Do you experience instant pain and then drop into depression...

[Still Standing]

or anxiety? I just copied the following from my diary and thought I would repost it here. I am curious if others have this happen to them. How do you deal with it and have you been able to overcome it?

"Not sure how to even talk about it. I wonder if it is common for others to suddenly have a flash of pain go through their abdomen and then instantly drop into despair or feelings of intense lonliness or whatever is dark and negative? This happens to me. Sometimes it can be reactionary...something was said or someone looked mad or whatever...and I have the pain and am instantly lost in deep depression and self-incrimination. At other times, the pain flashes through me and I don't know why. I will also have flashes of stinging electricity in my hands that then travel to my abdomen, leaving me feeling tentative with a sense of depression. Most often there is nothing I recognize outwardly or inwardly that precipitated this reaction. I have had this happen since a young child. This is the first time I have ever spoken of it. And I don't even know what made me think about this until last night. But, it did make me think about something @ladee had influenced me with and that was thinking about the whys of things."

 

[Friday]

Yep.

It’s even why for severe pain anti-anxiety meds (or antipsychotics, helloooooo VitH ;) IE Haldol) are often administered... meanwhile for chronic pain patients; anti-depressants are often part of their pain management program.

There’s even a whole branch of therapy for pain-psych. That’s 91% about learning controlled disassociation, and 9% (numbers made up, but following my own experience) recognizing anxiety/depression cycles in regards to pain, and meeting them before they can subsume/overwhelm.

Pain/Anxiety/Depression are very very closely linked/correlated. Treating the anxiety & depression secondary to pain? Is one of the things that’s so drastically improved outcomes over the past many many decades. It’s not just about painkillers, but also the systems that get activated once the body is dealing with severe or chronic pain.

 

[Still Standing]

Hmmmmm......can’t really respond, @Friday. My brain is not letting me process what you shared. When it quits swirling,I’ll be back.

 

[Friday]

No worries... I was also thinking you were talking about physical pain ( = very tightly linked to anxiety & depression)... but on re-read it seems as if you might be talking about an emotional response, emotional pain rather than physical pain? The kind of lightning shoots through you, icewater for blood, snakes in your belly... adrenaline, anxiety, pain, guilt/shame/despair... each ticking over like dominos?

 

[Still Standing]

No worries... I was also thinking you were talking about physical pain ( = very tightly linked to anxiety & depression)... but on re-read it seems as if you might be talking about an emotional response, emotional pain rather than physical pain? The kind of lightning shoots through you, icewater for blood, snakes in your belly... adrenaline, anxiety, pain, guilt/shame/despair... each ticking over like dominos?

Vegged out in front of the TV and my thinker is back.

What I feel is physical pain but it does not last like a chronic pain, which I also have. It is spontaneous and lasts for seconds to a minute or two...at least the most painful part of it, usually dissipating into feeling anxious, depressed, or panicked. If I can identify the trigger, then even when thinking about the circumstance, after the fact, the pain will duplicate itself again. It is most uncomfortable. So it is an emotional response that hurts!!! Not sure an anti-depressant would help...most war with my body. The only way that I have tried to deal with this is by distraction...doing something pleasurable like working on a design project, listening to audiobooks, etc. It helps the emotional stress but does not seem to curb the initial pain responses.

 

[Wilma]

Could it be a body memory?

Other than that emotional pain is actually processed like physical pain in the brain. Thus the connection makes sense either way.

 

[Still Standing]

Could it be a body memory?

Body memory? Good question. But, I don't relate to it. I understand that as a child, we learn consequences that can cause pain and that memory is carried on through the rest of our lives. Example, I remember putting a live plug in my mouth when I was barely a toddler. That taught me not to put an electrical cord in my mouth ever again!!!! I remember the explosion, white light, and pain even to this day. Yet, to think about it, there is no physical reaction to it. I remember getting spanked, slapped, screamed at, pushed etc. but, I have no pain with those memories. There are times when an attitude, cranky look, or snide remark will set a pain response, but most often, I do not recognize what would be a trigger. It is a curiosity for me.

I was interested in a suggestion that @Friday made regarding therapy for pain-psych.

There’s even a whole branch of therapy for pain-psych. That’s 91% about learning controlled disassociation, and 9% (numbers made up, but following my own experience) recognizing anxiety/depression cycles in regards to pain, and meeting them before they can subsume/overwhelm.

Perhaps this is something that would benefit me if I could find a T that specializes in this. I 'spose this is something I need to talk to the LCSW about. Not sure she is trained in this. She would probably consult with the psychiatrist and his first choice is using meds and those I am not interested in using.

 

[Invisible Fire]

I have experienced something similar and for me it is usually associated with a flashback. Or like a body memory. Which leaves me exhausted (depressed) or anxious for days. I also sometimes have this experience with my hearing being distorted or having a sharp pain in my ear(s).

 

[Wilma]

Body memory? Good question. But, I don't relate to it. I understand that as a child, we learn consequences that can cause pain and that memory is carried on through the rest of our lives. Example, I remember putting a live plug in my mouth when I was barely a toddler. That taught me not to put an electrical cord in my mouth ever again!!!! I remember the explosion, white light, and pain even to this day. Yet, to think about it, there is no physical reaction to it. I remember getting spanked, slapped, screamed at, pushed etc. but, I have no pain with those memories. There are times when an attitude, cranky look, or snide remark will set a pain response, but most often, I do not recognize what would be a trigger. It is a curiosity for me.

I was interested in a suggestion that @Friday made regarding therapy for pain-psych.

Perhaps this is something that would benefit me if I could find a T that specializes in this. I 'spose this is something I need to talk to the LCSW about. Not sure she is trained in this. She would probably consult with the psychiatrist and his first choice is using meds and those I am not interested in using

I could imagine those remarks or looks or attitude are actually triggers. Anything that was there during trauma.

 

[RCReal]

Body memory? Good question. But, I don't relate to it. I understand that as a child, we learn consequences that can cause pain and that memory is carried on through the rest of our lives. Example, I remember putting a live plug in my mouth when I was barely a toddler. That taught me not to put an electrical cord in my mouth ever again!!!! I remember the explosion, white light, and pain even to this day. Yet, to think about it, there is no physical reaction to it. I remember getting spanked, slapped, screamed at, pushed etc. but, I have no pain with those memories. There are times when an attitude, cranky look, or snide remark will set a pain response, but most often, I do not recognize what would be a trigger. It is a curiosity for me.

I was interested in a suggestion that @Friday made regarding therapy for pain-psych.

Perhaps this is something that would benefit me if I could find a T that specializes in this. I 'spose this is something I need to talk to the LCSW about. Not sure she is trained in this. She would probably consult with the psychiatrist and his first choice is using meds and those I am not interested in using.

Look for trauma informed body workers.... This is called somatic therapy... body workers could be massage therapist, physical therapist, acupuncturists etc... trauma is a mind/ body/brain thing... so make sure your specialist are trauma informed... you don't have to talk about the specifics of your trauma if you don't want to)
Talk therapy helps with the resources you were missing at the time of the experience ( Mind)
Somatic handles the trauma memories stored in the body ( trauma memories are like incomplete collages stored in the body waiting for the rest of the info to fill in--- when they sit in the body it causes pain etc...)
And CBT and beliefs and behaviors work on the brain to re-wire the brain- overriding old neural pathways once the trauma memories have been released...

good luck!!! :)