Hi,
I've suffered from severe Pudendal Neuralgia since giving birth a year and a half ago. I have made progress since then, and I do believe that the pain and inflammation is a result of my brain being in trauma/panic mode (the birth itself was very traumatic, and I had prior pelvic pain so was already susceptible to pain in that area) and the nerve pathways having learned to stay in this state.
But I am really struggling with the reprogramming the mind portion of this course. There are two reasons.
1 - Although I try and convince myself that there is nothing to fear and no harm can come to me due to pain, I find it extremely difficult to believe this deep down because for about three months I couldn't walk at all due to the severity of my PN, and had to be a in wheelchair. And I couldn't sit because of my PN so I was never comfortable. At that point, I honestly thought my life was over, and fell into a state of deep depression. The inability to walk came about as a result of 'pushing myself' by going back to work. I am terrified that this could happen again and I'll end up in a wheelchair again. It took six months to get the point where I could walk more, though still not that much, and the idea of relapsing is truly scary to me. I have no idea of how to overcome this fear. I can tell myself there is nothing to fear, but I feel deep down that there is - that I won't be able to walk again. Should I even try to overcome this fear? What I do do is force myself to walk more and have worked hard on my anxiety when walking by telling myself repeatedly "I'm safe," which I do believe has helped my walking improve. However, that deep down fear is still very much there.
2 - I have pain/weird sensations all the time, every day. Given that, how do I talk to the pain, because I can't talk all day of course!!
Thanks for any advice!
Olivia