New here! Pudendal nevralgia due to cycling... TMS?

[miffybunny]

Hi @Olala,

1.) Don't worry about it and shift focus to your life.

2.). That's a false belief. We dismantle false beliefs by applying LOGIC. We see how ridiculous our thoughts are and we challenge them with accuracy and logic.

3.). Fear stems from doubt. We have to tolerate fear when engaging in triggers and doing things we associate with symptoms. In terms of general fear and fear at night, you have to identify the exact doubts you are harboring. When we banish doubt, the fear goes away because we have more confidence. When we challenge fears in regards to symptoms, we also become more confident. Reduction of fear and focus is the name of the game!

 

[hollywood]

Bananas00:

Yup. This sounds familiar. I too am professional with the same type A anxious personality.

I used to have chronic daily headaches for two years that seemed to be treatment resistant. After a period of time I just stopped all treatments and things slowly got better and then disappeared!
After 6 pain free years I developed CPPS. (Totally useless DX by the way)

It's all anxiety and inner tension related. (Fight or Flight in my opinion ) I find that when my mind in truly occupied my symptoms lessen and or abate!

You will get better as will we all. However, healing is never linear and ya can't put a time frame to it.

 

[Bananas00]

Bananas00:

Yup. This sounds familiar. I too am professional with the same type A anxious personality.

I used to have chronic daily headaches for two years that seemed to be treatment resistant. After a period of time I just stopped all treatments and things slowly got better and then disappeared!
After 6 pain free years I developed CPPS. (Totally useless DX by the way)

It's all anxiety and inner tension related. (Fight or Flight in my opinion ) I find that when my mind in truly occupied my symptoms lessen and or abate!

You will get better as will we all. However, healing is never linear and ya can't put a time frame to it.

and how is your CPPS now?

 

[Bananas00]

Bananas00:

Yup. This sounds familiar. I too am professional with the same type A anxious personality.

I used to have chronic daily headaches for two years that seemed to be treatment resistant. After a period of time I just stopped all treatments and things slowly got better and then disappeared!
After 6 pain free years I developed CPPS. (Totally useless DX by the way)

It's all anxiety and inner tension related. (Fight or Flight in my opinion ) I find that when my mind in truly occupied my symptoms lessen and or abate!

You will get better as will we all. However, healing is never linear and ya can't put a time frame to it.

In other words, how did you cope with the pain? Were you able to find relief?

 

[Bananas00]

Pudendal Neuralgia is another wastebasket diagnosis for "we don't know". It's just TMS. All injuries heal. Pain that continues past a few months after the initial injury is brain based pain. It just means that the the brain and our thoughts about the injury keep sending false alarm signals to that area. To fit the TMS criteria, you only need one good one and you have numerous jumping out just in your comment. The solution is to relax and know there is nothing wrong with you. The injury will heal on its own, without you having to do anything. By catastrophizing and focusing on it, and buying into the label (which is simply a nocebo), you are actually creating the situation (albeit unwittingly). My advice is stop thinking about it and resume life. It's nothing.

Even though I have the EXACT symptoms of PN... like all of them....?

 

[Bananas00]

The PT visits are counter productive because they only reinforce messages of danger and the notion that you can hurt yourself because you have some kind of "damage". My advice is to take a break from your usual exercise routine for a few weeks , stop thinking about this stuff and feeling desperate to "fix"it or heal quickly, and go about your life normally. Impatience isa huge trap and what is driving your anxiety is the fear that you won't be able to do your usual thing in the future. That is simply not true. It's just a fear. All injuries heal and all of this "irritated nerve" massaging and PT jargon is utter nonsense. It's making your brain go into fight or flight and your anxiety skyrocket. Stop going to PT's. Repudiate the physical. Live your life.

Exactly. It's a HUGE fear. I fear not being able to exercise again. I fear not being able to have hurtless sex again. I fear being "disabled" and stay single for the rest of my life. I fear not being able to have children. I fear losing my job because of it. I fear not being able to sit comfortably ever again.....

 

[miffybunny]

Exactly. It's a HUGE fear. I fear not being able to exercise again. I fear not being able to have hurtless sex again. I fear being "disabled" and stay single for the rest of my life. I fear not being able to have children. I fear losing my job because of it. I fear not being able to sit comfortably ever again.....

Yes you are catastrophizing which is a common pitfall and the thought of never getting better is what is driving the TMS. That thought is a false belief. I can't emphasize enough that you stop visiting doctors and PT's, and throw away any cushions or what Dr. Sarno called "crutches". Gradually challenge your fears and start re engaging in life as you normally would. You are already totally fine. Believe it because it's the truth. Your nerve doesn't need to "heal". Nothing is "broken" or "damaged". These are notions and fantasy propagated by the medical industry.

 

[Balsa11]

That's incorrect. You can't "ignore" or "push through" because that is going to put you in a state of resistance ("trying"). The key is to "not worry" about symptoms and gradually, gradually challenge your fears. We use fear as the guideline, not symptoms. I think the "gradual" part is hard for some people due to impatience. The brain will quickly go into fight or flight if we scare ourselves too quickly.

Agree with this. Spacing out gets that chilling mood back, and then you can shift your attention to something you need to do, change your attitude, take a break.

 

[Balsa11]

Exactly. It's a HUGE fear. I fear not being able to exercise again. I fear not being able to have hurtless sex again. I fear being "disabled" and stay single for the rest of my life. I fear not being able to have children. I fear losing my job because of it. I fear not being able to sit comfortably ever again.....

Most of these are unlikely, the sex part could be triggering but should also get better over time. Spasms aren't permanent.

 

[Balsa11]

Yes you are catastrophizing which is a common pitfall and the thought of never getting better is what is driving the TMS. That thought is a false belief. I can't emphasize enough that you stop visiting doctors and PT's, and throw away any cushions or what Dr. Sarno called "crutches". Gradually challenge your fears and start re engaging in life as you normally would. You are already totally fine. Believe it because it's the truth. Your nerve doesn't need to "heal". Nothing is "broken" or "damaged". These are notions and fantasy propagated by the medical industry.

Exactly! You don't need crutches for a muscle spasm.

 

[Balsa11]

Hi @miffybunny, you are the best.
I have similar problem and struggle with 3 aspects:

1. My muscles are in spasm 24/7 for almost 3 years. No break and trying to relax them does not help.
Is this trying to relase the muscles a state of resistance you talk about? Basically, shall I just let them clench without any attenot to release them?

2. I catch myself thinking sometimes that my muscles clench 24/7 for so long that it is too late for them to go back to relaxed state and work normally anymore. Like they lost capacity how to do it.
Is it a false belief? How did you work on dismantling false beliefs?

3. I figured out I have high anxiety and follow Claire Weekes approach. However, I feel pure fear especially at night. I really try to let it be, allow it. Sadly, it does not go away.
You talk about losing fear, but this pure fear I feel without identifying a thought (I think it is rather just my brain in general fight or flight) could be this repressed emotion? Basically shall I just allow myself to feel this pure fear or challenge through somehow?

Thanks a million!

Sometimes just facing the fear means doing nothing, only looking it in the eye.

 

[hollywood]

and how is your CPPS now?

Bananas00:

It is better since onset for sure. However, I am still going through the process.

I thought back to my chronic headache days and I remember my stages of healing going something like this:

1) Fear- This was the pain onset and the fear that it would never go away or always come back.
2) Frustration Went through all sorts of treatments with very little lasting relief. The actual fear of pain was gone at this point. I

You conquered IC while completing Law School so this shows that you are resilient much like myself. That same resilience will carry you through this time as well.
Be kind to yourself push when you have to and rest when you need to!

 

[hollywood]

Bananas00:

It is better since onset for sure. However, I am still going through my process and still stuck in phase 2. See below

Thinking back to my chronic headache days I remember my 3 stages to healing going something like this:

1) Fear This was the pain onset and the fear that it would never go away or always come back.
2) Frustration Went through all sorts of treatments with very little lasting relief. The actual fear of pain was gone at this point. I felt more annoyed or sad because of the pain, but never scared of it.
3) F-it I somehow started to truly not care if the pain never went away. It was always present but my bad days became less and less and the pain did not bother me emotionally. Then one day while driving to my office I realized that my head did not hurt for a while. All of the daily pain was just gone!


Listen, you conquered IC while completing Law School so this shows that you are resilient much like myself. That same resilience will carry you through this time as well.
Be kind to yourself push when you have to and rest when you need to!

PS. Ditch the pillow! Were to young for that. LOL

 

[Bananas00]

Your message is empty!

 

[Bananas00]

The thing is that I want and need to get back to training at least for my mental health. I wanna try to go back to running but then I wonder if it is too early to do so.

 

[Bananas00]

Bananas00:

It is better since onset for sure. However, I am still going through the process.

I thought back to my chronic headache days and I remember my stages of healing going something like this:

1) Fear- This was the pain onset and the fear that it would never go away or always come back.
2) Frustration Went through all sorts of treatments with very little lasting relief. The actual fear of pain was gone at this point. I

You conquered IC while completing Law School so this shows that you are resilient much like myself. That same resilience will carry you through this time as well.
Be kind to yourself push when you have to and rest when you need to!

Your #2 seems incomplete

 

[hollywood]

Your #2 seems incomplete

2. Frustrated phase. During this time I no longer feared the headaches anymore. However, it became emotionally draining dealing with pain everyday.

3. F- it phase. I starting doing everything I wanted to do regardless of the outcome of my CDH. I really did care if I ever had a day free of pain again. I just wanted to live life. So I changed jobs, moved and even starting working out again in the gym

After a while my bad days seemed to happen less frequently. Then one day while driving to the office I realized that my head no longer hurt. The pain just vanished.


So here I am 6 years later dealing with CPPS. However, I now know about TMS and how anxiety and tension can produce pain. I am still stuck in the Frustrated phase but I do not fear the pain. I do everything from work to workout with tpain. Actually, I find physically activity lessens my pain. Go figure!

I believe my frustration with pain is what allows it to hang on.

 

[Bananas00]

Hi there. I somehow managed the pain since April and even got back to biking- i wasnt 100% pain free but it was really manageable - I got off the meds, stop seeing my PT and I was basically happy and able to get going with everything in my life. So here it is: 2 weeks ago pain got back in a vengeance... like 50% worse than before. The pelvic pain is just excraciating and I just can't connect the dots. The thing is that this time, the pain is so intense that I have a lot of difficulty working and sleeping, and of course can't exercise at all... Nothing seems to alleviate the pain or bring a little relief (ive tried over-the-counter meds, hot baths, heat, cold, etc.). My bladder hurts so much I have to go to the bathroom every 15 min or so. I haven't seen my doctor yet because I fear he will put me back on pregabalin and I despised it. Anyways - I'm stuck here without knowing what to do. I guess I'm looking for tips or even comfort....

 

[abheerao]

Hi there. I somehow managed the pain since April and even got back to biking- i wasnt 100% pain free but it was really manageable - I got off the meds, stop seeing my PT and I was basically happy and able to get going with everything in my life. So here it is: 2 weeks ago pain got back in a vengeance... like 50% worse than before. The pelvic pain is just excraciating and I just can't connect the dots. The thing is that this time, the pain is so intense that I have a lot of difficulty working and sleeping, and of course can't exercise at all... Nothing seems to alleviate the pain or bring a little relief (ive tried over-the-counter meds, hot baths, heat, cold, etc.). My bladder hurts so much I have to go to the bathroom every 15 min or so. I haven't seen my doctor yet because I fear he will put me back on pregabalin and I despised it. Anyways - I'm stuck here without knowing what to do. I guess I'm looking for tips or even comfort....

Hi @Bananas00,

Came across your post from 18 months ago today....my case is similar to yours...how are you doing now?

 

[Bananas00]

Hi @Bananas00,

Came across your post from 18 months ago today....my case is similar to yours...how are you doing now?

Hi there! Well, i've applied the TMS principles and while it was very difficult at first, the pain subsided over time. I continued my activities including exercising such as cycling WITH the pain, in an attempt to retrain my brain. Now i'm back to cycling, traveling, working, and enjoying life to the fullest. Do not hesitate to contact me should you wish to further discuss this.