Another success by losing fear and moving on

[carbonevo]

Few months back this guy was crying for help on the pudendal and TMS site, @Ezer convinced him to check at the psychological aspects of this disorder, few months after here's his reply to Chriss who happens to be a member on this forum:

I haven't been on here for over a month, but I saw your post and wanted to reply. I was diagnosed with CPPS earlier this summer (before that, non-bacterial prostatitis), and very nearly had an empirical surgery (e.g. 'hydrodissection') for pudendal nerve entrapment (because my doctor had no idea what else it could be). I went to multiple doctors, urologists, urgent care clinics, sports doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors . . . nothing really much worked, or if it did, it only worked for a short while before failing.

I'd stumped about every medical professional I saw. Around late October of this year, I very seriously considered that TMS might be at play, and started to treat it as such.

It's pretty much gone now, about two and a half months later. I may get stressed out and experience some vague burning for a half hour, but it dies down and disappears once I quit thinking about it. It continues to recede. It's only about 1/4 as bad as it was a month ago, and a month ago, it was only 1/4 as bad as it was when I first looked into TMS in October. When I do think about it, it creeps up (I can feel it a little now, haha! It's sneaky, but if I ignore it, it'll drift away).

Before, I'd only sit on a cushion and was afraid of making things worse or of causing more nerve damage. At first, because I'd conditioned myself to have more pain while I did certain triggering activities, I would feel more pain without the cushion. But enough time driving around without the cushion broke that association.

I've now ridden my bike 20 miles without any increase in pain, which, if you know what pudendal nerve entrapment is, is a fairly unthinkable activity to do. I never sit on cushions anymore, and have given away all three seat cushions I had. I'm basically back to normal. And I still can't believe that that's all happened. Just a few months ago, I was convinced I'd have a life full of chronic pain.

If I had to offer any coping advice, it would be to believe it's psychological. If your doctors have cleared you, then the key is to lose the fear of the pain. Like I said, I went from being afraid to sit at my desk for more than an hour (with a cushion) to riding by bicycle 20 miles with no change in pain. I let go of the fear and quit letting the pain take center stage in my brain.

Another bit of advice is to have patience. For a good while, I still felt the pain, but I got my life back. I felt the pain but quit thinking about the pain, and eventually, with time, it subsided. Everyone's experience is different though, and you need to be patient with yourself.

[dailysuffering]

truly amazing

[MajorSky1]

Awesome!