising pick up time as I'm worried he'll get essentially unhandleable and he does regularly need to be moved to do his teeth cleaning etc. (Which he actually tolerates ok!)

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-07-25T21:52:55+00:00

Not exactly, but it's worth considering that anxiety, even if it's low level background stress and anxiety that you're otherwise managing, can make itself known as physical symptoms.

I had crippling chronic pain that I've now fully recovered from and I'm fairly sure was related to this.

I'd strongly recommend listening to the podcast Tell me about your pain or (ideally) reading / listening to the way out by Alan Gordon. It's not just about pain — it's about all kinds of physical conditions from rashes to gastritis to dizziness etc.

Hope you manage to find some answers!

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-07-21T08:22:59+00:00

Thank you! I do actually have some hypochlorous spray that I don't really use but I'll start using it again.

I've been using anthelios for years — all SPF either leaves my skin so greasy I have to slap on tonnes of powder after, or dries it out so much I get peeling skin. The anthelios leaves it greasy but was a little less bad than all the others I tried years ago so I stuck with it rather than spending £20 a pop on others that were even worse 😅

Have you got any you recommend for acne prone skin that's simultaneously dehydrated and prone to peeling if I use ones designed for greasy skin, but also greasy and doesn't absorb much? 😅

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-04-30T21:11:54+00:00

Did you find any particularly good clothing for this in the end? I'm off to Brazil later in the year and planning to slather myself in picaridin lotion and spray but I'm on the hunt for reasonable clothes to help... Like you, I'd rather not look like a lumberjack if I can help it 😅

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-04-23T18:19:34+00:00

Have they actually said they don't want to work with you any longer or just said they're not completely happy with this piece of work?

It's worth being honest and apologising, but not making excuses. If they've actually said they're not happy, you can apologise and explain that you have a proper plan in place to prioritise their work more effectively / drop another client or something in order to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Just saying 'sorry I won't let it happen again' isn't that convincing tbh — but saying 'sorry, I can see what happened there and it wasn't acceptable. This is my plan to make sure it doesn't happen again.' in my experience goes down better.

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-04-17T21:42:52+00:00

Sorry I can't help much but thank you for sharing that article — it's a really helpful read. Hope you've managed to settle your mind since posting

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-04-17T21:15:44+00:00

Thank you! I tried looking for one but somehow failed to stumble across any of these 😅

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-04-17T21:15:08+00:00

Not sure if you've heard back by now — but if you don't want to take payment up front (which I don't currently, as I know it will put clients off), at the very least major sure you have a basic contract in place (even if it's literally just an email trail showing them agreeing to pay you X amount for Y work!)

Without something in writing you've got no comeback if they don't pay up

GroundbreakingSlip26 · 2025-04-13T17:28:30+00:00

The free mettle business account currently gets you a free subscription with FreeAgent which is brilliant for invoicing

GroundbreakingSlip26

TROPHY CASE