Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

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Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby JulesVerne » 05 Feb 2018, 06:12

I’ve always believed in the mind/body link in illness and I’ve tried to see things from this perspective whenever I’ve been ill.
When I developed an anal fissure in Nov 2017, all that went out the window. I was in serious Pain and I felt as if I was losing my life. I don’t need to explain that feeling on this forum.
Indeed I did lose my life for the better part of the last 3 months as I went on a rampage to try and heal. I am so grateful to this forum which I read for hours as I tried to find the “One cure” that would finally heal my fissure.

I never wrote on the forum as I felt I had nothing to add, so I just kept reading and soaking up other people’s ideas. I think attempting all the various ways to try and heal this fissure kept me sane during one of the most difficult times I’ve ever experienced.
Finally, I can confidently say that I am healing and the end is in sight. Although I’m sure the myriad of physical remedies etc. all played their part in the process, it wasn’t until I went back to dealing with my mind that I truly started to heal.
And this is why I am finally writing on this forum, because I feel I have something of value to add.
Whether you agree with my belief system around the mind/body connection or not, I will outline my path to healing in the hope it can offer some assistance to others.

After realising that the fissure was not responding to purely physical treatment, I took a step back to assess why I had this fissure in the first place. I believe (most of the time) that illness is like a sign post that shows us when we’re going off track in our lives and it can be a way to assist us getting back on the path we most want to be on.
The starting point for me was to look at where an anal fissure is situated – right at the first (base) chakra. The first chakra deals mainly with issues of safety and security i.e. how we are ‘seated’ in our lives.
I then looked at the areas in my life where I was dealing with issues of safety and security. I identified how these were impacting on my life and I could see the importance of dealing with these. It actually amazed me to see just how big an issue this was for me and then it started to make total sense that I would allow a physical manifestation (illness) within this first chakra zone.

I could then get to work in resolving these feelings. This was the starting point of my healing.
Obviously, these issues will be different for each of us – but the point is to assist the physical healing by clearing out the emotional states that are conducive for keeping the fissure in place.
The interesting part about dealing with the fissure in this way, is that my life is not going back to the way it was, my life has changed in many beautiful ways. I have learnt so much through this process about myself and my life that I can honestly say I’m a much happier person on the other side of this Fissure experience.
Let me get one thing straight – I would never, ever, ever wish to have an experience like this again. The pain, despair etc. etc. is unbearable at times. So I am not in any way saying I’m glad I had the experience. But, having gone through the experience and then forcing myself to look at my life and see what I wanted to change, let me take the most out of this horrible experience and come out on the other side a happier human being.

During the process of dealing with the fissure, I resigned from my job as I could not deal with working through all the pain etc. But now on the other side of it, I realise I want to rather work in this field of healing through the mind/body link. Not only helping people with Fissures, but with any kind of Physical, Emotional or Mental issue that requires healing.
I had thought about pursuing such a path for many years, but going through this experience has lead me to a whole new level of clarity of how I want to work with people.

If you are at all interested in exploring this way of healing further, I would strongly recommend reading up on the chakra system and seeing how illness in the body within the various chakra zones is a reflection of emotional/mental states and gives us clues as to what we need to work on in our lives. This is a good starting point.

The other 'physical' thing I was lead to doing through the process of healing was based on what I read in this paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5479997/
I adapted it in a way that made massive improvement and the healing process became quite miraculous for me. This was also part of developing a new level of self-love which I needed as part of the healing process.

It is possible to heal. At many points during the process, I stopped believing this. But now, I can honestly say – It IS possible to heal but the mind needs to heal before the body does.

Jules
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby Hopefull123 » 05 Feb 2018, 19:52

I truly believe that. I am finding all kinds of things about myself and changing as I make realizations. In a way I am thankful for this challenge, as the greater knowledge can never be undone, but the pain will never last forever. Listen to your inner mind in silence. Ask and it shall be revealed.
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby missy moo » 06 Feb 2018, 00:40

Funny I just came across this while very recently thinking about this exact thing I believe I need to change alot in my life I think the reason I've had my fissure for 4 years is because I'm not listening or doing, but I have a fissurectomy an Botox booked for in 6 days I'll start with that since my fissure is chronic then I will make a list of changes an starting making them happen?
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby dmcff » 06 Feb 2018, 04:29

Thank you for this post. I also think that the mind/body connection is important when trying to understand this condition. Although I have never been properly diagnosed with a fissure, I have had perineal pain for about four years, and although it has varied in intensity, it has very seldom really gone away, even for a day.

It's true that for me anxiety makes the pain worse, as does the depression that can come on when I reflect on the length of time I've been suffering, but there are also times when I've had hope that eventually the trouble will clear up, that it really has a simple cause that can be isolated and addressed. That's how I felt recently after a CRS examined me and told me that in his opinion the pain and inflammation were caused by excessive medication (mainly stool softeners), and that by reducing the dosage I stood a good chance of recovery.

I still don't know if I can make the recovery, or if the pain will stubbornly persist - but at least I know that when the CRS gave me his opinion, I felt great relief, and for about 24 hours almost a cessation of the pain and discomfort.
2014 Anal fissure
2015 CAT, EUA, sigmoidoscopy, 2 MRI
2016 Pain severe then moderate to low
2017 Moderate pain
2018 Physical therapy, pain management
2019-20 Living with it
2021 Still AF
2022 Therapy, meditation
2023 Onward, up
2024 CT scan
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby JulesVerne » 07 Feb 2018, 10:06

Hi dmcff

I know what you mean about anxiety making the pain worse. I remember sitting at my desk one day and feeling quite a lot of pain. I opened a stressful email and felt the pain level rise instantly.
Reading the email literally hurt me on a physical level. If I ever needed proof of the mind/body link and how stress impacts our bodies - that was it.

Before having the fissure, I knew that stress at work was affecting my mood etc. But having the fissure made me realize that this stress was actually doing damage on a physical level. This was one of the gifts I received during this time - a much greater awareness of the damage stress does to me and a better understanding of what situations I find stressful.
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby missy moo » 07 Feb 2018, 14:09

Hi I had the same realisation when feeling stressed and overwhelmed one day an my fissure hurt in the midst of a disagreement with my partner the kids had been playing up an heaps of other stresses and demands at the same time it was a ah ha moment for sure.
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby JulesVerne » 08 Feb 2018, 02:24

Hi Missy
Thanks for sharing, it's nice to get confirmation on these things.
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby JulesVerne » 08 Feb 2018, 02:28

In addition to my first message I thought it may be helpful if I expanded a bit on some of the work I did (am still doing) in my healing process. Obviously, it is different for each of us but because of the similar nature of the health issue each of us has on this forum, there should be some common ground.
These are the emotional/mental areas of my life I looked at:

- 1. Because a fissure (or other problem in this area) is so disruptive to our normal digestive process, this became a clue as to what to work with. Digestion is about taking what we need from food and then eliminating the waste. A fissure causes severe pain and distress around the issue of eliminating the waste.
I looked at the ‘waste’ in my life I was having an issue letting go of. For me it was clear on both a physical and emotional level. I had loads of old things I just wasn’t letting go of. This in itself may not have been an issue, but then I also began to identify all the emotional ‘waste’ I was clinging to. Old memories, old thought patterns etc. I did not want to let go of. Things I did not want to forgive myself for and people I did not want to forgive. Lots of emotional ‘waste’ I did not want to release.

- 2. The very nature of a fissure causes a feeling of being ashamed. It’s not something I wanted to discuss with people. It brought up feelings of embarrassment and shame. This lead me to look at where I carried feelings of shame in my life in general. Since the whole process of elimination etc. is something that develops when we are small children i.e. the process of potty training etc. I think the feelings of shame can probably be linked to this stage of our lives. Shame is an interesting emotion in that it never goes away on its own unless we work with it. So the shame we may have developed from our earliest childhood can still be with us now.

- 3. The pain I experienced with the fissure did 2 things to me. Firstly, it forced me to be in the moment and secondly it forced me to feel. These were 2 things I was slowly doing less and less of before the fissure. I was unhappy in some areas of my life and as a coping mechanism I was disengaging more and more from life. Both in a physical and emotional sense.
My emotions had shut down quite a bit as I tried to numb myself out from both thinking and feeling. With the fissure, I had no choice but to feel and be absolutely present in that moment. There was nowhere to run or hide from it. This served as a valuable lesson of how important it is to fully engage in life and be more present in each moment. As I mentioned in my first message, the fissure is located in the region of the first chakra which is connected to issues of safety and security. But the first chakra is also our link to the physical – it’s what grounds us.
The message for me was also clearly that I was disengaging more and more from my physical reality and desperately needed some grounding i.e. to be brought back to earth.

- 4. The whole issue of self-love was woven between all the other issues. It is such a throw-away phrase to tell someone to ‘love themselves more’. What does it really mean? To me, the easiest way of looking at it is to think of how you treat someone else who you love and treat yourself the same way. It amazed me to see how I would do things to myself that I would never ever do to someone else I loved. The harsh voice, the judgement and criticism etc. Also, what food would you give to someone you loved. Junk food or healthy nurturing food?

I hope this is helpful.
Jules
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby roseyaa » 12 Feb 2018, 19:59

Jules, this was a beautiful post to read, thanks for posting your journey. I've also realized a lot of the same things having healed my fissure through a combination of things, one of them being the emotional pain that led to the fissure.
I also had a lot of things - a lot of toxic emotional waste I wasn't letting go of. I couldn't let go of my ex for a very very long time (it has now been 2 years since we broke up). I still feel a little sad when I think about the memories, but the difference is - I no longer need to hear from him, no longer want to get back with him, and don't need him to feel unhappy in order for me to feel happy.
It's been a long journey, both physically and emotionally. And I agree with you 100% that I wouldn't wish to have this experience again either! But I got what I needed out of it. I've made so many life changes since I started and I'm in a better place now that I know how my body works.
I know you'll do amazing in the healing field and will help a lot of people. Wishing you all the best! :)
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Re: Mind/Body Link was most important in my Healing

Postby roseyaa » 12 Feb 2018, 20:06

I was just reading the link you posted to the self-massage. I've never come across this! Do you mind sharing how you adapted the technique? I did something similar during my dilation experiments (using finger, not dilators as I was too cheap), but it didn't fully heal me though I could have been doing it wrong.
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