Acupressure, Break the
Pain-Spasm-Pain Cycle

Learn how to alleviate pain and tension through self-administered techniques.

I learned acupressure techniques from a book that I read many years ago called Pain Erasure: The Bonnie Prudden Way. This book will give you a complete method of therapy. I'll give you a basic lesson that follows.

Self-administered Acupressure

First of all, you will be using your forefinger, your thumb, your knuckle, or your middle finger over your forefinger in order to get enough pressure on the trigger points or pressure points.

Find a sensitive spot where you will be pressing the nerve against a bone. Anywhere that you have a trigger point or sensitive spot that generates a lot of pain when pressed, you've got the right spot.

To begin acupressure, press and hold this spot. The pain will be excruciating if you are actually on a spot, but do not let up on the spot until the pain starts to subside. You may feel pain spreading down one of your extremities or up to the top of your head. This will tell you how connected everything is in your body.

Holding the spot through the pain will break the pain, spasm, pain cycle that perpetuates pain. For example: the muscle is in pain and so it tightens up, this tightening up causes more pain and so the muscle tightens up again in response to the pain. This is a continuing cycle that is broken by this method of acupressure.

When you feel the pain start to subside, SLOWLY lift off of the spot you were pushing on. You should be lifting so slowly that the skin is more pushing your finger up(or whatever you are pushing with) than actually manually lifting your finger.

As you lift up, you will feel the muscle relax and the pain subside even more. Be sure to wait until the pain subsides a little before lifting off the trigger point or acupressure point in order to "clear" it.

A somewhat easy way to find these sensitive spots is to follow the edge of a bone by pressing all along it until you find a sensitive spot. For instance, if you follow along your collar bone between your neck and your shoulder, above your chest, you will probably find a spot on each end of the bone, and maybe in places on each side of the bone, too. You will know you've found an acupressure point when you feel extreme pain upon putting strong pressure on that spot.

In Pain Erasure: The Bonnie Prudden Way you will find more advanced techniques for "clearing" your sensitive points, where they are located, and which ones hold a lot of emotion, etc.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I have helped myself and many friends and family members relieve neck and shoulder pain along with tension using the techniques in this book.

Another technique that you may find helpful, especially for fibromyalgia pain relief and sensitive trigger points, is to make tiny circles very lightly without pressure over a trigger point. Keep doing this for at least 2 minutes on each trigger point. This technique involves no pain. When I had this done to me by an acquaintance, it was really helpful. When I try to do the technique on myself, I don't have much success.

I learned a final technique from an osteopathic physician. It is for myofascial pain. We all have a thin sheath called fascia under the skin and over the muscles. It's like the film of stretchy stuff located between the shell and the white part of a hard-boiled egg.

What happens in myofascial pain syndrome and I suspect may be a factor in the pain of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, is that this fascia becomes stuck to the muscles when it's supposed to glide over them at they move.

This technique (I don't know the official name) involves pulling up a row of skin with your fingers, pulling it away from the muscle. You then pull up new skin as you let go of the skin you were previously holding in a rolling motion, like a wave running down a ribbon after you flick the end you are holding onto.

This is supposed to unstick the fascia from the muscle. Warning, this is extremely painful (if your fascia is indeed stuck), but the next day, you will feel some pain relief when you find it easier to move.

I hope these suggestions provide you with some fibromyalgia pain relief.

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Health Disclaimer These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. They are not intended to diagnose, cure, prevent or treat any diseases. The information here is not provided by medical professionals and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Please consult your physician before beginning any course of treatment.