Day 2 Feeling more hopeful but need sleep advice!

I have spent the day reading this forum, reading books about TMS, and watching videos, and I feel much more convinced that my vulvodynia and urinary frequency are TMS. My evidence is:

--It started during a period of extreme stress with no other precipitating factors.

--At the time, my mother had the *exact same symptoms* and was talking about them constantly and that's when I started having the symptoms.

--When I have been very distracted, the pain is less.

--When I am in a stressful situation, like when my husband and I were working on taxes, the pain gets MUCH worse.

--In general, I go from ailment to ailment with only brief breaks in between. I have had neck pain, back pain, wrist pain, reflux, IBS flares. I've also had weird foot pain. I had tingling in one foot for weeks after wearing a sock that was too tight, which now seems a little unlikely, but resulted in a sock phobia.

I'm excited to do the daily assignments and try to get to the bottom of all this.

Even my symptoms feel a little better at the moment. I mean, I still feel like I have to pee when I don't, but the burning has gotten a lot better. There was a baclofen suppository prescribed by my urogyn that I think makes the burning worse but he said it would be the only way to loosen my tight pelvic floor, but I decided not to take it because if it's TMS, I shouldn't need a medication to treat it.

My huge challenge is the anxiety surrounding my pain, which has been messing with my sleep. If anyone has any tips for ridding yourself of sleep anxiety while dealing with this, I would love to hear!

And thank you to everyone who has responded to my posts so far. This is such a welcoming and supportive community, and I'm so grateful that I'm not doing this alone.

 

that is a rock-solid evidence sheet. Rest well on that. You're in the right place and doing the right work. Keep going.

 

I breathe a certain way. I focus only on my breath. When my thoughts wander, I return to my breath. A deep belly breath in and a slow, longer one out. It slows the heart and relaxes me. After less than 20 minutes, I become drowsy. I sleep alone now so it’s easier. It may take you a bit longer.

 

I do this for about five minutes. Maybe I need to force myself to do it for longer!

 

Whatever it takes! You can breathe normally for a couple of breaths in between the deep ones, too!

 

Read Hope and Help for Your Nerves, by Claire Weekes. It will help a lot! It’s really an essential book.

 

I'm also one that focuses on my breath and it has made a huge difference in helping me fall asleep; I don't even really change how I breathe, just focus on it and the rhythm. Sometimes I'll do a little body awareness while I'm doing it as well, I guess what they call somatic tracking by just landing on an uncomfortable spot and just kind of sitting with it. Weirdly it zonks me out.

 

You have a great evidence list! I struggle with sleep too. Find a guided meditation or visualization and close your eyes and follow along. (Try Youtube for free ones..) That helps me a lot. I keep the bedroom very cold and dark to help me further fall asleep. But the biggest help for me was to exercise! I started slow and just went on walks. I'm now up to 2.5 miles and I do try to go everyday but weather will hinder that. Exercise has really gotten my body in a rhythm to being tired around 10 each night.

 

Oh wow! I'll have to try this.

 

Yes, I think this all started because it was the middle of winter and I just wasn’t moving around enough. I try to walk 2 hours per day now.

Sometimes deep breathing helps me a lot, other times not as much. Last night I tried sleep stories on the Calm app and that seemed to help.

 

What if you stopped caring if you get sleep or not? Anytime I've tried to go to sleep at a certain time because I needed to get a restful sleep otherwise I'd look/feel awful in the morning, I ended up actually not sleeping very much. It's when I stop caring so much if I get to sleep or get X hours of sleep is when I fell asleep.

You may find this thread helpful: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/recovery-from-chronic-insomnia.16653/ (Recovery from Chronic Insomnia)

 

That's a very helpful thread, thanks. I really do try not to care, but it can be hard to get yourself in that mindset.

 

You're very right. Do you have any advice to get yourself not to care about sleep or pain? it's so hard!

 

Great quote!