Its been a while since I’ve written for this blog because I’ve been deeply into the process of following the Gupta Program limbic retraining since February and wanted to give my all to that…ongoing. I’ve seen massive improvements in many area of my health management, far too many and particular to me to itemise and, of course, this doesn’t mean I don’t continue to have the occassional flare-up of symptoms (or “dips” as we on the program call them) but that I handle them much better (which often, then, curtails them sooner).
So, as of yesterday (per every year that I have written for this blog at this time of the year) it feels like I am into my first BIG flare-up of the “winter” season because, for me, they have tended to start happening as early as mid to late August for as long as I can remember (I guess I’m just micro sensitive to the circannual rhythms). As soon as we are past Lammas, its as though my body registers the steady shortening of days and, well, off it goes. In the old days, it was when fibromyalgia flare-ups and increased chronic fatigue would raise their heads. These days, its more complicated than that.
As Ehlers Danlos symptoms very much dominate my physical experience now, since menopause, more so than “fibromyalgia”, the experience goes something like this:
EDS is caused by lax connective tissue, including ligaments (which connect bones to other bones) and tendons (connect muscles to bones). This connective tissue is designed to hold things together, to keep our joints from dislocating or extending too far. When healthy, it is strong enough to stabilise but flexible enough to allow movement but, in hypermobility syndromes, the ligaments and tendons are more like rubber bands and can’t be strengthened by exercise (as I’ve found out to my detriment). Its why being cautious around certain types of yoga that involve too much stretch has been necessary, though I use a core routine on a daily basis.
However, there are also muscles, including stabiliser muscles (which lie deep in the body and can’t be seen but which fight gravity, allowing us to sit or stand, for instance) and movers, which are those we see bulk up with exercise as they flex, just below the skin.
When the supportive tissues such as ligaments can’t do their job, its these stabiliser muscles that tend to take on more of a supporting role, except, if they get overworked from the need to do this they can turn off altogether. Combined with the rest of them becoming deconditioned from constant pain and a sedentary lifestyle caused by illness or chronic fatigue, they often don’t function adequately, leaving the mover muscles to step in as a support system (which isn’t meant to be their job!), meaning these become incredibly stiff and sore in the process. So, I find I can abruptly switch from feeling as though I am held together by rubber bands to being in severe muscle pain and an incredibly limited movement range when I have an EDS flare. I could be turning my ankle, staggering weak-kneed or feeling as though my torso is severely gravity challenged, putting uncomfortable pressure on various organs, such as digestive system or bladder, one minute and in a sort of generalised muscular rigamortis the next.
So, I’d been registering increased hypermobility for a few days coinciding with yo-yoing weather conditions (hot and sunny one minute, dark, blustery and decidedly autumnal the next) but yesterday’s onslaught was more sudden. At first, I felt my body become excessively tired and hypermobile following an hour of moderate exertion cleaning a room ready for my first visitor since lockdown.
Suddenly, I had hypermobile or “elastic” joints going on everywhere, from my ankles, fingers, wrists and elbows to my hips, middle back, rotator cuffs (which become pretty sore!) and neck (cervical instability has a lot of offshoots including migraine headaches, vision and hearing issues, TMJ and facial pain, trigemenal neurolagia, dizziness, vertigo and brain fog, functional toothache plus that horrible “head too heavy to hold up” sensation that requires me to sit well bolstered by pillows all day, which can feel pretty limiting). Even my mouth and throat tend to join in (causing food gagging and slow digestion, repeatedly biting my inside cheek, sometimes a hoarsness to my voice) plus my front tooth, as usual, began to feel slightly loose and to click when lightly pushed. My hearing became distinctly muffled throughout the afternoon as though I’d forgotten to remove my overnight earplugs and the quality of the music I was listening to became compromised. Oh, and functional cystitis and IBS are always fun joiner-iners, along with supplements and food feeling stuck in my gullet and a bout of acid reflux straight after every meal because of gastrointestinal sluggishness.
In the relatively early stages of joint laxity (and because I now listen to my body more, taking practical action quicker these days, since starting the program), I knew I had to take a break from my task and lie down. Old me, by the way, would almost certainly have pushed through, telling themselves they had to get the job done before a rest was allowed.Pretty soon, it was obvious that lying down, head supported, needed to be “it” for the rest of the day and my task would have to be delegated (something else I’ve got better about lately).
This is testament to the fact that I’ve become so much better at responding appropriately yet in a calm, unflustered way and without going into fear, depression or overwhelm since using the GP methods and there are always tools I can draw on if any of these things crop up. Meanwhile, by keeping my head clearer of such heightened emotions, I’ve been able to better-grasp the unique mechanical behaviours of my body these past months (because there is a lot to take in when you have these overlapping syndromes…and no two people with these conditions has the same exeperience so you have to learn your own ropes pretty thoroughly), helping me to respond more practically and calmly because I can more clearly see what is going on when I’m in the midst of a flare whilst knowing this phase will certainly pass.Though there’s still a lot going on with my health, I no longer feel like I’m drowning in it all and there’s a lot to be said for being able to see wood for trees. I sleep better and I return to balance more often than not, these days.
Back to this particular flare-up, as I’ve already touched upon, the way EDS works is that, in the wake of a phase of hypermobility making the body feel overly loose and unreliable, along comes an almost paradoxical reponse of intense rigidity and contraction, as muscles attempt to overcompensate for having chewing gum supports. So, pretty soon after stopping what I was doing and taking a break, I was struggling to get off the sofa and hobbling around like a ninty year old. In the morning,I woke feeling so hypermobile it was like being the overly lithe and limber teeanger I once was (I always loved to double wrap my legs around each other or lie in abormal positions, face in pillow, torso twisted all over the place) until I remembered I shouldn’t because, these days, there’s a price to pay for such laxity. By the time I got up I was already locked into rigid pain and pretty much unable to do anything on the yoga mat, which is rare.
On day’s like this, there is nothing for it but to halt any tendancies to over-react and prepare myself to “glide” through the experience as best I can and with as much sense-of-humour and optimism as I can muster, something for which the GP offers many tools. It does no good at all to let my thoughts linger in the domian of whether symptoms are getting worse, either with the seasons or increasing age; rather, at these very times, I need to give my nervous system the welcome break it needs to respond as appropriately as possible to the call for rest and recovery.
Still, the naysayer inside of me keeps wanting to ask, is the Gupta Progam even suitable in my case? After all, its meant to target conditions triggered by a faulty “loop” in the brain, a glitch in the communication between the limbic brain and the autonomic system, which makes it perfectly positioned to help with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTs), which is a type of dsyautonomia (disorder of the nervous system), for instance, but surely no good for EDS, which is a hard-wired structural condition with genetic causes, so you can’t reprogram that, can you (or is there an epigenetic component)??
The close link between PoTs and EDS is already very well established (one condition is seldom mentioned without the other) and there is a great deal of information out there if you search for it, yet the basis for the connection is not well understood. I sense it is most often implied that EDS can “lead to” PoTs but, in my case, I tend to sense that it is the other way around. After all, I’ve been hypermobile all my life but never felt the need to label it EDS…until PoTs came along and turned it into a problem.
Also, here’s what I sense about my EDS flare-ups…they are actively driven by my PoTs, as in, when PoTs flares up, EDS episodes so often follow.
So, the good news here is that, just as long as I can still remember that I haven’t always had hypermobility issues to such a great extent that everything in my life has to make way for them, there is always hope that I can recover, because this is where the Gupta Program comes into its own…tackling conditions such as PoTs that came about because of a faulty response in the brain and which can therefore be reprogrammed. And if PoTs wasn’t there, would my natural hypermobility present such a problem or could it go back to being mild to unnoticeable, like it used to be?
In other words, whilst I have been hypermobile all my life, its only been over the past decade or so that what I would now label EDS has flared-up to this level, thus I can still remember a time when to be hypermobile wasn’t such a problem, which means I have a good chance of returning to that state. The same can be said with any chronic health condtion where you can still recall a time when you weren’t like that, in which case you can tackle the condition with limbic retraining and hope for good results.
And what I do know is that the Gupta Program has taken me a very long way this year, that it helps stablise me and my symptoms and, in a sense, “hold my hand” through flare-up situations when they happen, also that its methods significantly calm down my autonomic dysfunction, far quicker than anything else I’ve ever tried. The very routines of the program have become my strongest support system through my days, seasons and variable health, meaning I know I have something reliable to help guide me through whilst enabling me to make leaps in how well I understand the challenges I have and where they came from. I’m able to stand back and witness my responses in a far more detached way now, as well as to rise above it all and achieve significant quantities of inner peace and contentment with my situation. All of this helps to calm the autonomic nervous system, quite significantly.
The more my body gets to experience, thus remember, what a healthier autonomic system feels like, the sooner (and more sustainably) it gets to shift into a new groove of behaviour.
The usual trait of PoTs that doctors look for is a tendency for symptoms that come on when standing up and which are improved by lying down and it has a great deal to do with blood flow and pressure. In my case, my dysautonomia triggers are “environmental” more so than “postoral” (although orthostatic challenges such as dizziness, lowered blood pressure, spacial challenges, borderline syncope, palpitations, brain fog and confusion, blood pooling issues etc. certainly do become worse when I am upright during a flare-up, they also come on when I am sitting or lying down thus a tilt test can’t be used to assess them, possibly because I have generally low blood pressure).
So, for me, its changes in the weather or temperature, air pressure or electro magenetic field etc., including high EMF exposures, that tend to trigger off an episode. Also stress, over-tiredness (which becomes a chicken-and-egg scenario as tiredness triggers PoTs and/or EDS, which then leads to periods of intense chronic fatigue, leading to more episodes of PoTs and EDS, etc). Also inflamation and various allergic responses, though I have to say my MCAS symptoms have improved considerably this year whilst on the program. I still have functional digestive issues, plus other related effects such as Reynaud’s phenomenon, allodynia and peripheral neuropathy (for instance, in the recent heat wave, I had episodes of blood suddenly pooling in feet and fingers, alternating with completely white-dead fingers and numbness, along with itching/burning skin and clothing intolerance). Temperature dysregulation is another of my regular symptoms, meaning I am often to be found wrapped up in a blanket and woolly hat on a hot day or throwing off bedsheets when everyone else is chilly. At such times, I try not to take myself too seriously, for instance, as I lie there in a deckchair looking as though I’m expecting a blizzard!
“Fun party” though this all sounds to be, I have such good results with the GP that I am now able to float through my dips with relative ease and pragmatism, knowing all the time that, the more calm I keep my nervous system, the better the outcome and the sooner I get to it. So, I continue optimistically and diligently, holding to the thought that this winter season will be easier (certainly better supported) than the last because I have several months of the program behind me, during which a hugh amount of progress has been made in support of my recovering nervous system, and in the meantime, all the tools and teaching of the course hold me in good stead to keep calm and envision a steady return to better health.
Find out more:
Its possible to access the Gupta Program on a 28 day free trial without so much as entering a payment card and its a particularly great time to join as the next 12-week webinar series is due to start in September (to which I will be enrolled as ever since I find these weekly sessions so incredibly beneficial and grounding). Also, right now, you can still use the code REBOOT to get $50 off the full program if you decided to continue beyond 28 days.
Living whole 
Hello, Did the Gupta Program work for you? I am considering trying it for CFS/ME with accompanying anxiety and (now) tinnitus. I would be interested to hear more about your results and the effects on your thinking/nervous system.
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Hi Adam, it worked and continues to work – having been on the program for 9 months now, I am still committed to it and use my version of the retraining routine (which has evolved over time), plus many of the tools and mediations, every single day. When I need to feel more supported I dive back into the video materials or join in the webinars or forum and feel so supported, more so than I ever have in my healing journey before…and far less alone or hopeless too…because there is a whole community of people just like us (but none of them spiralling into negativity as they are in so many of the online social media forums; in fact quite the opposite, there is such a feeling of positivity in the community). So its the whole package, put together, that makes this such a powerful program of tools, including the videos and other resources, guided mediations (those are just so beneficial), the forum and the webinars, plus the feeling of optimism that carries you forwards. There is one-to-one coaching available too, which I haven’t tried but its there if needed.
You mention anxiety. Well, one thing it has helped with hugely is with all the various types of anxiety I tend to experience (about my health, about various health triggers, socially and to do with being afraid of overdoing things or making myself worse, or to do with “outside” challenges such as getting my vaccinations, going to new places, eating out etc.). All these things have got so much better, I can’t even put it into words, and I know I will benefit from all the various Gupta methods I now use to manage these things for the rest of my life. I still have constant tinnitus but am not living in fear of it nor do I even notice most of the time. There has also been a siesmic shift in my basic perception of my chronic conditions, as in, what they are, where they came from and how “stuck” or hopeless they feel…in fact, they no longer feel at all stuck because I know I can continue to improve my health situation every single day by making new choices and handling my dips more positively when they occur.
When I look back at where I was at the start of the year, its astonishing how much I have achieved, things like more spontaneous and further-away travel and social events (which had become terrible sticking points, I was almost a recluse and almost always said “no” to things), eating some of the foods that used to trigger me, facing terrors such as vaccinations and dental treatments (which I had become convinced would make me much “worse” but I have been through 5 such appointments with no issues), being able to see more people, set healthy boundaries and pace myself so that I can get more involved in my interests again. Compared to a year ago when I was spending every day on a sofa, I’m currently redecorating my house (in bite-sizd chunks even though this is usually my worst time of year)!! Yes I still have intense waves of fatigue and a lot of pain coming and going in peaks and troughs but it feels quite different compared to where I was a few months ago, how much I’ve acheived and where I now sense I am headed to, which feels like it is progressively improving and certainly far brighter than life has been for years. Things feel far more under my control rather than dealing with the terrible unknown, as it was before the Gupta Program explained how my conditions came about and how they can be worked on to the point they are no longer impacting my life or even there at all (many people on the forum achieve full recovery over varying lengths of time). I will continue with the program’s resources from now on, as a constant support structure to my life, since there is a only a very minimal charge to have access to it after the first year. Its the best thing I ever tried and I’m so glad I commited to it for the full 6 months of following the routine to the letter, that’s where its power lies as you really need to follow the program beyond the first month trial to get the best results.
If you decide to go ahead, there is a discount code unique to my website – “REBOOT” – which should give you $50 off but do let me know if you have any issues with that code as it was generated some time ago. I asked them if they would let me offer a code when I first shared about the program and they kindly offered me that for my readership as I wanted to encourage other people to try it for themselves and of course there is a 28 day free trial and a no quibble one-year money back guarantee in any case. Wishing you the very best of luck!
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Hi Helen,
Many thanks for the detailed response – it is good to know that the program is helping in so many ways. I certainly hope that it continues to serve you well and that you make continued progress using it.
I did ask someone about the results of the program on tinnitus, as it is my biggest concern at the moment (and is why I am not working at the moment), but the response was not very informative. After a little persistence, the email reply was more sincere, yet there was still no explanation around the mechanism by which use of the program to affect the response of the limbic system could help with the tinnitus.
I have just read in another of your posts that people have said they have recovered from their tinnitus, so that is very encouraging. I wonder how they developed theirs (mine was, seemingly from stress – and, ironically, as a result fo worrying about noise in the house we had moved into, given my sensitivity to sound with ME and having to work from home. I am not sure whether medication change (antidepressants) then aggravated the tinnitus which, until that point, had been easily managed by using a fan a night to mask the light sounds heard in a silent environment.
Do you know who responds to the general enquiries about the program? They never told me who they were.
I will try the 28-day trial, even though I have seen all of the introductory material online. If I sign up to the program, I will try to use your discount code as a thank you for your kind correspondence with me.
On a different note, did you practise Joe Dispenza’s meditations?
Best wishes
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Hi again Adam. There are certainly threads on the forum about tinnitus so if you have signed up, make sure to join the Facebook forum ASAP and search by topic. The thing about tinnitus is that there is no universal type or cause, from all I have researched. There are also many variations of sound. Most people seem to talk about a sort of “shushing” sound or even a rumbling or buzz. Mine is extremely high-pitched and shrill, at its worse like an out of control high frequency “note” sending out a panic alarm and mostly to my right ear (or really, the right quadrant of my head as it feels bigger than just my ear), though I get the occasional base note or passing shrill noise from my left. At least one other person in the forum said that his was also only to one ear and not the other and, like me, they wondered if this suggests it has a structural origin. For me, this right-sidedness correlates with the fact my symptoms have always tended to be more right sided than left and also that is the side where my occipital and trigeminal neuralgia tend to be the worse, so there could be some structural damage or behaviour going on. This may or may not be the case for you as it could all be down to stress and the limbic system.
What you want to do is perhaps pay close attention (at least initially…but don’t get obsessed with paying it attention as this goes against everything on the program!) to what, if any, circumstances make the tinnitus worse. Mine used to come on exclusively when I was over-tired, stressed, coming down with an additional illness such as a cold or having a dip but then it became constant three and a half years ago. That was around the same time I believe a sharp drop in oestrogen (as happens to us women of a certain age) caused quite a few of my symptoms to get suddenly worse, so there is a potential “logical” explanation there, if it is nerve or hearing related, because loss of collagen can make the nervous system more fragile thus sensitive and of course age can have all sorts of dire effects on the hearing. However, the big question is, what causes those nerves to fire off in the first place…which could (and probably is!) a question pointing at dysfunction of the limbic brain, otherwise everyone would have tinnitus as they got older (and hence why tinnitus used to only happen to me when I was stressed or having a flare). If it is to do with the limbic system then we can assume that if the limbic system calms down or is “retrained” there is a good chance the tinnitus will reduce or disappear. Importantly, to achieve this we need to stop obsessing about it or giving it undue focus (try not to spend your time researching it or comparing symptoms on other forums), because giving it attention will only make it worse, and the GP helps with this too because the whole focus of the program is on helping you to redirect your attention, allowing the limbic system to calm down.
Therefore, if the limbic system can be calmed down, the chances are that the tinnitus can also be dialled down or stop altogether, even if there is a structural reason such as nerve inflammation or genetic weakness, underlying hearing issue etc. Or at least this is my belief. In the meantime, the Gupta Program starts to give you the tools for calming down your reactions to when you are most symptomatic so, in effect, those symptoms can still be playing out for now…but you don’t feel so bothered by them as you were a few days, weeks or months ago (growing stronger every day). Right now as I type this, my tinnitus is extremely shrill (most people would find it completely abhorrent or pretty frightening) but I am only thinking about it in relation to this question; for most of the day, it didn’t even register, even though it is tremendously loud. On days when I am having a flare, I admit, it does bother me more (as do several of my other triggers) but I can used my GP tools to stay calm, I also turn to relaxing music played on ANC headphones rather than allowing myself to tune into the “noise” all day and keep myself focused on other things. Night time is invariably the worse, if I happen to wake up…so, the trick (of course) is to stay asleep and the GP helps with that too. I use the meditations most night in bed right before going to sleep and they really help to get me into a deep sleeping state. If I’m awake for more than 10 mins in the middle of the night, I don’t hesitate…I just reach for my headphones and listen to another GP mediation and it almost always gets me back to sleep before I have a chance to fixate. I also use a pillow spray made by a company called This Works which is a 99% natural formulation of essential oils designed to soothe the limbic system and that has been incredible for getting me to sleep and keeping me there!
One thing you may want to consider, if its likely one of your health triggers (you will need to feel into this and do some observations), is your exposure to EMFs as I know my tinnitus gets much worse when I have been around wifi, cellphones and particularly bluetooth. I wont have a smart metre and I know some people trace their tinnitus to having one installed, or to new cellphone towers relative to their house etc. Even if you don’t consider these your particular trigger, you probably want to consider reducing your exposure and certainly turning your bedroom into a no (or at least low) exposure zone by ensuring your phone is switched off in the bedroom (also keep cordless DECT phones and their base stations away, they are tremendously EMF generating) etc. My tinnitus first came on around the time I got my first smart phone many years ago, which I used to keep by my pillow, and became a lot worse for the year and a half that I used an iPad (I no longer do!) It still increases dramatically if others bring those devices close to me to the point I can detect a live phone in someone’s bag because of the intensity of my tinnitus, it also gets worse after motorway travel or being in public places for prolonged times. Now, it might be that my sensitised nervous system, during the early years of CFS and fibromyalgia etc, made me susceptible to tuning into these alien frequencies (as they then were as these devices were just so new at the time, our bodies had hardly had time to acclimatise to them…and they are still very new and an unknown quantity long term health-wise), labelling them “a threat” but until such time as my limbic system has completely calmed down, I have to assume that they are still considered a threat by my amygdala and thus a serious antagonist to my recovery, thus I choose to keep my exposure to a bare minimum.
There may be a time in the future when I can be more relaxed around mobile devices etc, just as I now enjoying a little more freedom around certain foods (thanks to the GP) but I know I have to tackle all this in a paced way so as not to overwhelm my limbic system at the same time as I am trying to retrain it. Further down the line, I envision using the GP tools to actively calm my nervous system in the presence of some of these triggers (as is discussed on the program, a technque I have used successfully for some of my other triggers and fears) but not quite yet as I have 16 years of chronic health and related sensitivities to unwind.
For this reason, whilst the 28 day trial is a good taster, I would say that you cannot really road-test the Gupta Program in that time, not least because the later modules are not unlocked in the trial phase and its only in the middle to end stages of the program that all the most powerful retraining techniques are explained. It wasn’t until I went really deep into talking to the various “parts” of my psyche that I was able to have so many light bulb moments and began to unravel how my chronic illnesses had come about in the first place…now that was powerful and life-altering as I feel I have really grown as a person as a result. Therefore, I really do recommend you dive all the way in (I signed up for the full program after only 3 days on the trial as I was so excited and convinced I needed to continue) knowing you have the one-year satisfaction guarantee to back you up. The very act of making that long-term commitment to your own recovery can be like a golden key in the door…in my case, it was as though my entire nervous system began to relax and get on board at that point because it could see that I was really serious about supporting it and hearing it out to get to the bottom of my various stuck-points and work towards my own recovery. Commitment is the key at every step of the process, and will reward you according to how much effort you put in.
I’m not sure who responds to queries, there is an admin team and also several moderators contributing to the forum.
Regarding Dr Dispenza’s work, I really rate and respect what he is doing and I would say that the same or very similar science underlies it as the GP, however I didn’t, personally, get on with his meditations or approach, finding them way too intense and highly triggering for my nervous system. One of the biggest dips (really a wholesale crash!) occurred right after doing his mediations quite intensively for a few weeks, a couple of years ago, at which point I decided to stop. What I would say is that his approach is not specifically designed for people with the kind of conditions that derive from the core reason of the limbic system being so completely over-activated and the GP is the only program that is specifically tailored for those, in my experience. Yes, I have heard amazing stories about recoveries from cancer or people standing up and walking using Dr Joe’s material but it is quite a pushy or even aggressive approach (I find), which my fragile system cannot tolerate or sustain. I also didn’t enjoy his delivery of the audio materials (a personal opinion but it was a sticking point for me).
It was essential for me (and is recommended by the program) to put aside ALL other approaches to healing including other people’s (such as Dr Joe’s) guided meditations whilst on the Gupta Program. You can’t really say you have given the GP your all if you have been using other tools at the same time as they will inevitably pull your nervous system off in other directions and this is a full immersion approach. It was this wholesale commitment to the one method, familiarising myself deeply with Ashok’s voice (which is extremely soothing!) and all the other related materials, that started to create a safe framework for my nervous system to relax and lean into the recovery process. With regular use, it gets to a point where all you have to do is hear one line of a familiar mediation or even the opening few words Ashok speaks in his familiar voice and already you can feel everything starting to relax, thus the flare-up or crisis is averted and you can get yourself out of a dip almost before you have gone into it, at least most of the time…and on those other occasions, where the dip lasts a little longer, there are plenty of resources encouraging you through to the other side, explaining how to get through them with ease. Thus I have found the space between dips has become longer over the course of the year and look forward to the day when those weeks or months in between challenging phases turn into years!
I really hope you start to see some results but please be patient with yourself and allow yourself to believe it is all more than possible, that is the best approach you can take. All the best, Helen
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My message did not get through it seems…
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This is the only message I have from you…
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Hi Helen,
Thanks again. Out of interest, is there any difference between the $50 affiliate discount and the offer that they make when you sign up to the 28-day trial:
“Get $50 off the Gupta Program Online + 3 Month Webinar Series or the Online + 3 Month Webinar Series + USB membership using the codeword PATH here”?
Wow – occipital and trigeminal neuralgia plus chronic fatigue (plus your other issues). You are one tough woman. I have heard that trigeminal neuralgia can be especially painful…
On your point around changes in hormone levels triggering persistent tinnitus, I have heard about women experiencing tinnitus during pregnancy – so with a change in oestrogen levels. I believe someone took some diuretics for this and it helped lower the tinnitus. I do not know if you are a member of tinnitus talk – if not, I would not suggest you go there to read about tinnitus, but I could certainly enquire about anything that has helped tinnitus in cases such as this.
Calming the limbic system, as you allude to, is the premise of tinnitus retraining therapy, which posits that it is, essentially, our reaction to the phantom sounds that ultimately maintains them and prevents us from getting to a state of “habituation”, where the noise ends up moving into the background and being less perceptible or not at all. I have not tried that yet, but there is certainly a link between tinnitus and the limbic system in terms of our response to it. But for those of us with anxious disposition it is, I believe, generally hard to let go of the anxiety provoked by this foreign invading noise – or, at least, not to be affected by it in some way. But you are right: the less attention we can pay to it, the lesser its hold will be over us. I am at the point of trying hypnotherapy and seeing healers – plus taking antidepressants/anxiolytics to aid with the issue. What I find hard to imagine is how someone with tinnitus AND ME/CFS can generally manage to have a working life, what with the existing fatigue and the additional symptoms it brings, when tinnitus is added to the mix. Hopefully, I will learn the answer that someday (barring any improvement in my symptoms). It is great that you seem to have habituated to your tinnitus and I hope that you continue to hear it less and less.
I do not think I have any issues with electromagnetic waves…. As for the trial of the GP, it is pretty rubbish. Nothing is provided that is not on YouTube from what I have seen so far, aside from the instruction to record your thoughts about your “condition” (does that include the tinnitus?) and alternate nostril breathing. I think it is a bit disingenuous to, basically, talk about theory of chronic illness and to promote that as somehow being a free trial of a a therapy. I believe exposure some more in-depth elements relating to the retraining would help to provide a flavour of what is being offered. But yes, there is the money-back guarantee.
Joe Dispenza’s work does seem interesting and he does not seem to be the only person looking at mind-body connection, mindfulness, self-healing though positive thought. I like the focus on feeling through emotion in addition to the thinking part in order to effect change – and some of the studies of participants seem to be really promising. I have looked for people that used his techniques to help with tinnitus, but am not sure there was anything concrete (someone did seem to recover their hearing though and there might be a couple of references to tinnitus on his Facebook page).
Anyway, I was using one of his meditations on YouTube that seems to have disappeared. It is nice, I must admit, to envision yourself cured of all conditions and to imagine how you would feel in that situation. But now that that particular meditation has disappeared, I might need to use the GP ones instead!
But I still have to persist with my hypnotherapy for now, and see what joy the healer I saw once can bring (as well as looking into psychotherapy).
Perhaps some elements can be combined. I find that a lot of these methods and theories are pretty convergent…..
Best wishes,
Adam
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Got the message, this time. I wasnt aware of the current code/offer as obviously I am already signed up but it looks like a better offer all round so I would use that if you go ahead at the end of your trial. My code was just one I asked for to help my readership. I think the only way forward with the GP is to dive in, knowing you have the guarantee, but you need to have the mindset it will and can work to get the real benefits. I would push asside comparing or looking for any flaws,if you can, because its a well-intentioned program which has clearly worked for a lot of people but it takes that time and commitment and the patience to follow pretty simple steps….but allow them to unfold the benefits. I followed the routine for 7 solid months, to the letter (which is rare for me as I can be prone to thinking “this is stupid, it will never work”) but I really committed, day after day and that’s when the light started to appear on the horizon after a few months. Ive tried, and become disillusioned with, a lot of systems and apporaches over the year but this one feels continuously resonant and helpful, perhaps because of its relative simplicitiy. I find Dispenza’s work full of bells and whistles plus a great deal of hype but it didnt fit me personally, though I know some people love it. I think we each choose our course, there is no right or wrong one, so go with your gut. But again, nothing to lose with the GP whereas I invested a lot in the various Dispenza materials but no longer use them, there was no guarantee in that case. I think you will know what feels right for you if you feel into it (without too much “thinking”) as there can be so many signs pulling this way and that out there on the internet. What I like about the GP is it pulls together elements from multiple sources, as recognised from my years of experimenting, but they somehow work better for being distilled into one fairly digestable practice. I appreciate what you say about the forum and the pregnant women with tinnitus, if you happen upon anything that worked for them by all means pass on. I have played with diuretics but they really mess with my PoTs symptoms. I suspect it may always be here from now on but its my reaction to it that is key and the GP has certainly helped, as it has with so many things that used to add to my anxiety and overwhelm (as written about again, just this morning in a new post). I am far better now at self-advocating and knowing when to stop or say “no”. I have been unable to work for years with my bundle of symptoms but I did have tinnitus all the way back to my 20s, though more intermittent, and would usually forget all about it in an office enviornment due to being way too busy, only to notice it again when I got home. I find the same now…generally dont give it a thought when I am out or busy but there it is waiting at the end of the day. The GP has certainly helped a whole lot of people get back to work, according to the forum and webinar participants, but I have no plans to even try as my priorities have completely altered over the past 16 years. All the best!
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Hi Helen,
Thanks.. I have not had any direct response yet about the tinnitus question with respect to hormone imbalance/change. I do fully respect your approach of aiding the limbic system in relaxing into whatever it is that troubles us and, therefore, hoping that this provides the key to letting go of it. I hope that is the case with you. I did, though, in my readings come across reference to LDN. Did you ever try that (it has been known to help with ME/CFS and, seemingly, some people with tinnitus)?
On that note, are you still at the c.7-month stage? And are you able to quantify your increase in energy levels/amelioration since undertaking the Gupta Program? It would be interesting to know how you are getting on with it.
I will, of course, get back to you if I hear anything further on the tinnitus question.
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Hi again, I don’t take any pharma medications, partly because I am historically sensitive to all of them, also a personal choice. I like to see wood for trees in my recovery, not spend my time navigating side effects. I am now 9 months in, the reason I mentioned 7 months is that is how long I did the 5 x ART routine to the letter every day. I now find I dont need it as much as I seldom have negative thoughts about symptoms, and that is major. So I use the methods as needed now, sometimes more than others. I also plan to rejoin the webinars in the NY to boost my retraining as I find the group calls helpful at so many levels. All I can say about progress, as I try not to sit in measurement of this (also part of the GP advice…get out of doing comparisons, waiting for some big breakthrough, and appreciate/handle each day as it comes) is that I have redecorated half of my house and coped with 2 months of fairly demanding social engagement this autumn, traditionally my worse time of year, as well as doing a daily walk in various weather conditions and arranging/going on various day trips with my husband, whereas in prevous years at this time I was hardly able to get off the sofa. I think that speaks for itself.
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