Do i have PGAD?

[Violet M]

I think what you are saying makes sense.

I guess the trick lies in determining whether your symptoms are due to somatization or are caused by something else. Just as there can be a danger in getting treatments such as surgery or other procedures when the real problem is somatization, there can also be a danger in assuming you have somatization when you really have something else going on. It certainly complicates things.

Violet

[nonsequitur]

Agreed. But you also have the situation when the nerve or tissue may be damaged, then the pain signal reaches the brain and goes to the thalamus, the cortex figures out where the pain came from and compares it to other kinds of pain it knows. It is also sent from the thalamus to the limbic system, which is the infamous emotional center of the brain, then your pelvic muscles contract as a guarding mechanism to protect you (fight/flight reaction). It is where it can become chronic pain even if the nerve/tissue heals, you have this infinite loop of pain/guarding/tensing etc. All of it is fueled by fear and anxiety over the pain.

No matter what, it is really hard to get out of it. It took me 2 years of being 100% convinced I was fine, loosing the fear, and working on it mentally daily. I saw posters saying that they even tried the mindbody method but it did not work. Indeed. You cannot try it. It is not that simple unfortunately. Or more exactly, it is real simple but hard to do well day after day for years.

You have to commit 100% and stop looking for physical explanations, stop seeking medical advice. Stop seeing the Nth doctor. Stop obsessing over the pain. Easier said then done of course.

[52jo]

I have a question that I don't know if anyone can answer. I am completely aware that PGAD is not a sexual arousal phenonena, but I am asexual and also mentally ill, a week ago I experienced a strange sensation in my genitals, which having had no experience of sexual pleasure, I have no reference to place it. I do have RLS and overactive bladder syndrome, both I have read linked to this condition. However, I have also been diagnosed with right temporal lobe epilepsy, which has been controlled for 20 years. This experience was repeated this week, but there is no sense of pain or need to do anything to myself to relieve anything, but that may be due to the asexuality.

[Violet M]

52jo, I responded to your question in the topic that you started in the other thread. http://www.pudendalhope.info/forum/view ... f=2&t=8004

Violet