What would we be like without stress and depression ?

[NoMoPain]

You are probably wondering what this subject title means. I am convinced without a doubt that the primary cause of the problems we have experienced is due to stress and depression. Note I said the primary cause, not the only cause (I believe physical factors can cause symptoms also). I am not saying that our symptoms are "all in our head", I am saying that most of the cause of them started in our heads with our stressful and depressing thoughts. The kinds of thoughts that Cognitive Therapy refers to as "automatic thoughts" of which we are mostly not even aware of unless we become trained at it.

I have been studying a book on the physiology of stress reactions in the body and I am just in awe. There are so many very real physiological changes in the body when under chronic stress and the book talks about how illness can develop in response to chronic stress.

Dr Wise strongly emphasizes more than just Trigger point massage therapy. My experience is that major stress reduction in conjunction with Physical Therapy is necessary to get better. Some form of Meditation and some form of Cognitive Therapy seem to be excellent tools to achieve this necessary dramatic reduction in stress -- this also has been my experience.

I wanted to share this as I have found this to be extremely helpful.

[NoMoPain]

Four paragraphs below is a post I saw on the Byron Katie website. For those of you not familiar with Byron Katie basically it is just a very simple, extremely radical, but highly effective form of cognitive therapy that one can do alone, much like a form of meditation.

This form of Cognitive Therapy is the form that Dr Wise says is the best form of cognitive therapy and the one that is the most recomended in the book "a headache in the pelvis ".

The reason I have copied this post here is that I have been diligently practicing this form of Byron Katie work for the last 7 months and I have consistently felt better physically as a direct result of the dramatic stress reduction and release of muscle tension. Specifically, I have been able to stop taking Acid Reflux medication for the last 6 months with only 2 nights since where I felt any heartburn at all. Also my low back feels much much better as well as sitting -- no pain at all anymore after sex.

I can't say my experience with physical pain reduction is as extreme as what the reader below has written, but nevertheless I have experienced a marked improvement that I know is directly related to doing this work. Anecdotally I have read and heard many other stories of people who have been helped with physical problems as a result of doing the work.

The reader writes:


Katie dear,


I am experiencing something very unusual. I seem to have a new 'relationship' with pain. It started when I fell down on the driveway, on my back, and while there was blood and swelling, I experienced no pain. Now I am in Hawaii. My stomach is very red with 'sunburn.' It does not hurt. Also, I have had bouts of genital herpes for thirty years, and they are so painful as to set me to bed for a few days. Today, as I sit here, I can feel the rash of herpes if I touch them, but I feel no pain. This seems truly wondrous to me. I have not done the work specifically on pain. It appears to be a by-product.


Love and kisses,

Cindy

[webslave]

Why don't you describe the Byron Katie approach in more detail?

[NoMoPain]

I would suggest checking out the website as there is a section that explains the process (http://www.thework.org).

One concrete example I think that could be helpful to pelvic pain sufferers is the following belief\thought: "I will always be in pain"

What the Byron Katie work would do is put this thought up against inquiry to see how valid this is and how the thought affects us in terms of our physical and mental suffering.

For example can you absolutely know for certain that you will always be in pain ? What evidence or proof do you have to support the absolute validity of this thought ? The realty is that there are many ex-pelvic pain sufferers that are generally pain free now -- this evidence seems to contradict the original thought. How do you react when you believe the thought "I will always be in pain" -- anxiety, depression, shame -- what goes on in your body when you think this thought ? increased muscle tension, loss of energy, loss of sleep, pain seems to be worse, increased trigger point electrical activity, for me suicide became a thinkable option.

At this point one can see that the obvious mental and physical effects of
attaching to the thought of "I will always be in pain". However, one can also see that the thought may not in fact be completely true, due to evidence to the contrary. The next step is to imagine yourself incapable of thinking this thought, close your eyes and imagine what life would be like if you could not think this thought at all "I will always be in pain" . Without this thought I see a decrease in my suffering, even if I have pain right now. I would be much less depressed and have much less stress and anxiety -- that could only be good for my body and health, etc...
I might find it easier to deal with pain now because I don't necessarily believe it will always be there the rest of my life.

The final step is to do what Katie calls a turnaround. Which is to state the opposite of the original thought and then list 3 things that in realty support it. So I might do the following turnaround: "I will not always be in pain" . Now I need to list 3 things that support that thought. I might list the following: 1) Dr Wise suffered very badly for many years and now lives a pain free life 2) An 84 year old women who had pelvic pain for over 60 years has been pain-free for years (my PT told me about this women)
3. Some people who don't even do any Stanford/Wise-Anderson Protocol or any PT sometimes go years without any symptoms.

Personally, I have done much work on this thought when I first started the work and I definately noticed it helped me both mentally and physically to feel better.

[Richie]

Katies' work is an interesting approach but to me it simply underlines that this condition is a psychological problem manifesting itself physically in the body via stress.

[Dj Smitty]

you know, I find this interesting because since early December until a week ago, I was off on Christmas holiday from university. I had no exams or essays and I didn't work much. So basically, it was a month long party.....very hard partying like typical college students...booze, some drugs, you know...very relaxing. Anyway, I felt great during that time. Now I'm back to school, the pressure is on a bit, and while I'm not going to say I'm having a recurrence or a full fledged flair, it's definitely more noticeable. It's taking me longer to have a good pee and I'm having a lot of stiffness in the my perineum and rectum.

[NoMoPain]

I think if we all had the same attitude and belief structure as Byron Katie we would all become eventually 100% free of suffering or 100% symtpom free or both.

Why in the world would that happen you ask ? The answer is because we would be virtually stress-free, depression free, and at peace.

I admit that I am preaching this more than practicing this but I have experienced some amazing results with this method in terms of stress reduction and feeling much better physically. I have even had a few days when I felt some mild symptoms but I was not suffering at all. It was like it was no problem, and then I just noticed that the symptoms were completely gone within a few days. I will admit this would be much harder to do if I were having the kinds of bad symptoms I was having back in my "horror days", but nevertheless the same principle applies.

Now I see why Dr Wise has said that in the middle of a flair up just don't stress out and just let it be and it will pass. Stress is to Pelvic pain what gasoline is to fire. Better to just throw some water (relaxation) on the fire.