tension myositis syndrome

History of a health burnout; what the past can teach me now

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Such as we are experts in anything, those of us with long term health issues also possess a rich hoard of hard-won experience and insight into what made us chronic in the first place. So, what can we take from all the years of navigating our way through the experience of chronic illness as a means to averting a delayed recovery from covid or other trigger virus, especially when we notice any similarities with what we have been through before? Can we now take the overview in order to notice and better understand the patterns, weak spots and trip-wires of chronicness before they become ingrained this time?

Learning to slow down

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Letting a day of nothing in particular be an accomplishment, even more so than a day of “productivity”, is a necessary mind re-program I am steadily adopting for my health. Allowing myself to feel equally good about myself and, most importantly, relaxed because I managed to go slow today rather than ticking things off a list is a crucial reinvention of myself on the way towards, somewhere down the line, reaping a far healthier nervous system than I ever had in my life. I’m playing the long game now, the fruits of my labours no longer some transient thrill gained from fighting down another dragon but the slow and steady harvest gained from peaceful seeds planted in the ground on some equally slow and steady day and all the intervening patience I had to watch them grow. 

Environmental illness: the living tragedy of a sensitive response to places altered beyond recognition

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

When you have come to know a place so well it seems to have become part of you and yet that place is subjected to an onslaught of negative environmental effects that alter it beyond recognition, why wouldn't the effects be physical and utterly dire as regards your own health?

Studying yourself under pressure as an exercise in enhanced self-awareness

~ Helen White ~ 4 Comments

How do you shape-sort your life, what unusual things motivate you, where do you get your particular kicks, how and with whom (not!) do you like to work; conversely, what gets your back up, scrambles your processes or burns you out? There's nothing like noticing your behaviour under pressure to learn about your particular version of neurodiversity, all the better to work to your unique strengths in future!

On oxalates, emotions, self-protection, autism and releasing: a hypothesis

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Exploring the idea that certain chronically painful bodies have formed the habit of storing oxalates (toxic anti-nutrients) from common food sources in order to protect us when, really, this only does great harm...and how to get out of the subconscious mindset of vulnerability in order to heal.

Big emotions at the root of “chronic”

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

If TMS is behind your chronic condition then, until you accept this and take the necessary action, you’re unlikely to move on. You have to believe in it, commit to doing the work and garner the faith that you can and will get well again. You have to let go of any negative feelings that arise from the realisation you’ve been caught in your own mind-trap all these years because it really wasn’t your fault as you had no idea and the brain is extremely good at doing this thing that it does to distract you from intense emotions with symptoms (and utterly convinced it is doing the right thing; that your very survival depends on it, thus it gives it everything it’s got). That’s a huge amount to contend with; the odds were stacked against you all along, but not anymore, now you know and can learn the tools for healing.