Laura Seago
This interview is from the Like Mind, Like Body podcast. You can listen to the full interview below, on iTunes or Google Podcasts.
SHARE TO SPREAD HOPE FOR RELIEFLowri has experienced some form of pain or illness since she was a child. Over the years, her symptoms have taken many forms - including vulvodynia, endometriosis pain, IBS, migraines, and more. After years of various treatments, she resigned herself to the fact that she'd simply be in pain forever. Last year, all of that changed. Join us as Lowri shares her stunning journey into self-discovery, healing, and hope.
Curable came along at a really interesting point in my life. I recently had my last session with a counselor, so I had been meeting with someone regularly just talking times through that have come up from the Curable app.
The year leading up to that had been a massive time of change. I left my job and became a caretaker for my grandmother. That forced me to make a lot of realizations on the structures I had in my life and the relationships I had in my life. I spent a lot of time with my family that I hadn’t done in a long time. And it made me see everything differently as an adult. It also challenged a lot of relationships I had with friends since I was spending so much time with family.
That year had been my bottom. I made incredible realizations about my life. It was almost as if I had taken everything out of the box, and it was all over the floor. I had no idea how to rebuild. I didn’t know where to go next.
I was on Facebook and someone had shared Susan Brown’s article that details her recovery from migraines and I related to that. I always had associated chronic pain with self-pity. I never wanted pity. I didn’t feel what I read in her story was pity.
I listened to the podcast, and then I got the app. And I never pay for apps, that’s not something I do. But I signed up. And after I did a few of the free exercises I decided to do it. I liked it.
Yes. In 2013, leading up to my surgery, I woke up one day and I had this awful sunburn burning sensation between my legs. We went through a number of different diagnosis. Maybe it’s an allergic reaction? It switched on one day and it stayed there. I was eventually diagnosed with vulvodynia, unexplained pain in the vulva area.
As soon as I mentioned that it was having an impact on my sex life with my partner, suddenly everyone couldn’t through enough resources at me. It’s really interesting.
It really enforced this idea that my pain was irrelevant. The important things were – A. that I could have a baby, B. that I could be a good partner.
And that’s something I experienced going through the women’s health side of everything.
I tried everything. I had creams, new underwear, hormonal treatments that served me really well at times.
I just accepted that this was my lot. I was going to have this burning pain everyday… I couldn’t take any more medication.
And this wasn’t even going on my radar going into the Curable program, because this was normal.
I had accepted that I wasn’t even a woman, really. This was such a part of my identity, I’m just a failed woman. It was miserable.
And then, I did a Curable writing exercise, and I had to write about a situation that came up was something that happened to me in the year leading up to the operation. Someone I was close to had overstepped the line and it had really frightened me. I was in a really vulnerable position. But being the type of person many of us are in this program, we just wanted to please people, and I told them everything was fine.
And digging into it, I realized just how much it had affected m, and how angry I was. And I had no idea what to do about it. This person was still in my life. And so I went to the Facebook group, and I was terrified, I was so scared, and I don’t know if the people who responded that day realize just the difference they made in my life. And I knew I couldn’t go any further. I had to set boundaries. I had to do something...
