Difficulty identifying/verbalizing feelings related to pain

[nyt]

I read a site that keeps tract of updated research on CRPS. In their October 2014 newsletter they shared a publication that many CRPS patients have what is called "alexithymia." From the website (see link below so you can read the article) "Alexithymia is "a multidimensional psychological structure that includes difficulty identifying, verbalizing, or describing feelings and an externally-oriented thinking style", which is due to the preoccupation with the ongoing struggle of dealing with chronic pain.

I bring this up because of the recent discussions about individuals learning how to identify and verbalize their feelings to reduce pain. This article is interesting in that it demonstrates that many patients with CRPS find it difficult to do that.

http://www.thblack.com/links/RSD/newsle ... _10-14.htm

If you use the link above, it is item #8 and just click view and the research article will show up.

[ezer]

Very interesting nyt. Again those pesky emotions. I can testify that reconnecting with emotions brought immense pain relief.

Alexithymia /ˌeɪlɛksəˈθaɪmiə/ is a personality construct characterized by the sub-clinical inability to identify and describe emotions in the self.[1] The core characteristics of alexithymia are marked dysfunction in emotional awareness, social attachment, and interpersonal relating.

I was just reading this article:
http://www.healthline.com/health-news/c ... l-072814#1

Pain and Emotion Share Real Estate in the Brain (July 28, 2014)
The emotional component of pain has recently received more attention in the scientific community. For example, a new definition of pain by the International Association for the Study of Pain describes it as an "unpleasant sensory and emotional experience."

At the heart of the matter — or more precisely, the head — is that the brain has evolved a certain amount of overlap between its emotion and pain centers. This economy of design allows the brain to efficiently process a wide range of sensations, such as a bruised knee, a cut finger, anger, and sadness.

“The areas of our brain that are associated with sensory perception, they share real estate with the areas of our brain that are involved in the processing of emotions,” said Dr. Beth Darnall, a pain psychologist at Stanford University and author of Less Pain, Fewer Pills.

Pain is processed in the brain. As a result, aches from an injury or surgery can linger long after the body has healed, as the sensations shift from short-term pain signaling the actual injury to long-term, chronic pain that exists independently.

In a 2013 study in the journal Brain, researchers followed a “group of patients over a year that started out with acute pain and ended up with chronic pain,” said Dr. David Hanscom, an orthopedic spine surgeon with the Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Seattle, Wash. “You could see the pattern of neurological synapses go from an acute pain center to more the emotional center connected with the limbic system.”

[Dusty_in_Hope]

The first chapter of this book seems to bear out that brain real estate is shared - those areas of the brain associated with pain perception also being areas of the brain that deal with other things, for instance, visualisation http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Brains-Way- ... y_14_img_y When clicking to 'look inside' the book, the first chapter can be read for free and that chapter describes how a doctor (Dr Moskowitz) cured his own back pain through visualisation believed to be due to the 'plasticity' of the brain (which I've read elsewhere the brain can do - no matter how old we are, even though at one time researchers/medics thought that brain function plasticity was impossible past a certain age). The following is an abstract from an interview with the author of the book, Norman Doidge:

You describe a doctor with chronic pain who cures himself by visualization. Can an ordinary person do this?

Norman Doidge: Yes. Dr. Moskowitz knew that there’s not one pain center in the brain, there are about a dozen and most of these centers don’t just process pain, they process something else. One area that regulates pain is also involved in processing mental imagery. Moskowitz knew that when we go from feeling acute pain to chronic pain about 20 percent of that pain and imagery map is hijacked for pain processing. When we’re not in pain, none of the pain areas fires up in the brain. When we’re in acute pain, these areas fire like pinpricks. When it’s in chronic pain, these same areas are firing like huge supernovas.

So how did he stop the pain?

Norman Doidge: He forced himself to visualize imagery whenever he was in pain. It didn’t matter what he imagined, as long he engaged that map for imagery instead of pain. For the first two weeks, he only had a few seconds of time when he wasn’t in pain. It took several months to have significant pain-free periods and by the end of the year, he was completely pain-free and off all medication.

Dr Moskowitz''s website is here http://www.neuroplastix.com/styled-4/aboutus.html And this is about neuroplasticity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity

[Violet M]

Super interesting. To me visualizing something (like maybe a beach on the ocean ) seems much easier than the mindbody approach, as described by Ezer, where you think of nothing.

Violet

[Dusty_in_Hope]

All joking aside, although it might appear to be more easy to achieve, I understand that gaining positive results through neuroplasticity is still usually a slog, requiring discipline and determination to work at gradually changing the 'wiring' of the brain.

Also, and I recognise that this is just me hypothesising, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some neuroplasticity might be a bonus side effect of Ezer's mind/body cure, possibly aiding him in part in continuing to remain pain free; I say this because to stay well and pain free he continues to work on his emotions on a daily basis and some of the pain processing areas of the brain are not only shared with those areas involved in vision/visualisation, they are also shared with the processing of emotions. In feeling his emotions and releasing them on a regular basis, some territory in his brain may have been regained from pain processing, i.e. returned back to the processing of emotions.

Anyway, at the end of the day, whether neuroplasticity has anything to do with it at all, the main thing is that Ezer managed to cure himself - even though the process he follows may be less appealing than regularly visualising something pleasant like a beach/ocean scene.

I have to say that, although I might be mistaken, I didn't think that Ezer's mind/body technique requires people to think of nothing. My understanding of it is that it is important to stop thinking when in the process of feeling and releasing emotions, which admittedly might take up quite a lot of time, but nevertheless there should still be lots of room for creative and pleasant thoughts.

On the topic of thoughts, I noted that Ezer has often recommended Abigail Steidley's e-book. (As you will probably know, Abigail cured herself of pelvic pain through mind/body work.) In her e-book she advises to be alert to unpleasant thoughts meandering or shooting off down unhelpful alleyways by telling them to stop (either out loud or to oneself) and then to redirect one's thoughts on to more pleasant and/or helpful things. Especially as I am quite an 'arty' person who likes to think creatively, I'm particular relieved about this and am finding her approach to be very beneficial to me. However, I do switch off thinking for a time each day by doing some meditation.

For my mind/body approach, I am doing what Ezer advises plus I'm adding some neuroplasticity techniques, to include visualisations; I'm also 'stream of consciousness' journaling every day. I'm finding that the act of writing my thoughts down on paper kind of distances myself from them and this in turn allows me to experience any associated emotions and to release them. I'm also finding that spider/cluster journaling is my favourite way of writing down whatever comes into my head http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/How_do_I_jou ... er_Writing.

I am just at the start of my own mind/body 'journey\, but I have already had some success: I allowed myself to feel and release my emotions associated with a couple of events from my past (the Ezer way) and, although I have not as yet experienced any pain reduction, when I now think about those past events I am now pretty indifferent to them, which, if nothing else, has been a big relief to me and therefore worthwhile.

I would be interested to hear from anyone else who is following a mind/body therapy route - to share info on techniques, experiences etc...either on the forum or by pm - whatever suits.

Best,

Dusty

[Violet M]

True, the word "nothing" may not have been entirely accurate in describing Ezer's mindbody approach. Here is how he described it in his own words.

We are wired for negative thoughts. It is part of our DNA. It is how our ancestors survived in the wild. We over do it though. Especially "us".
I have no desire to be Eckhart Tolle. But thinking less helps. Even a little bit. Catch yourself and stop thinking. It won't last very long.

We really don't need to think very much. Use your brain when it is pleasant like during a nice conversation. The best I managed to do was to drive to a store, buy something, and drive back home without thinking. Not a thought. Peace... I am far from Tolle... Rabbi Akiva or Bernard de Clairvaux.

I think "think clean" is more difficult because you have to redirect your thoughts to something less upsetting. You immediately drift back to upsetting stuff however. But it is just me.

Dusty, it sounds like what you are doing is helpful to you and that's what's important. I hope you will see some reduction in pain soon.

Violet

[Dusty_in_Hope]

Hi Violet

Yes, what you quote is pretty much what I understood Ezer's approach to be (from other postings of his that I've read on this forum).

it sounds like what you are doing is helpful to you and that's what's important. I hope you will see some reduction in pain soon.

Thanks
Since I last posted on this thread I have, thankfully, seen a significant reduction in my pain levels; it's hard to know whether that's because I avoid sitting as much as possible, and use a cushion when I do have to sit, and avoid bending as much as possible too - or whether it's due to the mind/body work I'm doing...I tend to think that it's due to the mixture of everything...

I intend to post on the mind/body therapy thread about a technique that I don't believe has been mentioned on this forum before that I am finding extremely helpful for dealing with upsetting memories.

Best,

Dusty