- Date posted
- 1y
Fibromyalgia and fear of pain
Anyone been in bedbound situation with pain who has been helped by dealing with ocd fear of pain?
Anyone been in bedbound situation with pain who has been helped by dealing with ocd fear of pain?
I have fibro and ocd! I’m not really scared of pain in general but being in pain forever is scary for sure. I try to celebrate my low pain days and be extra kind to myself on my high pain days. Baths and stretching release a lot for me. If you learn your limits and understand your flare up triggers it’s not as scary. You have more control than you think ❤️
A good perspective to help you through this fear is to really understand what is happening in your body and what the pain actually feels like. This may sound odd, but a good practice is to lay still, close your eyes, and take your mind’s eye/shift your attention towards the pain in your body. Start by asking yourself, where exactly is this pain? Is it in my muscles, abdomen, back, or my neck? … continue noticing and becoming curious about the sensation … Ask yourself, what type of pain is it? Is it sharp? Is it an ache, dull, or pins and needles? Again, the idea is to become observant of your pain to understand better what is actually happening in your body. As you do this practice, you may find that your mind wanders, or you start to get upset about the pain. That is okay! It is bound to happen. But as soon as you notice this, gently bring your awareness back to your practice. As you continue to observe and understand the exact source and sensation of your pain with your mind’s eye, your fear of the pain should begin to ease. You may even find the pain itself eased as you begin to perceive it as a sensation just like other sensations you experience, no longer identifying it as excruciating. It takes practice, but it has wonderful results. Real life studies have proven meditation can ease pain and illness!
@beverlylady @beverlylady For reiteration, the practice involves peacefully watching and observing the sensation of pain in your body by becoming curious about what it actually genuinely feels like *while maintaining a neutral perspective. You do not want to get upset about the pain, or feel sorry for yourself, or wish it weren’t there. Save that for another time. During this meditative practice, you are simply the observer. Facing your pain straight on by simply watching it.You can do this!
I deal with this everyday scared to go places because of it and having to take anxiety medicine before I go somewhere....some days are better then others and thought I was getting better over the past few months and now it's hit me again having panic attacks before work because I'm scared I'm going to faint or having them at home because I'm scared if I faint I won't wake up on my own and I live by myself. Don't really know what to do about this they say to challenge my thoughts and fears and I do and sometimes it helps so.eti.es it doesn't really wondering if I need OCD medicine for this? What to do or try without medicine?
For many years I’ve had contamination OCD. I wear many layers of plastic gloves when awake. Take off a layer when needing to do things. Early last year it started getting worse when I began ERP. Much worse. Showering took 1 hour before, now 3-4h or longer. I always have to shower before bed because the bed is a clean safe place. But showering didnt feel clean enough anymore and took so long. I would get stuck repeating things over and over. The humidity was ruining my walls and ceiling. I’d stay awake up to 40 hours avoiding showering and sleeping. So one day I started wearing clothes covering all skin, plastic gloves, sleeves taped, hoodie on. That way I could easily just sleep still on my back on the couch. No more awake 40 hours or stuck in the shower up to 4h + bedtime rituals. But then slowly I found myself unable to do… anything. Stopped going outside, stopped talking to people, can’t even get up some days so I just lay on the couch. Fall last year was very stressful I think it broke something in my head. I don’t change clothes and I make sure the gloves last many days. My hands are suffering. The skin blisters and comes off. I think my nails are now separating from the nail beds, for real. I’ve also spent so many years holding pee when outside the home that now the pelvic muscles are weak and I’m becoming urge incontinent. Can’t do physical exams at the doctors. Can’t seek help. Can’t get out of the couch. OCD is ruining my physical health. ERP did not work. Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do if so?
I've recently been on a journey to find an effective therapy for my chronic pain(migraine). It's exhausting and draining and horrible, sure, but the thing that is the worst for me is the idea that some therapy will work. I'm terrified that this journey will end, it will have a simple solution, an easily accessible medication, and my pain will go away. One of the reasons, the reason I'm more comfortable talking about, is that my pain is real to me in a world, and in a mind, where few things can have an intense reality like pain. Generally, I ocillate between being unconvinced of my own existence or critically aware of it. I'm all jumbled up, my head is a swamp of ruminations and thought-stopping illusions, but my pain cuts through it like a knife. When my migraines are the worst, there are no more thoughts, just pain. This isn't stopping me from looking for a treatment though, and I mostly think of it as an interesting quirk in my relationship to my pain. The thing that really scares me, that might hold me back, is that I will get an easy treatment, the pain won't be there, and it was never as bad as I thought it was. In fact, this thing that has defined me, been a bouy in the storm of OCD even, was never real. It was attention, self-obsession, and it can go away easily because I'm blowing it out of proportion. I don't believe I'm lying, I'm scared that I'll be told it is a small thing or that it's not there at all. I'm oversensitive. I'm crying for help. There is no migraine, there is only OCD. It's silly to me as I write it, with a headache of course, but this is the thought plaguing me. This is what holds me back and urges me to not call my neurologist back, I'm scared it will have all been nothing, and then it will be gone.
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