|
Post by camille on Jan 11, 2007 10:39:27 GMT -5
I posted a message a few months ago in the Massage Helps thread asking if anyone had tried Body Psychotherapy. I didn't know where to post this so I started a new thread.
I have been seeing a Body Psychotherapist for a month and a half now. Without getting too technical, it has been really interesting. I have had a strong intuition since my lap was done in November that I needed to look at the emotional side of this disease.
Its first of all really nice to sit and talk with a nice, professional person about the pain and discomfort, depression and anxiety, all the "silent" stuff that accompanies this "invisible" disease. But she is also working with me on understanding my body. It was by learning some new sensory/feelings techniques that I was able to endure my last period with a new found awareness and courage.
What I have become aware of though in the last 24 hours (its a very "mindfulness" oriented practice, becoming aware of movement and sensation etc) is what I was like as a baby and child may be indicators of a body type - A Highly Sensitive Person. This is someone who has a differently structured nervous system so the senses become easily/quickly overwhelmed.
I am wondering how many of us fit into this category of person? - typically called shy, introverted, sometimes mistaken for either slow or gifted mentally, I guess it is summed up by that word: overwhelmed. For me, I was so painfully shy as a kid that it nearly paralyzed me. What I realized last night was that as I entered high school, I actively suppressed all of those sensations/feelings and became a new, much less shy person. AND, My cramps started within the year. I think there is a connection...
Anyone exploring similar things? Anyone else painfully shy?
|
|
|
Post by jjuls22 on Jan 11, 2007 12:36:58 GMT -5
i went through an IOP ( intense out patient) class with my boyfriend for his or for better words " our depression" It taught me a lot about the how people respond to differnent things, I am a highly sensitive person, something so small, i blow up and linger on for hours and hours where as a person with a normal nervous system would get upset and then come down from their heightened emotions moments later, where my emotions stay high for a long period of time. This makes getting over arguements veeeeery difficult. I think its a good thing to understand how your body works, and responds to different things, i feel it will only help us deal with the pain better
|
|
|
Post by camille on Jan 11, 2007 14:16:45 GMT -5
I think it has more to do with physical sensations - sensitivity to the environment - than emotions. Things like light, sound, temperature, little details including other people's moods and states of mind even. Highly or Hyper aware. The theory differentiates between anxiety, fear, and highly sensitive. It explains shyness as a misunderstanding of being overwhelmed by one's environment. We think we are afraid of people but really we are sensitive to everything around us in, I think, a very physical way. I don't know, I am just beginning to explore and become aware...
|
|
|
Post by candice on Jan 11, 2007 15:40:59 GMT -5
Hey, I've never been a shy person. I've always been very outgoing, talkative and extroverted. So, I don't see how that can be related. But, I am easily stressed out. If I've made a mistake, or offended someone, or I've not gotten something i've worked really hard for, I get really, really stressed out. I actually can become ill. Maybe stress has a factor.
|
|
|
Post by erzulie on Jan 11, 2007 17:26:23 GMT -5
Hmm. I sort of fit the description. I am very emotionally sensitive. I'm fairly shy--not really fearful of people, just not very good with social interactions. I do get easily stressed and have a hard time getting over things. It's interesting because if I'm mad at someone I'm usually pretty quick to forgive that person, but if someone gets mad at me I completely freak out and if I can't get the person to forgive me I continue to be really upset about it for a long time. I don't think this is reallyt causing me to have endometriosis though. I'm not physically sensitive--I actually have a pretty high pain tolerance. The reason why I'm in pain so much is because I have a really painful disease, not because I'm just too sensitive!
|
|
|
Post by candice on Jan 11, 2007 17:47:51 GMT -5
Oh, I didn't mean it like that. I meant it more like the stress leaches on to it, making it worse, not causing it. I have IBS and when I'm stressed, my IBS gets worse. I still have it when I'm happy. Pehaps endohas an emotional connection like that. I'm not sure I have an opinion either way , but the idea is interesting. Remember that guy who said that Endo was an emotional disease women have because they can't be proper women . That guy ticked me off! I am so not saying it's like that. I"m just saying that health worsens when your not happy. Maybe endo acts up more when we are stressed?
|
|
|
Post by ouchy on Jan 11, 2007 20:48:52 GMT -5
A lot of people who are shy, introverted, and bomb in social situations are a lot of times somewhere on the autism spectrum, which I don't think has much to do w/ endo. I think I'm somewhere there. If I appear to "fit well" into a social situation, it is because I feel that I am acting--like on a stage.
|
|
|
Post by erzulie on Jan 11, 2007 21:36:12 GMT -5
Actually, there could be a connection there. Autism is now believed to be caused by an ingredient in vaccines, and possibly by other environmental factors. It appears that a number of other newfangled problems--like allergies--may have the same cause. Endometriosis is known to be connected to allergies--most people with endometriosis have allergies--so, there could be a connection between endometriosis and autism spectrum disorders, but it hasn't been very carefully examined yet to my knowledge.
|
|
|
Post by ouchy on Jan 11, 2007 21:50:05 GMT -5
^I've also read several studies linking autism to chromosome 15 as well as parental I.Q. When my friends' child was diagnosed with autism, the doctor's office asked them to enroll in a study involving children with autism and parental I.Q. Both my friend and her husband tested above 140. They were then sent to a genetic counselor who told them they likely had a 1:4 chance that their next child would be born somewhere on the spectrum. They had also heard about the vaccinations possibly causing autism, so when their next child arrived, they purposely never gave him any of the vaccinations, especially MMR, and he is also definitely on the spectrum. The the therory on that goes that the higher the I.Q. of the parents, the more affected the children are.
Maybe there is some genetic propensity toward allergies on that same chromosome? I have known a lot of nerdy people w/ allergies. Guess only time and further research will tell....
|
|
|
Post by camille on Jan 12, 2007 10:34:11 GMT -5
I never ever ever mean to imply that this disease is in our heads or caused by emotional instability. The best thing my lap did was give me validation that all the symptoms and feelings I have had for 15 years were real!
My understanding of this Highly Sensitive Person thing is more like a body type than a personality type. It is a physical sensitivity to physical things like light, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Because of this sensitivity, we tend to withdraw or to avoid overwhelming situations - the autism discussion is interesting because that is what I was thinking of when I was reading about this. I am not autistic and I don't think there is necessarily any relationship there but it is correlatively similar.
People with this type of nervous system tend to have a lot of the health issues that we have - allergies, asthma, aches and pains that other people don't have to have, etc. Please, Please don't ever think that I meant to say this is not a real physical disease that is actively attacking my body. i don't mean that at all. In fact, I have resisted a lot of alternative treatment suggestions throughout my life because I felt like it was being suggested to em that it was somehow "my fault". I have always hated (until now) when people (without endo) would suggest that I need to learn how to breathe, or to relax. In fact, I still resent it from anybody but you women!
I just know from my experience these last few months of being diagnosed, finding this website, really facing my body for the first time, that I have to explore all facets of disease. Even things that seem far reaching. There is something so cunning about this disease.
Now I am babbling. I am just curious about the shyness.
|
|
apple
Full Member
Posts: 214
|
Post by apple on Jan 29, 2007 16:34:30 GMT -5
Hi Camille, do you have a link that has info about this particular approach? I found some info on the web but I was wondering since you are using this technique if you would recommend one in particular. Thanks
|
|
|
Post by camille on Jan 29, 2007 17:10:25 GMT -5
First, this is not specifically about endometriosis. I don't want to misrepresent Body Psychotherapy as a cure for our disease. I had a very strong intuition after my lap last fall that I needed to look at some emotional/spiritual solutions. That said, I believe it is working miracles in my life. So... I don't have a specific link but (and I hope this isn't too much information for a post) I have cut and pasted a few paragraphs: DEFINITION OF BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY Body Psychotherapy is a distinct branch of the main body of psychotherapy with a long history and a large body of knowledge based upon a sound theoretical position. At the same time, it involves a different and explicit theory of mind-body functioning that takes into account the complexity of the intersections of and interactions between the body and the mind, with the common underlying assumption being that a functional unity exists between mind and body. The body does not merely mean the "soma," which is separate from the mind, the "psyche." Although many other approaches in psychotherapy touch on this issue, Body Psychotherapy considers this principle to be fundamental. Body Psychotherapy involves a developmental model, theory of personality, hypotheses about the origins of psychological disturbances and alterations, as well as a rich variety of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques used within the framework of the therapeutic relationship. Many different and sometimes quite separate approaches are found within Body Psychotherapy, as there are in the other main branches of psychotherapy. Body Psychotherapy is also a science, as well as an art, having developed over the last seventy-five years from the results of research in biology, anthropology, proxemics, ethology, neurophysiology, developmental psychology, neonatology, perinatal studies, and many more disciplines. A wide variety of techniques are used within Body-Psychotherapy, including those involving touch, movement and breathing. There is, therefore, a link with some body oriented therapies, somatic practices, and complementary medical disciplines, but although these may also involve touch and movement, they are very distinct from Body Psychotherapy. Body Psychotherapy recognizes the continuity and the deep connections that all psycho-corporal processes contribute, in equal fashion, to the organization of the whole person. There is no hierarchical relationship between mind and body, between psyche and soma. They are both functioning and interactive aspects of the whole. -Adapted from the EABP definition of Body Psychotherapy A Brief Description of Body Psychotherapy: Body psychotherapy helps people deal with their concerns not only through talking, but also by helping people become deeply aware of their bodily sensations as well as their emotions, images and behavior. Clients become more conscious of how they breathe, move, speak, and where they experience feelings in their bodies. People seek body psychotherapy for the same reasons they seek talking or any form of psychotherapy (e.g., anxiety, depression, relationship problems, sexual difficulties), but also for physical problems (e.g., headaches, lower back pain). All experiences, as well as distortions and denials of reality and other defensive maneuvers, are reflected not only in peoples' thoughts and feelings but also in the way they move, how they breathe and how the structure of their bodies has evolved over the years. To say that a person has his or her "feet on the ground," "leads with the chin," "has a stiff upper lip," or "their head in the clouds," are not mere figures of speech, but literal observations of the way our bodies express ourselves. How a person says something may be as important as what he or she says. Underlying this approach is the assumption that we are embodied beings and that there is a unity between the psychological and bodily aspects of being. There are as many different approaches within Body Psychotherapy as there are within traditional psychotherapies. A wide variety of techniques may be used. These may include meditative techniques to help clients get in touch with their bodily sensations, emotionally expressive techniques (e.g. kicking, making sounds, reaching, moving away or towards another person, eye movements), responding to certain questions, movements to help clients become more aware of their bodies, ways to release and deepen breathing, touch where appropriate and agreed upon, and observations to help clients become more aware of what they are feeling and where in the body. Clients may work lying down, sitting or standing. These methods are used within the overriding importance of the relationship between the client and the therapist.Body Psychotherapy evolved primarily from the work of Wilhelm Reich, originally a psychoanalyst and student of Freud. Reich later developed character analysis, which correlates certain psychological and physical patterns. Existential, humanistic and gestalt psychology, along with dance and movement therapy, family therapy, systems theory, biology, and Far Eastern philosophy, have also contributed to various body psychotherapy approaches. All take into account when problems began and how they affect a person's development over the years. All help the client to regain the healthy self-regulating function that has been disturbed. My therapist follows an approach called "Hakomi" and this link is a good definition: www.ronkurtz.com/writings.html What I was writing about earlier, in terms of shyness, which specifically relates to me, is from a book that my therapist recommended (though is not necessarily her area of expertise) called, "the Highly Sensitive Person" by Elaine Aron. I know that my pain is more than a physical abnormality which is why alternative treatments have been working so well for me already. This practice is about mindfulness, beginning with awareness, which I believe is why my lap and its subsequent diagnosis, stirred up so much emotion and started me on this path of healing, finally, after fifteen years...like you said in an earlier post, we have to recognize our pain as a part of us, and I finally had a name by which to call it and a community for "us" to be a part of.
|
|
apple
Full Member
Posts: 214
|
Post by apple on Jan 30, 2007 9:55:20 GMT -5
Thanks a lot Camille. Your post was great! I am taking this information plus other ones that I found on the web to my doctor at the mind-body clinic to get his input. I am quite positive they are almost the same approach or if not quite similar. I agree with you on the fact that this is not a cure for any particular disease like endo itself. It is an approach for our whole body. On my case mind-body pain clinic approach teach us to be aware of our pain and on that way you get control over it (short way to say it but there is more than that). I believe this will help in a lot aspects of our life including dealing with endo. My doctor also said that he is positive that with this technique you can achieve healing. I'll keep you updated with my progress. Take care.
|
|
|
Post by camille on Feb 23, 2007 14:21:59 GMT -5
Well, this period was not as good as the last month. In fact, it was pretty awful. I missed two and a half days of work. But I was able to see my Body Psychotherapist when I was actually in pain. She was able to "witness" my body as it went through the pain which drove me to see her in the first place! It was really fascinating. It was psychotherapy for my body - like when I am in pain emotionally and a therapist or friend helps me through it - we experimented with words and phrases and physical distance/nearness to see how the pain responded - it was amazing! She believes there is a deep emotional connection between my life experience and my pain. And she was very excited at the end of the session - she said she learned a lot about me through seeing me in that state. It was so healing just to be addressed head on in that way. It was the polar opposite of going to the doctor - she wanted to know exactly where the pain was every time it changed (which we know can be alot) and exactly how it felt - The first thing my body responded to was her telling me how much progress I had made, how much I have changed and grown, and while there will be peaks and valleys, it is always a progression up-wards - the pain was momentarily but completely gone! She asked why and I said, I think its because you just told me that while healing is my responsibility, the pain is not my fault-
it was really cool...
|
|
|
Post by kb on Feb 23, 2007 20:33:59 GMT -5
[qoute]I think its because you just told me that while healing is my responsibility, the pain is not my fault-[qoute] (sorry cant figure out how to qoute) Thats a really great way to think. Ill remember that
|
|