No More Cheek Twitches - Thank God!

[juliacristina]

Over 5.5 weeks of daily upper left cheek twitches from 20 to 250 times per day. In addition to seemingly random appearances, every time I yawned, smiled, squinted my eye or touched my face, I'd get 8 to 10 seconds of jerky twitches. I've now had two complete days without a single cheek twitch. Thank God - those were driving me crazy.Is it a coincidence that 3 days ago the sale of our current home became locked in and we found a great house to buy?Still have plenty of other symptoms including twitches elsewhere but those damned cheek twitches have at least given it a rest.

 

[BarbiePetals]

This is the mystery of BFS. Why do twitches stay in spots for extended periods of time then just stop? I have no clue. I am just thankful that they do stop. I had a crazy twitch between my eyebrows just about my nose for 2 days then it magically disepeared. This stuff is so crazy!

 

[Krackersones]

I understand your relief. I hate facial ones too!

 

[juliacristina]

My left eye is still going about 20 times per day and my right eye started up 2 or 3 times per day, but still no cheek twitches! Woohoo!The eye ones don't bother me in the slightest - I know for a fact that I've had those for over 15 years. In fact, any time I've been stressed in my life, those have come out.The cheek one - in addition to just being freaky, it was also pretty noticeable by other people. Any other twitch that I have, it's just not that noticeable. On day 3 of no cheek twitching. Woohoo!

 

[AllGoodHere]

juliacristina - this is good news. Not only that it has stopped but you see a connection. Could this mean that your stress over the finances etc. were being diverted to facial twictches? What do you think? Could you just divert them yourself? Make a conscious choice rather than having it made for you? Asking these kind of questions has really helped me to get over this stuff (still working on it though).Oh, and congrats on the sale - great news in this market.BarbiePetals - It's not that mysterious. Could be it is just the channel the body is taking for that stressful situation, that emotional task, however you want to think about it.

 

[juliacristina]

AllGoodHere - I think that my twitching and other symptoms are caused by and exacerbated by anxiety and other negative emotions (anxiety, worry, anger mostly). It's the pattern that I've seen throughout most of my life: get stressed, experience physical symptoms. Over the last 27 years, I've experienced stomach pain (IBS), chest pain (angina), palpitations, dizziness, groin pain (prostatitis), jaw pain (TMJD), back pain, twitching (BFS), etc, etc, etc.There is a definite correlation between the negative mental states and the physical symptoms that I experience. I believe that for me, there is also a causation but I only have decades of subjective evidence to prove it rather than hard objective facts.I obviously don't believe that mental states cause all diseases - far from it - but I think it causes a lot of them.Thanks for the congrats on selling the house. Unfortunately, we bought 5 years ago which was about a year before the peak. Sold the house for a little over $70,000 below what we paid for it. That figure doesn't include the $60,000 that we put into it in the way of improvements in the 5 years we were there. The market is horrendous right now. Can't complain too much - we made a really good amount with various investment properties on the way up and we sold our last investment property 2.5 years ago. Still hurts but can't win them all. Getting ready to move itself sure is stressful enough on its own though!

 

[AllGoodHere]

juliacristina - then you may be open to reading some books by John Sarno - a physiotherapist that has been working this angle (the mind-body connection of stress and anger) having great results with his patients for quite a few years. Check him out at the local library but I suggest you start with some of his earlier books that outline his methods as the later ones are more other practitioner's (orthopedists, neuros, physiotherapists, etc) views and uses of his techniques. There was never any direct or obvious pattern for me but I now know that it doesn't matter because a lot of these emotions are processed by the unconscious mind and that means you have no (conscious) awareness of them. After fighting this pnh for years I am finally getting better and know that I can, with effort, stop the cramps, muscle tension, muscle twitching and various states of weirdness the majority of the time. Still have a ways to go but I'm very close.I don't either believe that the emotions control the physical self but that we are a unit with connections between the mind and body that often are not recognized or considered by most modern day medicine men. LOL they don't like it when you call them that but I've met very few who didn't try to feed me some kind of drug or do some sort of test. We also got out of a close call property-wise last year with a sale - just getting out was a success and I didn't care that we lost a little to have the burden of it removed. You can't really put a price on something like that.

 

[juliacristina]

I'm very familiar with Sarno! I first read "Healing Back Pain" about 6 years ago when I was having carpal tunnel syndrome problems for the first time. In just a few months, I was able to get rid of it. I also used it for back pain - used to have it fairly frequently in my lower back but haven't had it for several years now. I also read Mindbody Prescription and Divided Mind.Unfortunately, about 8 months ago the train came off the rails. In addition to working full time and kid responsibilities I started studying for a test about 30 hours per week. About two weeks after studying , a torrent of new symptoms started flooding in. The studying went on for 4 months, I took the 8 hour test and then I kind of felt like my brain broke. All the things I did before - meditation, journaling, written introspection - I wasn't able to do them. It's like I had (and have) a mental block. I know what the answer is, but I just don't do it. The symptoms continue - as I find physical fixes for the symptoms (ex: aciphex for GERD), the symptom imperative kicks in and something else pops up.

 

[BarbiePetals]

IMOK or juliacristina... did that book by John Sarno really help you? Which book do you suggest? I am currently reading 2 different books.. "The Ultramind Solution" and "It's not all in your head, how health anxiety can be making you sick". They are both great books but if there is another out there I am willing to try it. Thanks.

 

[juliacristina]

Hi Barbie, the Sarno book does help out a lot. It teaches you that people, especially of certain personality types (perfectionism, conscientiousness and a strong need to be liked by other people) are susceptible to a host of mostly benign ailments from physical pain to carpal tunnel syndrome to psoriasis to fibromyalgia to hay fever, etc. The ailments are your subconscious mind attempting to distract you from negative emotions, mostly anger, anxiety and unresolved issues.I think that there's a lot of truth to it but it's hard work to get benefit out of it.

 

[AllGoodHere]

juliacristina - it's all the same stuff though - don't you think? I don't think that for me, the pain, fasics, etc, have different sources. It IS hard work as you have to constantly be aware that you need to PAY ATTENTION to what your unconscious mind is devising as a distraction. Some of it is how we process stuff as individuals, and that is a big deal to change. Yes, I agree, the more crap taking place in your life, the easier it is to get this stuff derailed. J, It really sounds like you have the ability to 'fix' yourself but for now perhaps not the will. Give yourself some time - take a break - and see if you can come at it from another angle. My first real weekend off after working non-stop for months, I sat on the couch and read 4 novels - I just needed to put it all aside for a little bit. (LOL poorman's vacation.) BarbiePetals - yes the books really helped me. Start with the beginning ones. At first I was pretty skeptical because I had been told by leading specialists in their various fields that my condition was physical - they just didn't know why. They just weren't right; the unconscious mind can affect us without any of the tell-tales signs of hypochondria or similar problems and it is not an uncommon mind-body action. Most people - yes, even doctors, misunderstand the meaning of somatic - it does not mean the pain is all in your mind but that the pain is caused by the part of your mind that you don't control in day to day life. It is just more pervasive for some individuals than others and doesn't shut down as it might. At least that is my understanding. I am still struggling with it - changing old patterns is hard - but I am 85% better.