I have just read through a number of threads on this board and it strikes me there is a lot of negativity here. I get it, I really do, and I understand why men just want vent their anger or reach out to others in the same boat.
A few months ago I reached a point where my frustration was so intense that I regularly found myself waking up in a rage and unable to sleep. Just this last month I've been dealing with some family issues that definitely did my health no good raising my blood pressure and inflammation as I struggled to even sleep. Needless to say the Peyronie's was never far from my thoughts.
I know it is difficult, but I want to suggest a change of approach for those who are struggling. My theory is that by constantly focusing on the disease and the condition we effectively prolong the stress and other factors that block us from healing. I know this is hard, I really do and especially when life throws up other horrors. Basically I want to suggest that instead of fixating on the difficulties, we would be better served by a change of approach and placing our attention on getting well.
Try practicing gratitude for the good things in our lives. Try to find happiness and enjoyment in the small bits of luck as they arrive, even if it is just finding a parking space easily for the car or being able to help somebody. It's a curious trick of the mind that if you express gratitude for healing "that has already taken place" and "gratitude that healing will continue" you will slowly lower your stress and inflammation levels, which will help you both physically and mentally.
It doesn't actually matter if no obvious improvement has occurred. The important point is that the subconscious can be convinced otherwise.
There are many more aspects to this like exercising regularly to boost your mood, but essentially you want to shower your mind with positive healing thoughts. I can honestly say after ten years that no amount of stressing or frustration will help one bit, so I reckon it's better to concentrate on good things. Picture your life as being happy and try to make progress in all areas of life, then celebrate them. Meditate, journal or do whatever it takes to move your mind to better place, so that your body can follow.
Just as a closing thought. If you know you have suffered some kind of psychological trauma in your life, whether from childhood or some other source there is a good chance that is holding up your recovery or even making you sick in other ways. It would be highly beneficial to find the root causes and try to resolve them. Chances are they have nothing to do with the Peyronie's but blocking you from approaching this more effectively. Again I am speaking from experience.
Very nice read and positive too! There is a lot of truth here and it does us good to focus on the positive. Our minds are more powerful than we realize.
Fartoolong has a lot of lengthy and informative posts!
Awesome!
Fartoolong, your points are well made. In addition to the fact that stressing does nothing to improve our condition, it actually makes it worse. It is pretty well documented that Peyronies Disease strikes more often during stressful situations. Stress undermines our health on many fronts.
Hello
I think fartoolong has made a beautiful comment. I also think he is a good writer. Being less stressed and more gratefull is not only good for peyronie but life in general.
I'm not sure I can do this on this site, but the Waking Up app of Sam Harris may be helpfull for many of us. Its not only about Mindfullness but also about dealing with life and it's pitfalls and set backs. I find it very inspiring. I'm a user of this app (nothing else).
Fartoolong,
Like your post.
Full agreement on reaching some kind of inner peace is important. But the work to get there is worth it. Just like medical recovery, inner peace is a process.
StepOne
I don't want to give the impression from my original post that I never slip up these days without ever having a negative thought. I have my bad days like everybody else, often caused by external factors that are frustratingly beyond my control.
Just today I had a few hours when I felt generally depressed about my life and the world around me. My wife is Ukrainian and her whole family is stuck out there in a war zone, so the last 8 months have been one drama after another. Closer to home, I have a step mother reaching the bad stages of dementia; requiring ever more assistance. That's not all and I could go on, but you get the picture.
Sometimes life gets us down for perfectly understandable reasons and a lot of that stress is then transferred onto Peyronie's, but if you can develop the right mental techniques, along with a grounded approach to healing your health prospects are much better.
If we can develop the ability to focus on the positive more often, those periods of anger or depression will be shorter lived and less frequent. This can only be good; not just for your Peyronie's but also your general health & happiness.
Great post!
We can never get enough positive talk. Healing takes two roads, one physically and the other psychologically.
Thanks for your post
StepOne