u/smokedplum

Hello!

I have been in somatic therapy for a few months. I have also started TRE relatively recently - I am still at a stage where trembling is mostly in my upper legs/hips/pelvis area, not yet moving up.

I come with a background of childhood trauma and random, illogical health symptoms ever since I contracted Covid. One of them is a tension in my face, specifically masseters muscles that is not an effect of me clenching my jaw. I do not grind my teeth at night either. This tension is just.. there, and it happens on its own. Sometimes it goes away, sometimes it's very prominent (often in stressful situations), but for a few months it has been more or less constant (I have had an incredibly anxiety-inducing year living in a toxic and abusive environment, from which I am finally free and going back on my two feet).

I was just curious if anyone experienced a similar thing where the jaw clenching seems to be happening almost on its own, and whether TRE or any somatic techniques helped them? I am lucky to say that most of my Long Covid cognitive symptoms are gone, but now I deal with physical symptoms like poor digestion or jaw clenching.

My somatic therapist explained it as a connection between jaw and neck that clenches in order to block the pathway from brain and heart, and something about not being able to let go of that defence mechanism that is in me. I'm at a point of wanting to try botox for bruxism but I also think that perhaps the best thing I can do is address this from within my own body...

Thank you to everyone who has something to say :)

Hello!

I have started TRE relatively recently - I am still at a stage where trembling is mostly in my upper legs/hips/pelvis area, not yet moving up.

I come with a background of childhood trauma and random, illogical health symptoms ever since I contracted Covid. One of them is a tension in my face, specifically masseters muscles that is not an effect of me clenching my jaw. I do not grind my teeth at night either. This tension is just.. there, and it happens on its own. Sometimes it goes away, sometimes it's very prominent (often in stressful situations), but for a few months it has been more or less constant (I have had an incredibly anxiety-inducing year living in a toxic and abusive environment, from which I am finally free and going back on my two feet).

I was just curious if anyone experienced a similar thing where the jaw clenching seems to be happening almost on its own, and whether TRE helped them?

My somatic therapist explained it as a connection between jaw and neck that clenches in order to block the pathway from brain and heart, and something about not being able to let go of that defence mechanism that is in me. I'm at a point of wanting to try botox for bruxism but I also think that perhaps the best thing I can do is address this from within my own body...

Thank you to everyone who has something to say :)

Hi all! 28M.

I have struggled with hyperhidrosis since I was a teenager but whenever I'm on an antidepressant it gets a bit worse. Mostly affects my face, scalp, back and chest (weirdly no palms, no feet, no armpits).

Currently, I'm on duloxetine and since going up to 60mg it's the worst it's ever been. I also just moved to start a PhD and it makes me nervous thinking I have to deal with it while getting to know everyone and running around campus.

I want to quit duloxetine because it gives me a range of other side effects that I just can't deal with it, and I am doing better in general too.

But I was wondering if anybody has experiences with excessive sweating while on medication, and how to manage it during the time of tapering the medication and an adjustment to no-medication?

Thank you everyone!

Hi! I have been on duloxetine for 6 weeks (1 week on 60mg, before 30mg) and I think I want to stop - I haven’t slept through the night since starting, anxiety is not really improving and I started sweating way more than I normally do (although I am quite a sweaty person anyway, and I did sweat on venlafaxine in the past too) which is embarrassing because I just started a PhD and it will be quite a social thing. I have started taking it not only for anxiety but also facial pain which has since turned out to be bruxism, possible to manage without duloxetine (I was clenching jaw before the drug). I got off venlafaxine in the past very slowly after being on it for 2 years without major side effects (never had a brain zap my life) but I want to make sure I am super safe on duloxetine given that I am starting my PhD and want to be well enough to do the work. My previous doctor referred me to a clinical pharmacist and they gave me advice to take it every other day so currently I am changing the practise because I was shocked they would ever even suggest that. But it will take a while to change and see a new doctor and I’m honestly so exhausted from the side effects and want to start tapering as soon as possible. Will it be easier given it’s only been 6 weeks, and only a week on 60mg? Any advice will be massive help - thank you! Apologies if similar posts have been around, I’m just feeling quite overwhelmed.

TLDR: I been on duloxetine for 6 weeks (currently 1 week on 60mg). How do I quit safely?

Hi all!

I have been on 30mg of duloxetine for almost 3 weeks (3wk tomorrow), prescribed to go up to 60 after 4 weeks. I was wondering what were your experiences of taking this medication and adjusting to it after starting. I was previously on sertraline and venlafaxine, both successfully, and duloxetine definitely gives me the longest lasting initial side effects. When I first started I felt nauseous, zoned out, dizzy, had GI issues, insomnia, headaches, anxiety. There were sexual side effects for a few days that now seem under control. Currently, 3 weeks in, I am experiencing enhanced tiredness and sleepiness, headaches during the day, I struggled with insomnia for a while (this I think is finally regulating itself, I wake up only once and quite close to actual wake up time), fast beating heart, heightened anxiety. I was wondering if it's normal to still have these side effects at 3 point mark. I keep wanting to quit and maybe ask to be put on venlafaxine again (duloxetine was my idea, tbf, after I read about its use for neuropathic pain and IBS, which do not bother me as much anymore, but hard to tell whether this was the medication itself). Or I keep wanting to come off medication altogether, seeing that I'd rather find ways of managing my anxiety without having to deal with quite bothersome side effects every day, it honestly seems that living with anxiety would just be simpler. But I am also not sure I am currently at place in life when I can wholeheartedly trust myself to not be on something. Is there anyone here who has experienced a significant improvement a bit later on, while still having side effects 3 weeks in? Thank you :)

Hi!

I have been doing SE since the beginning of the year and so far it has helped me get rid of the cognitive side of my long covid symptoms but it has also definitely unlocked an insight into other underlying emotional long-term issues that need tending to.

For the past few months, I have also been going through an extremely distressing, difficult situation which caused a return of my heightened anxiety and unfortunately disturbed my sleep. Things have been getting better recently, but my sleep is still affected - I keep waking at 5.30am (it seems to be always around this time no matter when I go to bed), unable to go back to sleep. My heart starts beating really fast, and I'm anxious, even if later throughout the day I am not as anxious if at all. I was also put on an SNRI recently (duloxetine) which gave me as light insomnia at the beginning, which has since stabilised. The 5.30am problem was there before I went on duloxetine.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of working with a nervous system that is adamant on becoming alert/awake earlier than it is supposed to? No matter how tired I am, I always seem to wake up around that time, and I am yearning for that extra 2 hours of sleep in the morning.

Thank you to anyone who replies:)

Hi all!

I'm on day 10 of duloxetine, and I have been struggling with quite intense side effects (anxiety, nausea, headaches, tummy issues, insomnia (!)) but last night I had my first good night's sleep and today I woke up with my anxiety completely on mute and it feels SO strange. I am really weirded out and almost don't trust this feeling - did this happen to anyone as well? All other side effects feel less intense/gone as well but it's so strange that it just happened overnight. Did anyone have a similar experience?

Hi all! I am creating this post because I just couldn't find anything on any subreddit (I checked Pain Reprocessing, TRE, but ultimately SE is what I do the most of) that would speak to physical symptoms that relate to face and skin and their relation to SE.

Like many here, I went through a lot of childhood trauma. I struggled quite severely with Long Covid, which SE helped me with massively (I no longer experience most of the symptoms associated with Long Covid).

But the energy moves, and it's not always quite easy to just stop being symptomatic once and for all.

Currently, I struggle with something that returns every now and then in my adult life in situations of high emotional stress, when I am stuck in relationships or situation that feel like I can't speak up for myself, and ones in which I feel trapped with no escape.

This brings me weird facial pain, feelings of tension in my face (jaw, cheeks, around mouth) and my skin reacting weirdly (flushes with redness and feels inflamed, face feeling hot, face feeling swollen). I see doctors but they say I do not have rosacea, and tbh neither do I look like I have one, but my face does feels and look different.

In situations like this, I often think - is it psychosomatic, is it my body communicating?

I understand that I need to remove myself from my current environment that makes me feel unsafe (abusive flatmate who used to be a very close friend, two months left until I can leave). But I was also just curious - has anyone ever experienced symptoms like this as a form of body-stored trauma, or in situations of reliving past traumas in the present, and addressed them via SE? Or is this a different type of work? Or maybe my intuitions that this is psychosomatic are fully wrong, and maybe I just need to find a correct doctor?

Any insight/advice would be appreciated :) Thanks

TL;DR - Can SE help with physical symptoms relating to facial pains and skin?

Hi all! I am writing from what I am aware is a privileged position: I was offered a full funding from Oxford for my DPhil, and since I have been awarded another full funding, from Cambridge. My research is in English.

I already accepted my offer at Oxford because it was timed, but I found myself in a difficult situation of choice. Cambridge was kind of my preferred university but I in my head I already mentally adjusted myself to going to Oxford: I visited it, and also realised that supervision they gave me, despite not necessarily being directly correlated, has a high potential of actually taking my research into an interesting direction. On top of it, I also have a co-supervisor from History at Oxford, which I think could also be beneficial for both my project and potential networking (maybe?). Both supervisors seem super nice.

But I also just really like the vibe of Cambridge's English dept. My research is in Contemporary literature. My supervisor, who I had my interview with, was lovely and we got on well. Their expertise seems, on first hand, more immediately aligned with my proposal.

Does anyone have advice on how to approach making this decision?

My aim, however ludicrous, is to be in academia, but I also plan to think of an alt-career from the get-go. Maybe there is a slight benefit of choosing one institution over the other from that angle? Feeling lost! Thanks.