Playing Whack-a-Mole-advice?

It's been a while since I have posted! I have steadily been living my life and posting responses on here occasionally. But I've run across a problem and wondering if anyone has any advice for it.

I'm currently playing whack-a-mole with my symptoms. If I have x symptom and it goes away, then y symptom pops up. When y goes away, then z symptom pops up. I've been stuck in this cycle for a couple of months now.

I have been using the curable app for different exercises. (meditation and education exercises) But other than that, no other work. Life has been busy with my kids activities and it will finally slow down this next week as basketball season is done!

If anyone has been in this cycle before, what did you do to get out of it? I'm happy that things are moving around and I have noticed a huge difference in myself even from a couple of month ago when stress does pop up. But getting out of this cycle would be nice!

 

I can completely relate @Joulegirl — I went through a stage myself where symptoms played a lot of “whack‑a‑mole”. It was frustrating at the time, but I realised it was actually a sign of progress: my body was still flagging up emotions or needs I hadn’t yet acted on. Once I began focusing on what each symptom might be saying rather than why it was there, things gradually calmed down.

These days I still get some symptoms, but they’re far fewer and shorter‑lived — and now they feel more like reminders than alarms.

This is the way I worked, using this pattern:

• Pause 3× a day — ask, “What am I feeling?” or “What do I need right now?”
  
  
• Acknowledge it — even a quick, “I hear that you’re tired/frustrated/overwhelmed.”
  
  
• Act on it in a small way — rest, say no, breathe, step outside, or connect with someone.
  
  
• Don’t chase symptoms — respond to emotions first, and let the body adjust in its own time.
  
  
• Reflect at night — jot down what you noticed and how you responded.

I believe the shifting of symptoms is actually your system reorganising itself. I found that I needed to keep responding kindly rather than analytically to gradually allow the return of stability.

Hope this helps!

 

Thank you @BloodMoon for those suggestions. I'll lean into my feelings more throughout the day. I can already tell a difference with myself as I keep on this journey. I think we see in a lot of recoveries that you can plateau for a bit and that's definitely where I am at right now!

 

Ah, yeah. I go through cycles of this. Then I do amazing for awhile - not symptom free but still doing really well, and then the circling cycle of symptoms likes to visit. It's gone on for a few years.

My advice is to not stress about it, not try to fix it, just observe it and observe your emotions and stress amounts (and self-thoughts) during these times. Notice if you start "TMS-ing" : desperation, frustration, self-defeating thoughts etc. as well. Pretty soon you'll probably see the other emotional levels of the cycles. You are doing some good work but not really doing any emotional work around what generates your internal stress. You've probably done quite a bit of it already, but now you might need to notice how it drips in, tiny bit by tiny bit filling your stress bucket until it overflows with a symptom.

I would also suggest you consider longer meditations than are available on Curable (unless there are new ones, I found them very short and not enough to really get to the core of things). Insight Timer is free (you can offer to pay, but there are thousands of free offerings...) and you can choose the length of meditation and the focus - eg. search on "breath" and I would also suggest you might add things like emotions or feelings and try a few that guide you to sit in stillness with the emotions.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Slow and Savory Body Scan (love the woman guiding it) 15 minutes, Tibetan Bowls guided breath work by Healing Vibrations - guided at first and then just bowls to let you continue - 66 minutes (love this before going to sleep), Permission to Let Go by Breathe & Ground 25 minutes. These all foster the notion that a) this time is just for you, and b) remind you to give yourself permission to feel and let go.

I think for some of us, the brain just can't find a way to be convinced that it's safe to drop all the games. I know I've been stressed about the world in general and my place within it, and that keeps me from feeling on all the levels my nervous system needs right now.

 

@Cactusflower Thank you for sharing your meditation that you like. I'm not stressed about this at all-it was just wondering if I could be doing something different to show my body that I'm ok. I have definitely noticed a different in my attitude and stress level in general. I'd just like to be moving ahead if it's possible! I've come a long ways since last year!!!

 

Hi @Joulegirl, I can tell from your other comment around journalling that you definitely understand this work! A similar thing happened to me I'm going to say 3 months ago. I got a completely new symptom (which I never got in the six years of my regular pain). Whilst it is natural to be a little stressed out with a new symptom (and I did get it checked out at the doctors), it all comes back to overall fear and emotions. After the initial freak out, I was really able to reflect on what was going on at the time and the new symptom made complete sense. It was trying to protect me from emotions and circumstances that I wasn't allowing.

I like to think of it as the brain just trying out a different pathway through which to alert us. Often we get so used to and accepting of the original symptom, that it sort of doesn't really serve its purpose anymore. The brain is trying to get our attention with symptoms, so it tries something new and scary (and this usually does the trick!). It's then up to us to interpret it correctly. The more self-awareness that you gain (which builds over time through this work - I was definitely still building this 10 months in and even now it only ever develops further), the easier it will get to understand more specifically (beyond the solutions that I flagged in the last sentence).

I think keep doing what you are doing and you are doing so well This is normal but the solution is always (at a broader level) greater self-compassion + less self-pressure and criticism.