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Other Peyronies Disease Discussion Boards => Coping with the pain caused by Peyronies => Topic started by: Holistic on November 16, 2020, 08:43:57 AM

Title: How to focus on pain for the long run
Post by: Holistic on November 16, 2020, 08:43:57 AM
Pain is a funky feeling. It comes in all different feelings from headaches, muscle pain and visceral referred pain. As a physical therapist I have seen and experienced many facets of pain.

No one likes it. No one wants it. Everything in life could be going great but the minute we experience a singular brief bout of pain, it can cause us to shift to a more comfortable position or send us in a panic. But have we ever looked at our pain? Really looked at it, or looked into it. Im not talking about grabbing the laptop and searching the pain online and finding Webster's definition or WebMD's opinions on pain and treatment. I have learned that when we take a closer look at things, we tend to loosen up about them over time.  We think we may be in constant pain, or we may think the pain we have is the worst, like when getting an erection and feeling a searing sharp pain at full mast, but if we bring our attention to it...we can change our relationship with pain and still enjoy our lives, our sexual interests, our partners without fear or worry. We are not looking to wish the pain away, but change the way we relate to it.

How can we look into the pain when it hurts? When we tend to focus on pain it seems to get worse and we look for the nearest fix. Pain is the bodies way of communicating. Its not always an emergency. However the way we experience pain differs from person to person. I once walked an 85 year old woman down the hospital hallway who fractured her thigh and underwent surgery and needed to walk. She did not grimace once despite her condition. At the same time I went to walk a 25 year old man who also had a fracture on his leg and winced and cried with every movement to get him just to sit up. This is not to say that what we experience is less than the other persons experience. I simply mention this as the difference in everyone's perception and experience with pain.

If we look into pain, it can be a different condition of the body in which we operate daily. When someone overcomes their anxiety and continues to live through it, the anxiety isn't gone, it is accepted and the person operates in a new bodily state. I have seen patients with chronic low back pain, ruled out all malignancies or visceral issues, and have no actual physiologic damage to the back and some can continue to function "normally" and some let it control their lives.

So one method I try to apply to help with pain is the R.A.I.N. method. You can look it up. It is a meditation bringing our attention in a constructive and objective manner. RAIN stands for:

Recognizing what is present
Allowing the experience to be as is
Investigate with kindness and nonjudgement
Non-identifying with the experience

This process allows us to slow down, take a step back and remove us from the stroy line of "I am in pain" and into "there is a feeling of pain in my penis". It took me a while to grasp this but it makes a world of difference. Because when we usually experience pain, we embody it. We may have a small pain in a part of our body but catastrophize it and think its worse than it is and we become the pain instead of experiencing it as is.

Overtime, we find that pain comes in waves. We experience it, and then we don't. It's there, and it's not. When we see it comes in waves, we can also focus on times when we aren't in pain.  We can focus on the good and what we still are able to do and what we can do but with a different way of doing it.

If you dont believe the mind has a powerful influence on the body, than this post may not be for you, but if you are open or know that our brains and minds can greatly affect us individually, than I hope you get something out of this post. Keep in mind, This is not a method for ignoring our pain or to stop us from seeking medical attention. We need to be smart and take the right steps to identify what is going on in our bodies. Which is why it is important to see a Physician or a specialist to address your concerns first before going solo.  All is not lost with Peyronies, life can still be full and enjoyable.

Enjoy and be well.

Here is a quick overview of RAIN and how to go about it: https://www.mindful.org/tara-brach-rain-mindfulness-practice/
Title: Re: How to focus on pain for the long run
Post by: zoned999 on April 07, 2023, 10:36:43 PM
Very well said!