27 Feb 2012, 12:31 am
29 Dec 2012, 11:43 am
I've bumped up this thread because I've recently come to believe I have Fibromyalgia. Since early August I have been in pain. It started mainly as pelvic pain, in my groin (both sides) and lower back and lower abdomen. I hadn't done anything strenuous, I'm a very sedentary person. By November it still hadn't gone away. I could barely raise my legs off the floor, getting dressed, in and out of bed, in and out of the bath tub, etc., was excruciating. I began shuffling around instead of walking normally. Thinking there was something terribly wrong with internal organs, I went to the Emergency Dept. They took xrays and manipulated my legs and then diagnosed me with Arthritis in both hips and muscle spasms. From there I went to my primary doc and after reading the hospital reports he said there was no evidence of arthritis and thought I had an infection that attacked my muscles. I took the antibiotic (Cipro) and nothing changed. Now the pain has spread upward and at times it's in my upper arms to the point where lifting the covers off me in the morning is so painful I don't even want to get out of bed, have to crawl out of the bed. I can't understand this. In July of this year I was fine, walking all over the city, up and down the stairs with no trouble or pain at all. How could something like this happen so quickly. Oddly, around the same time my pelvic and leg pain started, a friend's grandson had his legs blown off by an IED ( improvised explosive device) in Afghanistan. His pelvis was crushed to some degree also. There may be a connection here. I have described this pain as an attack because it seemed to come out of nowhere. Also, I have considered that it may be some kind of spiritual warfare. And then there is the fact that I have been known to take on other people's pain. Sympathy pain.
I'm now, after doing some research on fibromyalgia, beginning to believe that a bout with jaw pain so severe that I again went to the ER. At first, and because I was so depressed, I thought my jaw/facial pain was Trigeminal Neuralgia (nickenamed the suicide disease). 
At the ER they did a CT scan of the left side of my head/brain, found nothing and then a neurologist examined me. He asked me if I was the kind of person who "ruminated" a lot. That question led me to some insights about the pain. Since eating and chewing triggered the pain in my jaw I saw the literal connection with "ruminating"
Three forms of rumination were proposed by Mikulincer (1996): state rumination, action rumination, and task-irrelevant rumination. State Rumination involves dwelling on the consequences and feelings associated with the failure. Action rumination consists of task-oriented thought processes focused on goal-achievement and correction of mistakes. Task-irrelevant rumination utilizes events or people unassociated with the blocked goal to distract a person from the failure.[4]
State rumination is more common in people who are pessimistic, neurotic, and who have negative attributional styles. The tendency to negatively ruminate is a stable constant over time and serves as a significant risk factor for clinical depression. Not only are habitual ruminators more likely to become depressed, but experimental studies have demonstrated that people who are induced to ruminate experience greater depressed mood.[5] There is also evidence that rumination is linked to general anxiety, post traumatic stress, binge drinking, eating disorders, and self-injurious behavior.[6]
Rumination was originally believed to predict the duration of depressive symptoms. In other words, ruminating about problems was presumed to be a form of memory rehearsal which was believed to actually lengthen the experience of depression. The evidence now suggests that although rumination contributes to depression, it is not necessarily correlated with the duration of symptoms.[6]
Rumination is similar to worry except rumination focuses on bad feelings and experiences from the past, whereas worry is concerned with potential bad events in the future. Both rumination and worry are associated with anxiety and other negative emotional states.
And from Miriam Webster: (my bolding)
transitive verb
1
: to go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly
2
: to chew repeatedly for an extended period
intransitive verb
1
: to chew again what has been chewed slightly and swallowed : chew the cud
2
: to engage in contemplation : reflect
— ru·mi·na·tion noun
— ru·mi·na·tive adjective
— ru·mi·na·tive·ly adverb
— ru·mi·na·tor noun
See ruminate defined for English-language learners »
See ruminate defined for kids »
Examples of RUMINATE
The question got us ruminating on the real value of wealth.
He ruminated over the implications of their decision.
Origin of RUMINATE
Latin ruminatus, past participle of ruminari to chew the cud, muse upon, from rumin-, rumen rumen; perhaps akin to Sanskrit romantha act of chewing the cud
First Known Use: 1533
So I came to the conclusion that what I was doing mentally was being manifested physically on my body. Strangely, making the connection by going into the literal meanings of "ruminate" eliminated my jaw pain. By the time I got home from the ER it was gone. It was so good to be able to open my mouth and eat a sandwich on hard crusty bread without triggering any pain.
I'm now trying to explore the pain I am now having. I think that once I am able to "literally" understand it, I will find it's source and hopefully eliminate it.
words and phrases to consider:
pain in the ass
pain in the neck
life is a pain
shuffling my feet
lifting my spirit
feeling down
disabled
going nowhere
etc. etc. etc.
(just a small literal sampling)
(sorry so lengthy)
Thanks for listening.
29 Dec 2012, 8:48 pm
29 Dec 2012, 11:23 pm
