Face pain

Hi!
I’ve had facial nerve pain on/off for 3 yrs after a dentist bruised my nerve in my face while doing the anesthesia with a needle.
The pain is somehow in control, but the thing that aggravates it is wind. Even when I try to ignore it and say to my mind that there us nothing wrong with my body, the pain flares up in windy weather. I’d hate to go back to avoiding windy places and using a scarf on my face all the time.
Any advice on these kinds of triggers, are they “real” or just concepts that the mind uses as an excuse to ignore emotions.

 

That fits the description of trigeminal neuralgia. From my experience it's not TMS and requires medication.

 

I respectfully disagree. I've also experienced ongoing facial pain after some botched dental work (sorry, any dental professionals out there, but I hate the dentist!). Pain in the face/jaw/mouth area can be so acute and scary that it's ripe for a conditioned response - exactly as you said, Mimmyni. The wind is clearly your trigger (it was for me as well). Alan Gordon has some good advice on reconditioning the ol' brain to tame those triggers, and so does Steve Ozanich.

 

If the pain is bad. As mine was. No amount of mind work did anything. Trigeminal neuralgia is so bad folk have committed suicide. Feel free to disagree. But I have in all conscience to give that warning. I know from experience. It can be very serious. That's all I will say. I'd see a doctor.
Leave it there.

 

It really does sound like trigeminal neuralgia. It's the worst thing I've ever experienced. I'm on medication.

 

Thanks for your support. I’m pretty sure it’s my mind just looking for excuses for the pain to flare up. And all unexplained pain are 80% psychological. I had a phase when I ate tonns of meds and was literally at the verge of suicide with this and I ain’t going back there. Mind over matter, I’ll keep on working on my inner stuff and letting go.

 

Hello Mimmyni,

I have atypical trigeminal neuralgia and have found there to be much relief derived from following mind~body approaches to healing. The medical path has absolutely nothing to offer but increasing dependence on medication which leads most into a desperate situation. Meds are fine to help manage the pain while you gently work on calming your nervous system and soothing your mind and emotional self.

I explain in 'My Story' how I got to where I am today, which is between 80-90% recovered. After almost 2 decades this still feels miraculous. Given that the pain can be so terrible and in such an intimate place I do understand why people have trouble even attempting a TMS perspective but it truly is worthy of exploration. It took me a long time to find the combination of healing practices that worked for me but once I found them it was like striking gold.

I found I had to calm my over-sensitised nervous system before I could even contemplate dealing with triggers. The best ways I have found to break such conditioning are the neuro-psychological approaches such as the one created by Alan Gordon.

You cannot ignore pain especially pain of this intensity (mercifully more recent understandings of TMS acknowledge this) so don't be hard on yourself for that. Dr. Sarno recognised that many conditions were multi-factoral and not purely psychological/emotional which is simply gorgeous news to inspire your own healing path.

Plum x

 

Yes, worst thing I have ever experienced too. The right meds do help you cope with the mind-loosening pain. Take heart though my dear, you really can very gently ease your nervous system into a place of peace where the pain also calms.

 

I experienced suicidal ideation on a regular basis so I have immense empathy for this. To say trigeminal neuralgia is the horrific nightmare of all pain is a great understatement. I've never known any pain like it.

The standard Sarno mind/emotion based approach not only didn't work for me, it made my pain worse...as incomprehensible as that is. It was only when I broke free of that rigid ideology and embraced a more body-oriented healing that I began to recover.

I completely understand your passionate stance on this. I felt much the same for years. All I can say is that I found relief and I pray you can too.

 

I’m new here. Truthfully, I really do hope you’re right and it is tms. I’ve only just heard of it 2 days ago. Ive been living an on and off physical hell with tn and a huge array of physical pains for years.
How did you calm your nervous system?

 

Read "My Story" for the gist of what I've done. Essentially though I had to craft my own healing path which involved mostly body-oriented methods to soothe a system frayed with pain. Having suffered more common forms of TMS I have my doubts as to whether TN is classic TMS (in terms of restricted blood flow due to repressed emotion) but I do think it is well explained by more modern theories such as those proposed by Alan Gordon. I think it is a mis-firing of the nerve that can be calmed by patient practice of mind~body techniques. Either way, there is hope sweetheart. My pain levels are much, much lower, I have many pain-free days and I have successfully challenged most triggers. It has been slow-going but steady.

Plum x

 

Thank you