Day 1 Restarting the program again

Hi all
My second attempt at starting the SEP and strong determination to complete it and heal. I have close to full conviction that I indeed have TMS and there is nothing wrong with me. I started with bad foot pain for years that is much much better now and occasional shoulder, neck, hip pain. But most recently I am experiencing some anxiety and mini panic attacks. At this point my concern is whether or not the SEP will help me with the anxiety part as it say in the beginning that anxiety/depression issues may need more health intervention. I am hopeful as most of anxiety is driven by my pain so once I tackle that I think I will make my anxiety go away as well. Thanks for reading and any advice/input is welcome.

 

Hi CMA
You could have easily been writing this about me if your bad pain had been in your neck/shoulder rather than your foot I am currently on Day 36 of the SEP. I have suffered from anxiety and depression for most of my life. I have had medical help for both in the past (talk therapy and medication). While both caused decreased symptoms during those treatments, neither method (or combination of both) was a cure. My physical pain began 18 months ago. About 12 weeks into the physical pain (when structurally I should have been at least 95% healed from my injury) the pain actually got much worse - the depression and anxiety I thought I had under control got worse with it. This past October (15 months into the physical pain), the very same cycle happened without any apparent explanation. I was completely oblivious to the pattern. Fortunately my chiro and her colleagues were not and they very kindly suggested to me that the pain could be stemming from an emotional trauma - which is what led me to this wonderful wiki.

I firmly believe the depression, anxiety, and physical pain are all connected and all different routes to the same destination for our brains. I believe it was in one of Dr. Sarno's books (apologies in advance if I'm mis-crediting here but I've read so much on this lately I can't keep them straight) where the unconscious mind was compared to a maximum security prison - all the perceived most dangerous/violent offenders are locked in there, they're all bursting with rage for being wrongly imprisoned, and all constantly trying to escape. Anxiety, depression, and physical pain are all security measures the brain takes to distract us and keep the prisoners safely housed inside. That prison analogy resonated with me when I read it and I got to thinking that maybe the security measure the brain chooses correlates to the threat level perceived. For example, maybe the prisoner who is in the planning phases of an escape is not considered as dangerous as the prisoner who has scaled the fence and is about to jump over the other side. Maybe any of of these is sufficient for the low-level threats but an all out riot calls for use of the whole arsenal.

My experience is that this program has benefited my depression and anxiety issues much more than the actual physical pain I was using it for to begin with. Additionally, I have shared many of the tips and articles I've found here with a friend who has been battling severe anxiety for quite awhile (fortunately physical pain has yet to manifest for this person) and my friend has expressed a good deal of benefit to the anxiety as well.

I wish you well on your journey.
Leslie

 

Thank you Leslie for your insight and experience. As I said my goal is to stay on the program and heal. Congratulations to you for almost completing it. I have read two Sarno books, one by David Clarke and now just started Steve Oz's book on Pain Deception.

 

You may wish to check out some of Byron Katie's books, or her website www.thework.com as well. She doesn't focus on physical pain, but I really learned a lot about my thoughts from her work.