Ezer, been reading on your experience. Could you be expand more and be more specific in this. I'm serious, pls don't think otherwise:
3) The most important. Anytime you find yourself aware of the pain, instantly shift your focus to your emotions: What emotion(s) am I feeling right now? (Once you have identified an emotion you should not think about it. Thinking will just re-traumatize you. You need to re-experience the emotion at a visceral level).
Emotions are not things like “I am sad” “I am happy” etc... An emotion is a mental reaction accompanied by physiological changes in the body. Feeling your emotions is to experience both the mental and body reaction (shiver, twitch etc...) at a visceral level without thinking. It is not intellectual. It is purely experiential. We are so disconnected from our emotions that it takes practice until we are able to experience them again.
I'm just kind of confused. You say to instantly shift to the emotions I'm feeling, but then you say I should now stop thinking about them or they will re-traumatize myself. What does feeling the emotion at a visceral level means? The only emotion that I can't think about, and I'm experiencing, is that I really really dislike the pain and I should stand up instead. What or how should I correct that connection between the pain I'm feeling and the respective emotion ? Could you make an effort to explain better?
When I ended up in the hospital, after withdrawing from tramadol, I have to admit it was also a little after my wife delivered our fourth child, and I was also obsessed with what was happening to my body. It all just joined in one big atomic bomb being dropped over my head, I had not slept much for 4 days straight. After that I convinced myself, as you, that this was just pain, as bad as it feels, but I did not have any strange or terminal consequences.
Certainly when my mind is at ease I feel better, like when I go out for a walk or a run, or when I write music. While exercising, the body also liberates endorphins, which help lower down our perception of pain. Exercise and movement in the long run I believe is the only thing that has truly helped me manage the pain so far. And I say manage, not cure. I mean vigorous exercise, good cardio, not PT like stepping on the elliptical and doing 45 minutes, or al least some vigorous walking for an hour. Yes, the first days I got sore, flared up and such...but If I kept at it, its gets better with time. Its like your body adjusts.
Just recently I had to stop the exercise because I had some plantar fasciitis on my left foot. I've been like that for a couple of weeks. At first, I tought it might be related. But, a friend suggested I should buy some fresh running shoes and so I did. Two days ago my left foot was still hurting, but I put on the new nike's and decided to go for a long walk. I walked for 1:30 hours or so. The next day, my legs felt sore all over!
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
but good sore...the pain in my foot however, diminished from say an 8 to a 3. I'm plan to go out for a long walk today as well. I really think it was the shoes! I will try and keep the long walks and see how it goes...