u/Living_Catch1010

how to prevent further shutdown?

Hi all, I’m in week two of a major crash down from mild/remission to near bedbound and nothing seems to stem the progress of the crash. If I write in a journal my arm becomes heavy an hour later. If I walk around a bit my body makes it hard to get up. I try and tell myself that these are just sensations and that they can’t hurt me but it is extremely difficult to stem the panic of the decline. My usual techniques of self regulation only seem to make things worse. I feel like my body is not listening to me at all and don’t know what to do. Does anyone have any tips for stopping the decline?

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u/Living_Catch1010 — 4 days ago

question about repressing emotions

I feel like there’s some conflicting information about what to do with big feelings. On the one hand you don’t want to repress the big stuff like trauma at the root of the problem (which is why things like journal speak work for some) yet at the same time a lot of the feelings about the illness itself take on some form of emotional repression.

I am angry and sad and terrified about having relapsed and I know I should find some way to detach myself from those feelings because they only reinforce to the nervous system that something is wrong. However repressing or burying them feels like the wrong move also and I feel like the language of detachment is hard for me to understand. My condition is worsening and that’s making the cycle harder to break.

Has anyone had success with this?

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u/Living_Catch1010 — 7 days ago

favorite guided meditations?

Hi everyone, I’m returning to mind body work after having a relapse and am finding that with the exception of Ally Boothroyd the meditations I used the last time I got well aren’t doing it for me anymore. I’m looking for some somatic tracking videos and loving kindness meditations I can do after my JournalSpeak but am open to anything that can help calm the nervous system like IFT tapping or humming, things like that.

Thanks!

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u/Living_Catch1010 — 8 days ago

advice for calming hypnic jerks?

hello all,

i‘m having trouble with one of my most annoying symptoms — when im nice and calm and shifting into rest and digest my body shocks me awake every time. I have to take heavy sedatives to go to sleep and while i usually wake up refreshed if i try to drift off again i can‘t and feel like crap later. I’ve tried yoga nidra, somatic tracking and progressive muscle relaxation but it feels like my body has a mind of its own. any tips?

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u/Living_Catch1010 — 9 days ago
▲ 20 r/cfsnervoussystemwork+1 crossposts

losing faith after relapse

what it says in the title. (sorry mods if this is too negative — I’m genuinely looking for advice and don’t want to discourage anyone.) I was recovered for several months thanks to mind body work only to crash again after extreme stress. I can’t get rid of the stress entirely because I have no choice but to move house next month. the thought of having so little energy again, of basically being couchbound (which I am as of yesterday) and having to go through all this again is unbearable to me. i know this is the only way out and yet I feel almost angry towards it because I relapsed. my confidence is shaky now. does anyone have any advice for how to deal with this? It’s almost worse than it was the first time. I can barely use my phone for half an hour and am trying not to panic. I can calm myself down but then the emotions are repressed. are there any videos or recovery stories that deal with relapse? what should I do?

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u/Living_Catch1010 — 10 days ago

how to trust mind body work after relapse

what it says in the title. I considered myself recovered through mind body work for about four months. then I had some extreme stress (having to find a new place — I’m moving next month) and came down with the flu which was extremely mild (borderline asymptomatic) bc I took Tamiflu. during the flu I felt mostly sleepy. I should have taken it as a sign that when I went out and came back I felt so pleasantly sleepy and in need of a nap. But at night the fear of being sick often kept me awake bc I’m so traumatized from being ill from long covid for eight months.

I haven’t had flu symptoms for almost a week but woke up with that familiar soreness yesterday and today with fatigue that leaves me winded going to the bathroom or letting the dogs out. I’ve slept for four hours this morning alone and can barely make it through a breezy article without feeling like I need to sleep some more. It even feels slightly different from long covid fatigue which wasn’t at all cognitively driven. I know in my body that it’s true PEM.

I know that I should just believe that this may be temporary and that I will get better again and restart mind body work but I’m so devastated and afraid that I’ll be ill for so long again (especially with the move which is the main stressor and something I cannot change) that when I even try to relax I just spiral again even though I know it doesn’t do me any good. In my trauma I almost feel hatred towards what helped me before because the help wasn’t permanent. what should I do now? Has anyone come back from a relapse? I’m so terrified!!!

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u/Living_Catch1010 — 11 days ago