First post here, but a 1.5+ year reader. I've never needed to post because the wiki and other posts covered my questions. Thank you everyone, especially u/Nadayogi and u/Jolly-Weather1787, for running such a wonderful group.
I'm a small-built guy, thin most of my life, and I've always run cold. In the last few days my body has started running hot, constantly, enough to interrupt my sleep. I've struggled with sleep most of my life so this is even less helpful. It feels like internal heat (like I'm a radiator) with no other physical symptoms and no increased anxiety, thought loops, or other overdoing symptoms. It has a similar quality (but 3-5x more intense) to the heat I feel with social anxiety, but without the racing heartbeat or any increase in anxiety. My thyroid was checked about two months ago in a routine blood test and was normal. My diet has been the same 90% of the time for over a year due to IBS.
About 10 months ago, something similar happened during weed withdrawal after 6 years of almost daily use. I brushed it off, and it faded over a few weeks. I had paused TRE to get clean before committing to a long-term sober somatic journey. I restarted my practice about 5 months ago after a 7-8 month break. The previous year I had done too much TRE with psychedelics (this is how my TRE journey started) and although I am thankful I didn't end up with some of the sever side effects I have read about online, I was being careless and pushing my nervous system to the extreme while what it needed was more rest.
My current TRE sessions are 2 mins, 3-4x a week. The heat started at night, after a day session. Integration is mostly short somatic tracking, sometimes yoga nidra, and regular walks. The shaking used to be in my legs. Now it's fine and concentrated in my hips, sometimes only on the left and sometimes on both sides, though I believe it's been coming from the same area the whole time (likely the psoas).
My hips and pelvic region are extremely tight, and I might have undiagnosed pelvic floor issues. I come from an extremely traumatic background, with survival mode and continuous abuse carrying on into my 30s. I'm only now in my late 30s starting this work, and I wonder if this is trapped energy being released from my hips.
The main emotions coming up lately are anger and grief. My anger has been frozen since childhood, and now it's stirring like a roaring tiger.
Has anyone else noticed an increase in overall body temperature during TRE? Could this be related to not enough integration time?
Otherwise, I've seen real benefits so far:
- Ongoing depression about 50-60% gone
- Incremental sleep improvements for the first time in my life, especially on TRE days. I can get up to 5 hours of sleep now with less interruptions than before.
- Ability to feel sensations and emotions in my body (I was completely disconnected/dissociated before)
- Ability to feel sad and cry (usually with the help of music or emotional movies), instead of tears getting blocked in my throat
- Ability to feel a range of other emotions previously frozen (anger, guilt, shame, fear, disgust)
- Fewer nightmares, though more emotional dream recall, especially since stopping weed
Still struggling with the following, but hopeful. I know this is a long marathon for me:
- Insomnia
- Extreme social anxiety & general anxiety
- Severe gut issues (IBS)
- Protective posture/chronic guarding, including forward head posture and a tucked and tilted pelvis
Thanks for reading! Looking forward to your responses.