Emotional Suppression and Muscle Tension

[Michael4422]

I'm wondering if anyone has come across information or therapies to relieve severe muscle tension (head, neck, throat, face) that is the result of PTSD, child abuse, trauma, emotional suppression, etc.

 

I've discovered that learning to feel the tension and pain helps "dissolve" it. It's been beneficial to me personally, but feel like there must be writings or research on what it is I'm doing.

 

If you're interested I'll explain my situation further...

 

Tension in my throat, for example, has affected my ability to pronounce things correctly an made it painful to force out the words and speak fluidly. I discovered through Vipassana meditation that when I pay attention to the numb feeling in my throat area that it's actually quite painful. And through feeling the pain and not trying to "push" it away, I often have a kind of tremor or shaking and an emotion purge, crying.

 

So I guess I'm learning to cry about things I should have cried about a long time ago. But the good news is that it is working. My throat is becoming more relaxed and getting better.

 

Anyone hear of this phenomenon, process, condition? I can't find much on this subject on the internet.

 

Cheers!

[Jenny Hale]

Stress and distress in non-organic voice disorder. (http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:16220409)

Eberhard Seifert, Juerg Kollbrunner

Division of Phoniatrics, ENT Clinic, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Berne, Inselspital, Berne/Switzerland. eberhard.seifert@insel.ch

Non-organic voice disorders are characterised by an impaired voice sound, and/or reduced vocal capacity, and/or laryngeal sensory disturbances, all in the absence of causal organic laryngeal pathology. Psychogenic causes, a "psychological disequilibrium", and an increased tension of the laryngeal muscles are presumed to be one end of the spectrum of possible factors leading to the development of the disorder. In making a diagnosis, perceptive and acoustic methods for voice analysis are used in addition to the ENT-examination and the laryngostroboscopy. An assessment of the degree to which the patient feels him/herself subjectively affected by the voice disorder also plays an important role. If the history reveals any indication of psychosocial stress or conflict, the patient is offered psychological consultations. These conflicts seem less often to be deep rooted psychopathological problems but rather daily anxieties, failures, injuries, annoyances, disappointments regarding the sufferer him/herself and others, the non-fulfillment of desires, feelings of inadequacy and of lack of self-confidence. The patients may find it difficult to speak about conflicts and feelings, and they follow social conventions to an excessive extent. In frustrating situations patients tend to react aggressively towards themselves rather than towards others and are too quick in seeking a solution to any problem that may arise. The role of the voice as a "barometer of emotion", where a disorder may be regarded as a sign of emotional stress, has to be taken into consideration before starting a therapy: If the non-organic voice disorder is obviously due to vocal misuse and muscle tension, a more symptom-orientated voice therapy may be favoured. If psychosocial stress seems to play a greater role, additional counseling may be necessary. Only by using this approach can the patient be offered a therapy which goes into the causes and thereby addresses the whole person.

[sculptor]

Michael#s

Crying is good if it relaxes you(rather expected).

 

It seems likely that you are on the road to ridding yourself of the pain you're suffering.

 

For the body, an exercise which moves more muscle groups, like running, walking a rail, walking barefoot over river pebbles, climbing, etc... anything which exercises the balance muscles.

this is old stuff, hearkening back to TAOist wei-wu-wei---doing by not doing---roughly work on the muscles, and it calms the mind in the process.

(Probably don't work for everybody)

 

I wish you well