Day 12 Even in good days...

one thing I found interesting when I am or was recovering from pain and anxiety is that things that made me excited also caused pain or anxiety. This is particularly important to mention because as the program states we should resume activities.

I stopped activities for about a year. As I slowly regained things I resumed. I would get pain and anxiety with things that caused excitement. I spoke with a pain therapist friend of mine. She said the brain can't really tell the difference between good and bad stress good or bad excitement. She said this reason also is responsible for many people never resuming their normal lives.

So every now and then I get back pain during an exciting activity. Or anxiety before an exciting activity. I know how to lean into the anxiety but I had to keep my activities a little shorter than before. Now I'm almost at full capacity. I can bike, jog, run, etc. before no so much. Even going to a museum would cause anxiety because I was so excited. I had to take breaks.

Maybe this is unique to me. What my friend said was that it made perfect sense to her. I have to continue to re teach my brain what is fun excitement and what is appropriate anxiety.

Happy healing

 

Thank you for sharing this. You are not unique. In my first several months of chronic pain, it was so bad I had to avoid everything including talking to friends I enjoy the most because even laughing caused tremendous nerve sensations. It was so depressing that things I would have looked forward to the most caused pain. Now, more than 4 years later, I usually don't get as excited about things as I used to, but now that I have read your post, I know now that my brain has learned to be tentative about good things as well as bad for the reason you state. Although my pain is pretty well gone, I have wondered so many mornings why I don't wake up with excitement when I know something really good is planned for the day. Again, a big thank you.

 

Well, I hope you can relearn to accept good excitement. Like so many things it's a process. You're welcome Im just sharing my experience in hopes others can relate or sometimes offer their own perspective.