Ptsd In Muscles

[racquel1x]

Thank you, I made contact with a somatic therapist yesterday in London and we are going to meet, assess, go through involuntary movements and points of permanent contraction and a tailored plan will be made from there. It is nice to have a bit of positivity being breathed my way instead of the negative approaches so far. I won't give up when I look what I have been through physically this past year, I am not going to have unrealistic expectations but any progress is good. Thanks for your support :)

 

[Ladyghosthunter]

I have been diagnosed with costocolitis which is described as the muscles and tendons on your ribcage stretching that mimics a heart attack. I've been to the ER once and the only thing I can take is anti inflammatory drugs. My PTSD has gotten so much worse that I have no concentration whatsoever at work and just want to walk away (flight response). I don't know how to deal with all of what is going on at work but it's making my situation so bad to the point I don't want to leave home and just clean out the house.
How do you concentrate on what you're supposed to work on when your PTSD has worsened due to the stress at work?

 

[greenleaf]

@Ladyghosthunter, I looked up your condition on the web -- it says it often can resolve on its own (doesn't say how long it takes) but I hope yours does soon! That sounds pretty awful for ptsd and your work situation; I've found breathing to be a very helpful strategy for calming down and focusing. Can you try stretching a different part of your body that is not painful, and focus on it, perhaps? Bring a picture of a scene from nature, take little breaks and imagine yourself there, free of pain?

I find massage extremely calming too, though avoiding actual painful spots can be important.

 

[racquel1x]

It is hard to live a normal life and understand Ladyghosthunter but what isn't normal starts to become normal. I'm now used to my shoulders muscles flicking in when anyone stands behind me or gets close, they do it when I try and squeeze past things too. I feel anxiety and my right shoulder muscle groans forwards to the position it was held in and is permanently up. My back is contracted permanently but on the plus side I seem to be losing the rise krispie crackling. Muscles constantly move in my back and sometimes I'm just tipped forward. But have to hold onto hope, as the violent movement has left me. Quite honestly now I don't mind the flicks but I can't stand the pain so if it doesn't hurt it doesn't matter. I have to rest in the day as it makes me feel so sick, anxiety breathes from my shoulder like its alive, although the little bubble that bounced up and down inside hot and violent is fading too. I actually visited my parents today and didn't feel too self conscious when I walked stiffly around the garden like a soldier!!! Any noise causes muscle movement and my daughters sports day was intolerable every sound, cause my muscles to jolt, every person was a stalker and if I catch sight of a single man walking towards me I gasp and my muscles will take on trauma position raising from my body . My conscious mind knows it's not real but I have to check every person out just in case, arms come across me to protect even when the kids walk In the room!! Positively it's not as horrendous as it was, I went to London yesterday and saw a somatic practitioner to work with resetting muscles and opening up the body from the centre. Fear responses in my body she can't stop but educating the brain as to where it all should be can only be tried .. If it helps me halfway it will be worth it . Take a look at Martha Peterson and somatic movement to learn about freeing habitually contracted muscles . My body sense is totally overwhelmed and it picks up the slightest thing from my back like a radar, even if my boyfriend comes up to kiss me from behind he gets a shoulder jerk ... You gotta laugh or you cry :) xx

 

[greenleaf]

These do sound like very positive changes, @raquel1x, and I'm glad you're hopeful. You absolutely should be. The reduction in violent movements plus rice crispies are indeed good signs. I think these things improve at a pace that feels very slow to us, as we're suffering with them. I suspect that researchers will eventually find that our brains are having to change their wiring in some ways though, and that can't happen overnight. My neck issues are certainly taking their time, although there are big improvements in some ways. (I'd been ignoring very tight muscles for many years, and new locked muscles keep making themselves known though many have been resolved; we have an amazing number of muscles in our necks.)

 

[racquel1x]

We'll the somatic practitioner didn't help as the fear is in the body and cannot stop the responses. I was wondering if a cortisone shot in shoulders would help relax the muscles although wouldn't stop the hardening etc when people get close. Worth a try I hope. Trying hypnotherapy next week then just gonna give up and carry on as I've what it's like to feel normal now :(

Does anyone have any experience with cortisone for ptsd muscles ??

 

[Chava]

Just noticed this post, so wanted to respond, even if a bit on the late side (assume the pain continues, as does this stuff unfortunately). I have chronic pain in my upper back. It could be connected to past traumas but I have not been able to unravel it really...but I do know it becomes unbearable when I feel emotionally swamped. It does feel like a protective bracing...it happens unconsciously and creates pretty bad spasms. Over the past couple years of therapy and working on my own to find out what helps, I can say I have many more good days and am generally taking fewer pain killers.

I've worked on strengthening core muscles, partly to improve muscle imbalances and posture, but also to help my body be stronger to help me get through the spasms and fits more quickly. So I do Pilates daily, not thinking I can "fix" this back thing right away, since there is a big psychological component, but because it helps me pay attention to my body, slow down, and feel a little more empowered. And while I still have some bad days, they seem to come in fits of 1-3 days of bad spasms versus dragging on and leading into lots of fatigue. If I need to curl into myself for a couple days, my body can tolerate it better because I am getting physically stronger. The pain itself was leading to too many compounded feelings of powerlessness and panic, so Pilates lessons along with therapy felt helpful for me

What will work for you will be different than what works for me, or for others, but I believe we can find some relief (especially when we know it is muscular vs in the spinal bones themselves). For me it is a combination of many things:

• Therapy and continuing to work on the emotional regulation, peace, and safety
• Walking or safe movement
• Gentle Pilates and strengthening (emotional stress can lead to postural imbalances over time...so the pain becomes a gnarly mix of emotional and physiological issues)
• Yin yoga, foam roller, or other gentle stretching or myofascial release (and doing all of this with soothing or uplifting music if it feels hard to slow down
• Occasional compression for when the pain is really bad or I'm getting panicky (like wrapping a scarf tight around my chest while I'm hanging out at home)
• Finding comfortable ways to rest, like loading up my bed with my pets and a teddy bear
• Low doses of muscle relaxants...not every day but I do need to take Flexeril a few times a week to help keep things in check.
• And lots of water, good hydration and nutrition (electrolytes + magnesium as natural muscle relaxant)

So, that seems like a lot, but I'm learning and noticing improvement over time. If you don't do it already, maybe keep a pain journal or notes of what helps or makes pain worse...including what you notice as links to your emotions or stressors so you can work to address the root of pain in therapy. Good luck...I know back pain can be really depressing and disempowering at times.

 

[KwanYingirl]

@Ladyghosthunter your costochontritis is difficult merely by the fact that the ribs can't be immobilized since they are flexing with every breath you take. I suggest you find a Chiropractor and masseuse that can actually treat you by realigning the bones and slowly stretching the ligaments and muscles in the chest and abdomen. A pulled muscle in your pelvis can put strain on your pecs and they foreshorten and pull on your ribs. Shooting cortisone into your sternum is an exercise in futility.

 

[racquel1x]

Thank you chava, yes my body responds with muscle movement curling contracting and protecting, tightening to external factors so it has a mind of its own, despite this and the hard permanently contracted shoulder that tips itself to and fro I walk the dogs regularly but have noticed this affects my entire body and the way I walk as I'm very lopsided :( but I agree with the keeping active despite pain and discomfort to empower and strengthen. Plus now I've developed another habit ontop of the ptsd which I went to see a hypnotherapist about last week and she is making me a disc to feed into my subconcious ... As if ptsd and the pain efc wasn't enough I now get visual images of everything behind or around me whether intentionally think of it almost OCD like or not and with this the joys of more muscle movement / hardening. The hypno lady said it has become ingrained into my subconcious where I have been watching my back for the past year ..so I'm walking along the street and I walk past someone and then when they are behind me I get a flash of them and muscle movementor I hear a noise and I get a flash of whatever it is and more movement, sometimes this knocks me sideways when I am walking whether indoors or outdoors. I now get visuals of everything around my space, whatever it may be it's like having eyes out of the back of my head and I cannot stop doing it and when I don't it does it anyway!!! It got scary last week as these images were overpowering and had me cowering but I know my mind is playing tricks with me and I will not give it power :( geeezzzz I'm so lucky to have such a supportive partner, he keeps me grounded and I like to think that my brain will eventually quit giving me these graphics that I move from in time! If I try not to take notice of them which is hard because their is always a physical response .does anyone else have OCD like issues along with their ptsd because this is kind of what formed this?

 

[Chava]

I have been watching my back for the past year ..so I'm walking along the street and I walk past someone and then when they are behind me I get a flash of them and muscle movementor I hear a noise and I get a flash of whatever it is and more movement,

This sounds like the sort of thing that might be worked out in a body-oriented trauma therapy, such as Somatic Experiencing. That's not to say quit what you are doing, but just something to look into if the pain doesn't resolve. The connection between your trauma and subconscious body responses does make sense.

Saw your other short post above about cortisone. I've had a shot into my shoulder and it did NOTHING. But it works for some people. Only problem is that it does not solve the root of the problem. If it was temporary inflammation, it could be really helpful. But if it is pain that will keep reappearing because of some pattern in your movement or related to trauma, you might just have to keep going in for more cortisone...and that gets really rough on the body. But you have to work out with your doctor what you can realistically tolerate. Personally, for pain that I believe is connected to my trauma, I would refuse cortisone because it would just feel like further abuse to my body. I got the shot for overuse injury, unrelated to trauma. I was disappointed it didn't help. Prednisone for a bad allergic reaction DID help my shoulder, but I couldn't just keeping taking those either (I did ask my doctor and she said NO). So, some form of steroid might help you, but you have to weigh the risks and likelihood of the pain simply reappearing after a month or two.

 

[KwanYingirl]

@racquel1x I have been getting reiki and take yoga and between them, my back and hip pain resolved. I would like to add somatic experiencing but can't afford it. My insurance pays for my Chiropracter so I see her every three weeks or more often for head and neck pain. Before yoga I did Pilates but my legs are deformed and it made my pain worse. At the time, the neurologist I saw told me I'd have to use a cane to walk. Yoga has cured all my muscle problems. I do a type of yoga called yin yoga.
I hope you can make progress in your healing journey. Nothing happens fast enough though!!

 

[aber]

Oh yes, very familiar with those symptoms. My whole body was like that and the perpetrators that caused the PTSD will actually make fun of that.

EMDR helps, mediation helps, and yes it takes several years, maybe forever, to get over those symptoms. I find that after trauma I will move suddenly, flail without even knowing that it occurs, like a short in the brain that is getting rerouted into the muscles. It is not fun at all.

Try exercises, tai chi, yoga too. It is one of those unfortunate symptoms of PTSD.