When Florencia Cerruti was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease at age 47, she began using journaling, writing down her private thoughts about her experiences, as a coping mechanism and a therapeutic outlet. Through this self-reflection, she realizes early that there is some innate element of bodily wisdom in the diagnosis of an "idiopathic" chronic condition - that it contains an aspect of her body saying "no more" to a lifetime of holding herself to too high standards, of perfectionism, of "wearing the cape of superwoman".
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The Past, Persistence and Parkinson's Disease
By Stefania Lungu, contributing author and person with Parkinson’s Disease.
“I am 66 years old and this is my story. I strongly believe that almost all major illnesses have deep roots in some traumas/shocks we have at certain moments of our lives, which we were not able to “digest”. All my emotional traumas are related to members of my family. My first shock was back in 1994, when I was alone with a little child to raise. Knock-knock, depression installed itself immediately and I was not able to recognize it and give it a proper treatment. I was very angry, and afraid that I would not be able to cope with all my problems. Yet, in all the critical moments of my life, I received from seemingly nowhere some help from ”above”, and somehow I managed to solve step by step the problems which arose, even when I remained jobless in 2000, and by miracle an old tennis friend helped me to find a new job in a bank, that help restore confidence in myself.”
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Diminished Aliveness and Parkinson's Disease
Perhaps it would be instructive at this point, therefore to describe more about what its like when I am very symptomatic, to help understanding of why I believe this disease truly corresponds to Death Feigning, and why the converse - increase Aliveness - is the key route to healing. In Death Feigning, not only movement is switched off, but as are all signals through which the keen sense of predators might detect some vestigial signs of life. To me, this describes exactly how it is when I am symptomatic - if I don't implement strategies to combat this state and just allow it to take over - and the more symptomatic I am, the more pronounced these experiences:
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Developmental and Shock Trauma and Parkinson's Disease
As for many people with young onset forms of Parkinson's Disease, my diagnosis was given the label "Idiopathic". This term, Idiopathic, is used to denote any disease or condition which arises spontaneously or for which the cause is unknown. This diagnosis was wholly unsatisfactory to me, as I'm a person who needs to know the "why" of things.
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