Chronic Pain And Trauma, Trauma Recovery

[Chava]

For those of you dealing with chronic pain, has trauma therapy/recovery helped the pain?

In some cases these might be body memories, but not necessarily. I have pain in several tummy and upper body areas. But only a couple scary memories that feel connected to the pain in upper back, one being abusive/terrorizing, the other being my lungs collapsing...but I'm not certain they are connected, especially since I have very little conscious memory of the lung thing. Physical therapy wasn't very helpful and manipulation made things worse (ex. last back massage I had made me wake up it the middle of the night extremely angry and wanting to kill myself...it felt reslly illogical, like not connected to any thoughts. And pain might express other things...like upper back pain seems full of powerlessness and also sadness. Also noone can touch me there...I start hissing like I'm burning, even though I barely actually feel anything.

I work with a body/movement psychotherpist who specializes in trauma and I'm taking individual Pilates lessons for centering, strength, and hopefully integrating my muscle use better...I love some of the gentle moves I've learned, like making "snow angels"...moving pained muscles without pushing or messing with them much. So certain forms of movement help but I'm not sure yet if trauma therapy is helpful, so just interested in your experiences with that connection...

 

[marylouise]

A bit different than what you're describing, but I totally believe that ongoing therapy and recovery has changed my experience of fibromyalgia. It is completely in remission now. I haven't experienced fibro pain *at all* since 2008.

Our bodies hold so much. So, yes, I believe as we process our trauma, our bodies can finally let go.

 

[Chava]

That's awesome!

 

[Hope4Now]

I have chronic pain. I also have flashbacks that come out in physical ways. They are different things for me. There is nothing specific associated with the areas of my chronic pain, at least right now. It seems, for me, mostly to be related to fear and overwhelm. I do somatic work with a trauma therapist, as well as some other movement and energy therapies. I started trauma therapy in October...apparently that means I am still very early in the process, which makes me feel some level of frustration as I wish I could resume my former active life. But it has been going on for two years now. However, to answer your question, yes, the trauma therapy has helped a great deal when nothing else did (and I do mean nothing else...I tried pretty much everything from meds to diet). I am still in pain, but it is not acute nearly as often as it was about 2 months ago. As I have started to trust my therapist more and am doing more trauma work, the physical pain has eased off some. I am very hopeful that with more time in trauma therapy, it will go away.