Thank you for sharing these valuable thoughts. I had never considered the idea of 'pain alarm' in the context of chronic pain and now I wonder how much of what I am going through is caused by dysregulation in the wake of too many months of pain provoked/aggravated by triggers - as much as by surrounding anxiety. You probably have too much on your hands to have a look at this, but I wrote about it just the other day - in case it is relevant to anyone else. (Although I don't have useful suggestions). I'll follow your advice of 'sitting with the pain'. Medical treatment has been quite ineffective so far, or maybe it's just unfathomably slow :)
Yes, with chronic pain, the alarm can be set to go off and not realize there is no longer any need to go off - it gets stuck on. So I'd love to know if sitting with it helps it move along or helps to teach it the alarm isn't needed. I also wonder if parts work would help - Internal Family Systems is a non-pathologizing approach to psychology but also has been proven to reduce pain and inflammation in a group of 30 women with RA in an outcome study... it helps to guide you to reach out to parts of you that might be using the pain to get your attention. What do they want to let you know?
Grateful for this discussion - There is a constant struggle with needing to stay engaged and actively resist what is happening in our country but also a very visceral desperation to protect my mental health.
Yes, Carol, thanks so much for your response! It's so hard to find the balance of what can I do and what is too much. Especially if we're living with any level of nervous state dysregulation or neurodiversity. They, (not just the government but the media, the charities -- living through their own fears and projecting all of them onto us in emails -- and the NGOs), bombard us all. I turn them off, or as the saying goes, it's a turn-off! (So I get off at the next exit, reset, find my purpose and move forward with that.)
Thank you for sharing these valuable thoughts. I had never considered the idea of 'pain alarm' in the context of chronic pain and now I wonder how much of what I am going through is caused by dysregulation in the wake of too many months of pain provoked/aggravated by triggers - as much as by surrounding anxiety. You probably have too much on your hands to have a look at this, but I wrote about it just the other day - in case it is relevant to anyone else. (Although I don't have useful suggestions). I'll follow your advice of 'sitting with the pain'. Medical treatment has been quite ineffective so far, or maybe it's just unfathomably slow :)
https://open.substack.com/pub/drawnfromlife/p/losing-the-golden-thread?r=4vhd6u&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Yes, with chronic pain, the alarm can be set to go off and not realize there is no longer any need to go off - it gets stuck on. So I'd love to know if sitting with it helps it move along or helps to teach it the alarm isn't needed. I also wonder if parts work would help - Internal Family Systems is a non-pathologizing approach to psychology but also has been proven to reduce pain and inflammation in a group of 30 women with RA in an outcome study... it helps to guide you to reach out to parts of you that might be using the pain to get your attention. What do they want to let you know?
Grateful for this discussion - There is a constant struggle with needing to stay engaged and actively resist what is happening in our country but also a very visceral desperation to protect my mental health.
Yes, Carol, thanks so much for your response! It's so hard to find the balance of what can I do and what is too much. Especially if we're living with any level of nervous state dysregulation or neurodiversity. They, (not just the government but the media, the charities -- living through their own fears and projecting all of them onto us in emails -- and the NGOs), bombard us all. I turn them off, or as the saying goes, it's a turn-off! (So I get off at the next exit, reset, find my purpose and move forward with that.)