DEAL WITH SEXUAL PAIN

Deal successfully with chronic sexual pain often requires more that one treatment approach. The order and form to use are very individual. There seldom is a quick fix, and for some, the result will be coping with pain.

Here is a list of elements for dealing with chronic sexual pain – they are not in a specific order, and there are probably many more approaches.

PAIN PERCEPTION

How do you perceive pain? Some chronic pain patients can benefit from learning to talk down the pain. That is, they learn to process or downplay the pain impulses to lessen their experience of hurting.

CONTROL THE SEXUAL PAIN – LET IT NOT CONTROL YOU

Much easier said than done. Reinforce your focus on other matters. When the pain hits you, try and move on. Pain is a vicious circle – it can grow and self-inflicted.

A way to get a grip on the pain is to learn breathing exercises – you learn to focus on your breath, and you teach yourself to let go of the muscle tension that follows pain. Read Deep Breathing. 

Another way to learn to process pain is using a mindfulness method. That will imply that you analyze the pain – look at it with other eyes. Not recognizing the pain as the fist that smacks you in the face. Use whatever curiosity you can have to register, whatever keeps you awake at night. If you can learn a mindful approach, you might learn to navigate in your pain.

Touch the pain. Learn nerves to be touched without being triggered. Read about desensitize your nerves in Care of Skin.

CHECK OUT THE SEXUAL PAIN

Periodically check to see where it hurts and how it hurts. Check if there are places that hurt more than others. Chronic pain can become unhelpful – uninformative and does not protect you from danger – the pain area grows so that the signals no longer come from the root of the pain.

Do you find that the entire entrance to the vagina hurts? Or does it hurt in certain places? Has the pain area grown?

Just like it hurts less to take out your splinter, it can be less painful to examine yourself. Although it can be very anxiety provoking and invasive for some people to get started, it is a good place to begin. If anxiety withholds you from getting started, remember to make small steps toward examination. Start with external touching at first and move from there.

Always praise yourself for all of your stride!

It is you who know your body, and if you only let the doctor examine you, you will not understand the possibly meaningful, nuances of change in your body.

You will not be able to address and exert ownership over the pain if you do not know yourself well. Spend time reading the sections “Find Your” and “Genital self-exam.”

Remember, it takes energy and time to work with pain.

DULL YOUR NERVES

Nerves are in the case of chronic pain super hysterically active, and nerve blocks can help set the nerves straight – by merely dulling their activity medically.

It is for doctors to find the right medicine to ensure that the pain perception nerves get as little to work on as possible. This does not work particularly well on its own, but in combination with other treatments, it can ease the symptoms. Discuss with your doctor how to support your treatment. 

Read Use Dilator

RETRAIN MUSCLES AND NERVES

A physiotherapist can help you reprogram the way you use your body and the way your brain interprets signals, e.g. how you respond to touch. If your mind transmits full danger alarm to the lightest touch, it is likely that it combines a previous hurtful event to the actual event and analyses it as alarming. Explaining why reprogramming of nerves and muscles is essential. You need to teach your brain that everything is okay and that it is overreacting. It sounds easy, but it isn’t. Read Care for Skin, Vaginismus.

You need to know why your body reacts to protect you. Have you had a negative experience earlier in life that your body still reacts to? If so, when it’s time, you can profit from looking at that history’s impact and see if it still has its relevance as your life is today. From there you have the opportunity to work concretely with the experience and find ways to help your nerves reprogram. Read The Road to Pleasure.

DO YOUR BEST FOR YOU

Do all you can not to stress your system, eat healthy so your body is not continuum highs and lows. Reconsider stimulants if your whole system manages better without them. Be physically active. It might help your body to get rid of the blocking experiences.

Go through possible events that can have triggered your nuisances. Reflect on their impact and how you can redirect their influences. Read Frozen at the moment 

Remember time doesn’t always heal by itself.

Watch the video to Understand Pain 

IS IT A SETBACK OR IS IT A PART OF HEALING PROCESS?

Sometimes healing takes you backward. You might think it is a setback when it all doesn’t process in the right direction, but it might be a part of the process. Maybe in your work, you opened another door on your healing, and the body has specific hiccups with the process. Be curious and ask the question: Why is this happening? Let your Doctor follow you tightly to see that you do not hurt yourself. 

Praise yourself for your dedication to your health and happiness.

Find Inspiration:  MANAGE  THE LOVE BIT

Find help in Pain Treatment Centers / Clinics