Hard Flaccid Cure

[MisterGeo]

I did have severe hypochondria, which is in control now, mostly because I avoid putting myself in such situations where it can trigger it. Also I had a girlfriend for a short while, and we didn't get into physical lovemaking, because of my condition. I didn't disclose it to her but I cut ties with her, because I felt guilty of what I was doing to her. It feels so disheartening sometimes, that I have a non-functioning manhood and impared daily urination, discomfort. So yeah, that's the girlfriend part. And no, I am not considering marriage as of now, although I did dream of marrying a wonderful woman and having a beautiful family with her. Unless I see any signs of progress I don't think I should marry a woman, it will be unfair to her. I just wanna be cured of this Hard Flaccid or PFD whatever this is.

Do you feel that you have exhausted what you can accomplish working with urologists? Would you be open to trying that again? Or no? Any luck with anything they suggested? And you say you have impaired urination and discomfort - did a urologist rule out prostate enlargement? I'm guessing they probably did, but I have to ask to know for sure.

Have you tried to find a physio-therapist who specializes in pelvic floor disorders?

Is it okay if I keep asking questions? I'm just gathering some information so I can think more clearly about your situation. I don't want to make suggestions that you've already explored a million times over.

 

[princeofarragon]

I would happy to answer any questions you may have. It feels good when someone lends an ear. Well urologists have done there part with the tests, like uroflowmetry and ultrasounds which showed no anomalies, except low average flow of urine, which they don't think to be caused by a physical deformity like strictures. No prostate enlargement. Which narrows it down to tight pelvic floor since all of my issues are centered in that single area.
Unfortunately, there is no pelvic floor physiotherapists in India, and in my current state, I can't travel to anywhere else to avail it.
It's just me and my mind.

 

[MisterGeo]

I would happy to answer any questions you may have. It feels good when someone lends an ear. Well urologists have done there part with the tests, like uroflowmetry and ultrasounds which showed no anomalies, except low average flow of urine, which they don't think to be caused by a physical deformity like strictures. No prostate enlargement. Which narrows it down to tight pelvic floor since all of my issues are centered in that single area.
Unfortunately, there is no pelvic floor physiotherapists in India, and in my current state, I can't travel to anywhere else to avail it.
It's just me and my mind.

Thanks for answering my questions and hanging with me. If you're in India, it must be getting late there. I don't want to keep you up late. It's now just early afternoon where I am. I need to get away from the computer for a while now so maybe we should try to pick this up again tomorrow. Work calls me outdoors now.

One other question I had was what you think of guestbo's posts above in this thread? Do you think he is onto something? Or do you think you are mostly dealing with something physical?

I probably won't be able to get back here until tomorrow morning. Get some good sleep. I don't know if I can help you resolve this problem, but I'm glad talking it out here has helped. I usually don't get into these kinds of discussions about ED and HF, etc, but I have time right now and this has gone very well. Talk again soon.

 

[princeofarragon]

Thanks for answering my questions and hanging with me. If you're in India, it must be getting late there. I don't want to keep you up late. It's now just early afternoon where I am. I need to get away from the computer for a while now so maybe we should try to pick this up again tomorrow. Work calls me outdoors now.

One other question I had was what you think of guestbo's posts above in this thread? Do you think he is onto something? Or do you think you are mostly dealing with something physical?

I probably won't be able to get back here until tomorrow morning. Get some good sleep. I don't know if I can help you resolve this problem, but I'm glad talking it out here has helped. I usually don't get into these kinds of discussions about ED and HF, etc, but I have time right now and this has gone very well. Talk again soon.

Yeah, man thanks a lot! Guestbo's post makes the most sense to be honest in these troubling times, a lot more sense than the Hard Flaccid echo chambers do with all sorts of spine surgeries, different exercise routines and doom theories. I am dealing with both physical and mental distress, but I believe that it is due to some cycle that I am stuck in. Because as far as medical testings go, I have got no such significant findings which can result in this. Yes ofcourse, I do have a hard flaccid penis, cold and soft glans, weak urination, difficulties in defaecation but I believe there's a central root to all of this, because I nothing can cause so many symptoms in a single region alone. But the question is how do I get out of this loop. Also I can't access the Hard Flaccid recovery post in this forum due to some issue : https://thebiohacker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11, maybe there's some info to the missing piece.

Thanks a lot again for listening.

 

[Big Al]

Anxiety in and of itself may be contributing to your HF. It's similar to performance anxiety in that way.

Practicing Emotional Visualizations can be very helpful in developing mastery over your emotions. At the very least, it'll lower your stress enough to allow you to get more out of whatever training or treatment you may be performing.

 

[MisterGeo]

Yeah, man thanks a lot! Guestbo's post makes the most sense to be honest in these troubling times, a lot more sense than the Hard Flaccid echo chambers do with all sorts of spine surgeries, different exercise routines and doom theories. I am dealing with both physical and mental distress, but I believe that it is due to some cycle that I am stuck in. Because as far as medical testings go, I have got no such significant findings which can result in this. Yes ofcourse, I do have a hard flaccid penis, cold and soft glans, weak urination, difficulties in defaecation but I believe there's a central root to all of this, because I nothing can cause so many symptoms in a single region alone. But the question is how do I get out of this loop. Also I can't access the Hard Flaccid recovery post in this forum due to some issue : https://thebiohacker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11, maybe there's some info to the missing piece.

Thanks a lot again for listening.

You can't access that thread because it starts with digits: "11 Hard Flaccid Full Recovery Cases" When we moved to a new forum software platform a few years ago any thread title that started with a digit misdirected.

But you can still access that thread on the Internet Archive. This link will take you there. Give it a minute to load. This is exactly as PE Gym appeared in 2017 when the post was originally made. The entire thread his here:

11 Hard Flaccid Full Recovery Cases..

Hard Flaccid Full Recovery Cases. Thanks to the stories owners ... "The end of hard flaccid...." Reason skyping with the gf and I ended up

web.archive.org

I would think those spinal surgeries others are talking about would involve a specific diagnosis from a neurologist where nerves are compressed in the spine. I hope guys aren't trying any experimental spinal surgeries. It sounds scary. What do you mean by "doom theories"?

I think it's good that you have an open mind to the stuff guestbo is talking about. I've seen a lot of guys who report hard flaccid symptoms very resistant to the idea that unconscious emotions or some psychological glitch could cause physical symptoms. But I notice in some recovery stories there are guys who learn to manage the mental/emotional side of the HFS experience and then things start getting better. The mind and body are connected in intimate ways and I think that's the point.

I have a friend who once had a problem in his neck that went down his arm into his hand. It caused numbness and pain in his hand and he was traumatized because he's an accomplished musician and it made it impossible to play his instrument. This battle went on for years. He solved it after he found a book by Dr. John Sarno. Sarno wrote a book called "The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders." It should be easy to find. My friend experienced what is called "the book cure." This doesn't happen in all cases, but what it means is that when he read this book a lightbulb went on and he spontaneously started having improved symptoms. He doesn't have this issue anymore.

I've tried to get guys with hard flaccid interested in the "Dr. Sarno method for psychosomatic symptoms" because the more I learn about HFS, the more it seems to be exactly the sort of psychosomatic (mind-body) syndrome that Dr. Sarno has been able to help people with. Tension Myositis Syndrome. This is the term Sarno uses for his theory of what's going on in these cases. The mind unconsciously causes a set of symptoms in a region of the body.

One interesting thing about these syndromes is that they tend to become cultural trends. Suddenly in the 1970s or whenever, everyone seemed to have back pain. Hard Flaccid Syndrome is a very new syndrome and suddenly about 10 years ago or so there was a rash of men self-diagnosing the problem. This sort of thing is typical of the way these mind-body syndromes emerge.

There are other features that point to a mind-body central cause too, but I'll let you have a look at Sarno's ideas and see if any of it adds up for you.

One of the interesting things about these mind-body syndromes is that exercises and other things that treat the physical symptoms or attempt to diagnose physical causes can actually prolong the symptoms because that focus avoids the true central cause. I should also note that Sarno is not the first to explore psychosomatic illness. There's a very long history - like hundreds of years - of things like this on the medical record. It's just not how we usually think in modern times.

It's easy to misunderstand what Sarno is really getting at, so you might have to spend some time warming up to his ideas. I would recommend reading the book and also using whatever you can find online. There are videos on YouTube where Sarno is giving lectures, interviews, and other people talking about how they cured long standing mind-body symptoms.

Here's a good start. They talk a lot about back pain in this video, but what they are talking about could apply to HFS too:

There's also this:

Dr. Sarno method for psychosomatic symptoms

Are you experiencing physical symptoms that seem to have no apparent cause? You may be suffering from ...

www.sarnoclinic.com

Take some time with this Sarno stuff and let me know what you think. I really don't know what else to suggest. I've always hoped that somebody with HFS would take an interest in this and maybe find something helpful in it.

 

[princeofarragon]

Anxiety in and of itself may be contributing to your HF. It's similar to performance anxiety in that way.

Practicing Emotional Visualizations can be very helpful in developing mastery over your emotions. At the very least, it'll lower your stress enough to allow you to get more out of whatever training or treatment you may be performing.

Thanks. I understand that the mind has to be the main driver of this. I will check this video out.

 

[princeofarragon]

You can't access that thread because it starts with digits: "11 Hard Flaccid Full Recovery Cases" When we moved to a new forum software platform a few years ago any thread title that started with a digit misdirected.

But you can still access that thread on the Internet Archive. This link will take you there. Give it a minute to load. This is exactly as PE Gym appeared in 2017 when the post was originally made. The entire thread his here:

11 Hard Flaccid Full Recovery Cases..

Hard Flaccid Full Recovery Cases. Thanks to the stories owners ... "The end of hard flaccid...." Reason skyping with the gf and I ended up

web.archive.org

I would think those spinal surgeries others are talking about would involve a specific diagnosis from a neurologist where nerves are compressed in the spine. I hope guys aren't trying any experimental spinal surgeries. It sounds scary. What do you mean by "doom theories"?

I think it's good that you have an open mind to the stuff guestbo is talking about. I've seen a lot of guys who report hard flaccid symptoms very resistant to the idea that unconscious emotions or some psychological glitch could cause physical symptoms. But I notice in some recovery stories there are guys who learn to manage the mental/emotional side of the HFS experience and then things start getting better. The mind and body are connected in intimate ways and I think that's the point.

I have a friend who once had a problem in his neck that went down his arm into his hand. It caused numbness and pain in his hand and he was traumatized because he's an accomplished musician and it made it impossible to play his instrument. This battle went on for years. He solved it after he found a book by Dr. John Sarno. Sarno wrote a book called "The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders." It should be easy to find. My friend experienced what is called "the book cure." This doesn't happen in all cases, but what it means is that when he read this book a lightbulb went on and he spontaneously started having improved symptoms. He doesn't have this issue anymore.

I've tried to get guys with hard flaccid interested in the "Dr. Sarno method for psychosomatic symptoms" because the more I learn about HFS, the more it seems to be exactly the sort of psychosomatic (mind-body) syndrome that Dr. Sarno has been able to help people with. Tension Myositis Syndrome. This is the term Sarno uses for his theory of what's going on in these cases. The mind unconsciously causes a set of symptoms in a region of the body.

One interesting thing about these syndromes is that they tend to become cultural trends. Suddenly in the 1970s or whenever, everyone seemed to have back pain. Hard Flaccid Syndrome is a very new syndrome and suddenly about 10 years ago or so there was a rash of men self-diagnosing the problem. This sort of thing is typical of the way these mind-body syndromes emerge.

There are other features that point to a mind-body central cause too, but I'll let you have a look at Sarno's ideas and see if any of it adds up for you.

One of the interesting things about these mind-body syndromes is that exercises and other things that treat the physical symptoms or attempt to diagnose physical causes can actually prolong the symptoms because that focus avoids the true central cause. I should also note that Sarno is not the first to explore psychosomatic illness. There's a very long history - like hundreds of years - of things like this on the medical record. It's just not how we usually think in modern times.

It's easy to misunderstand what Sarno is really getting at, so you might have to spend some time warming up to his ideas. I would recommend reading the book and also using whatever you can find online. There are videos on YouTube where Sarno is giving lectures, interviews, and other people talking about how they cured long standing mind-body symptoms.

Here's a good start. They talk a lot about back pain in this video, but what they are talking about could apply to HFS too:

There's also this:

Dr. Sarno method for psychosomatic symptoms

Are you experiencing physical symptoms that seem to have no apparent cause? You may be suffering from ...

www.sarnoclinic.com

Take some time with this Sarno stuff and let me know what you think. I really don't know what else to suggest. I've always hoped that somebody with HFS would take an interest in this and maybe find something helpful in it.

Hey, thanks so much for all the trouble. I will check the forum post out. I think it might have some good info.

Also you talked about your friend having a weird little symptom of hand numbness. Let me tell you, I too, have the same in my arms and apparently it's coming from the neck. Whenever I would bend my elbows, my pinky and ring fingers would go numb and tingly. It would appear in other fingers as well if I would keep my arm in a different position for some time. I play guitar, so after this happened, I had to stop that as well. But it all started one after the other like dominos falling. So there has to be a central cause to this, because how would I explain so many symptoms in my body which started around the same time?

Also, I do have a disc bulge in my L5-S1 area but no doctors are concerned because apparently, it should not cause any symptoms. But the HF forums are creating theories as there might be some disc bulge, invisible annular tear which cause a reactive chain of symptoms down the legs, groin, genitals etc. And they do a discectomy and are cured of this. And the main thing that makes the readers so convinced of this theory is that the people who post this, say they do have the exact same symptoms as the readers. So it suddenly starts to make sense. But what I think is, if medically, surgeons have not documented this enough, then how do I believe it? Also, millions of people do have disc bulges, which many don't even know of, and they don't cause any symptoms whatsoever. So how come it's showing all such symptoms in me? Which makes me kind of against this theories (although they do convince me sometimes - "Like what if I am wrong?, What if spine surgery is the cure to this? They got cured, so there might be some truth to this").

Anyway, I keep hearing about Sarno and his works and I am really interested in his ideas. I will try to check the resources. But somewhere in my mind, there's a dark cloud telling me, "How can such physical symptoms be a result of the mind alone?". I have to battle this and I do hope to fight till I get better, because I have nothing to lose.

 

[MisterGeo]

Hey, thanks so much for all the trouble. I will check the forum post out. I think it might have some good info.

Also you talked about your friend having a weird little symptom of hand numbness. Let me tell you, I too, have the same in my arms and apparently it's coming from the neck. Whenever I would bend my elbows, my pinky and ring fingers would go numb and tingly. It would appear in other fingers as well if I would keep my arm in a different position for some time. I play guitar, so after this happened, I had to stop that as well. But it all started one after the other like dominos falling. So there has to be a central cause to this, because how would I explain so many symptoms in my body which started around the same time?

One of the things I remember from Sarno is that the location of the Tension Myositis symptoms can move around the body. So it might start in the back, but then it can shift to the shoulders for example. I don't want to diagnose you but your description of "dominos falling" and having manifestations of symptoms in more than one area of the body is a classic quality of some TMS cases Sarno talks about.

Also, I do have a disc bulge in my L5-S1 area but no doctors are concerned because apparently, it should not cause any symptoms. But the HF forums are creating theories as there might be some disc bulge, invisible annular tear which cause a reactive chain of symptoms down the legs, groin, genitals etc. And they do a discectomy and are cured of this. And the main thing that makes the readers so convinced of this theory is that the people who post this, say they do have the exact same symptoms as the readers. So it suddenly starts to make sense. But what I think is, if medically, surgeons have not documented this enough, then how do I believe it? Also, millions of people do have disc bulges, which many don't even know of, and they don't cause any symptoms whatsoever. So how come it's showing all such symptoms in me? Which makes me kind of against this theories (although they do convince me sometimes - "Like what if I am wrong?, What if spine surgery is the cure to this? They got cured, so there might be some truth to this").

I think you are very wise to avoid experimental elective surgeries. The scene you are describing on the HF forums is scary. There's a lot of suffering out there. I really appreciate your reporting and insight.

Anyway, I keep hearing about Sarno and his works and I am really interested in his ideas. I will try to check the resources. But somewhere in my mind, there's a dark cloud telling me, "How can such physical symptoms be a result of the mind alone?". I have to battle this and I do hope to fight till I get better, because I have nothing to lose.

I think this is a common question for people who struggle with these things, and I know Sarno answers it in his own way somewhere. My own understanding is that the mind and body are not separate. They are joined and totally interwoven. And the subconscious mind is a lot smarter and capable than we can imagine. Sarno says that the reason the symptoms appear in mind-body illness is that the subconscious is trying to protect us from some painful emotions by distracting us with the physical symptoms. Sarno theorizes that the mind causes tension in tissues to block the flow of oxygen to that area of the body and this causes further tension and pain and other problems. This may or may not be precisely accurate, but there's definitely something happening to cause the physical manifestations.

I hope you'll keep an open mind as your strongest asset through the rest of this journey and that you eventually find some peace and resolution. Keep us posted.

 

[Big Al]

Thanks. I understand that the mind has to be the main driver of this. I will check this video out.

Glad to serve, and please keep us posted as to your progress.

 

[Pegasus]

So anxiety is central to HF as you no doubt know . Efforts to resolve anxiety have a large effect on HF .