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Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder. It causes involuntary muscle contractions
which lead the affected parts of the body to develop abnormal movements or postures,
with or without tremor. There are differing types of Dystonia which are basically
Focal Dystonia – affecting one area of the body or Generalised Dystonia – which affects
the whole body. Within these there are people who suffer from more than one focal
area and those whose attacks are short lived or infrequent.
Focal Dystonia usually
affects people over 40, whereas children who develop it usually develop Generalised
Dystonia. It can be hard to diagnose so that often people can suffer for years before
diagnosis. There are estimated to be 40,000 people living with Dystonia in the UK.
It’s cause is not fully understood but there seems to be a connection with an imbalance
of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, in the part of the brain called the Basal
Ganglia.
There is no known cure for Dystonia, but some people do seem to improve and about one person in twenty have their symptoms disappear. Treatment for Dystonia is focussed on managing the disease either with drugs that relax muscles or interfere with the neurotransmitters, botulinum toxin (botox) injections in the muscles that spasm, or surgery for those who are not responding to other treatments.
Generalised Dystonia, where muscle spasms, twisting and jerking of muscles throughout the body will clearly affect the sufferers overall quality of life, but even Focal Dystonias can affect all parts of a sufferers life. Blephoraspasm can cause the eyes to clamp tight shut without much warning, Laryngeal Dystonia can cause the voice to change, giving it a strangled quality or breathy and quiet, Oromandibular Dystonia can cause gagging when swallowing food. And all these symptoms are made worse by stress and tiredness – and of course, part of the stress is caused by the symptoms themselves and the worry about when or where they will happen, and the reactions of others to the resulting spasms.
Dystonia
Regression Therapy & Dystonia
This is my own story...
I have suffered from Blephoraspasm for about seven years. I worked in a stressful environment and on many occasions had to work nights after only a few hours sleep. I started to suffer with soreness in and around my eyes, which was initially diagnosed as Hayfever (I had never had this before but accepted it as other members of my family did). When September came I went back to my doctor, I couldn’t surely still be suffering with Hayfever! Luckily for me I had a spasm in the doctors surgery, and he knew immediately what it was (this is unusual I understand).
I was sent to a consultant and immediately started on botulinum injections, 8 every 3 months. Then 8 every 2 months. Then 12 every 2 months.
I took an opportunity of redundancy. This reduced my stress levels but I was now having 16 injections every 2 months.
I had decided to train as a Hypnotherapist and Regression Therapist and, during that training, I was regressed by another student. I found myself as a Romany Gypsy in WW11 Poland. I was taken to a concentration camp and experimented on, one of which seemed to be some sort of electro-convulsive treatment, where a band was put around my head, and the result, I was told afterwards, looked very much like the spasms that my face contorted into during an attack. My death came in the gas chambers.
It hasn’t got rid of my Blephoraspasm completely, (I was told, during that regression, by my spirit guide, that I needed to keep a bit of it for rememberance) but since then, and with a bit of self hypnosis, I am having those injections every six months. For me that is a dramatic improvement – from a NHS point of view it is saving hundreds, even thousands of pounds.
I might add that until then I was ignorant of the fact that Romany Gypsies were put in concentration camps and gassed alongside Jews.
Hypnotherapy & Dystonia
One of the strange effects of Dystonia is that even people with very severe symptoms can have their spasms disappear while they are involved in something. This total involvement in what they are doing is a level of trance, so it’s not surprising that trance is a useful addition to other treatments.
Hypnotherapy can help to relax the mind and body and reduce anxiety and stress, thus reducing attacks. It can help to change the way you think about other people’s reactions to the spasms which also helps to reduce the stress and anxiety. You will learn self hypnosis and relaxation techniques which can help you with ongoing management of the disease.
For more information about Dystonia visit:
http://www.dystonia.org. uk
I understand what you are going through
Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
Ovid