A 47-year-old woman finally got rid of decades of pain caused by chronic polyarthritis—on the very first day of an AUSWEGE/WAYS OUT therapy camp. “It was as if a switch had been flipped,” she says. “Just like that! Bang! Gone and over!”
For 20 years, Mona*, 47, suffered from chronic pain caused by polyarthritis. Several joints hurt, especially in her shoulders. This severely limited her mobility and placed a huge strain on her everyday life – “whether getting dressed or undressed, opening jars, bottles, and cans, standing up and sitting down, or lifting and carrying heavy bags.”
Surgery on both knees and her hip only provided temporary relief from the severe symptoms.
Mona was forced to resort to painkillers. For years, she took 800 mg of ibuprofen twice a day. Suddenly, she developed an excruciating itch: “My head, pelvic bones, and ankles itched intensely. So badly that I scratched myself until I bled. I almost went crazy. Pain sucks. But when it itches too, it’s hell for me!”
“It took weeks before I realized that it could be the medication. So I switched to another analgesic, namely Naproxen AL 500”: a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that relieves pain, reduces inflammation, and lowers fever. “And lo and behold: the intense itching subsided.” However, Mona was uncomfortable with the idea of being dependent on it day after day.
“I was constantly afraid that at some point I would no longer be able to tolerate this medication either.”
This fear was by no means unfounded: in up to 10% of those treated, naproxen sooner or later triggers gastrointestinal complaints—nausea, heartburn, abdominal pain, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation—headaches, dizziness, fatigue, skin rash—as well as itching, which for Mona meant the prospect of going from bad to worse. In 0.1 to 1% of all cases, naproxen leads to gastritis, belching, loss of appetite, high blood pressure, palpitations, blurred vision, tinnitus, and edema. “I felt like a lake that had been dumped into garbage; it was only a matter of time before the lake tipped over. And then what?”
The constant, grueling battle against her chronic pain also took a psychological toll on the woman: she was depressed and chronically exhausted. She says she was constantly caught up in a “carousel of thoughts.”
Suddenly, it was over
Would the AUSWEGE/WAYS OUT Foundation live up to its name in Mona’s case – and show the patient a therapeutic way out? On the recommendation of a friend, Mona decided to participate in a nine-day therapy camp organized by the foundation.
There she took advantage of a wide range of treatments: from energetic massages and water shiatsu to radiesthesia, laying on of hands, and shamanic healing methods.
What Mona experienced next amazed her: “From the very first day, I no longer needed medication. As soon as I arrived at the camp, the pain in my shoulder disappeared.”
“It was as if a switch had been flipped. Just like that! Bang! Gone and over!”
“I can’t really say what exactly caused this. But something happened, and that’s really good!”
No wonder Mona’s mental state and general well-being also improved quickly at the AUSWEGE camp.
On an eleven-point scale On an eleven-point scale (from -5: “very bad” to 0: ‘unchanged’ to +5: “much better”), presented in a questionnaire, she gave the second-highest value of +4 in each case.
To avoid unrealistic expectations: even at AUSWEGE/WAYS OUT camps, it is rare for symptoms to disappear completely overnight. It is much more likely that gradual improvement will occur, often only after the camp week, and especially among participants who take personal responsibility for their recovery.
(* : pseudonym)
