Painful bladder/overlapping pain

[alliematt]

I've dealt with a chronically painful bladder for 30 years. The formal name for my diagnosis is interstitial cystitis, which is basically a damaged bladder wall that causes constant pain.

Last week new guidelines for treatment of IC came out; and one thing they did was to group people into three categories:  bladder-specific pain, pelvic floor pain, and overlapping pain syndrome. The latter was describe as people having other disorders along with IC such as fibromyalgia, TMJ, IBS . . . and also said these patients were also likely to deal with depression and anxiety, which could relate to an overactive central nervous system.

I have depression, anxiety, and OCD. I also have TMJ and possibly have fibro. That description fit me to a T. And when I thought about everything that fed into me having depression and anxiety — childhood bullying, an abusive church, some bad roommate relationships, a son with autism, and these days, just general circumstances — and I got very, very angry.

I haven't thrown things or screamed at anyone; but I did have a nice, angry talk with God.

Processing this anger is not going to happen overnight. I'm in therapy and this will come up in my next session.

[Little rabbit]

I'm very sorry to hear about this. I also have bladder related symptoms and I know how awful it can be. I'm getting relief by treating my nervous system, which was so surprising, so I hope you will too.

[Kizzie]

Allie, I have been having really bad anxiety for months now and my GP said one cause is UTI so tested me for that. That wasn't the issue for me, it is/was my medication but I was very surprised to hear this.  It's bad enough when it's our trauma making us suffer psychological symptoms but when it's our bodies and conditions like IC and UTIs  it just is a huge difficult pill to swallow. 

So sorry you have so much to deal with Allie, I hear you and in all truth getting very angry does seem completely appropriate.