1st Day (Over 14 Years w/ Chronic Pain)

I guess that I'll start an introduction:
My name is "Ryan" and I've Suffered w/ Lower (L/S-Spine AND T-Spine) Pain for over 14+ years.
After MANY Reasons (Listed Below) I do believe that I'm currently Suffering from TMS...

Apparently, I'm the quintessential TMS candidate in that I'm Results Driven, I Aim to Please others, VERY Organized, referred to as a "Go-Getter," and I often try to take on other people's problems/worries as being the "Shoulder to Cry On..."

I've had just about EVERY Blood Test, Injection, Imaging, Muskuloskeletal, Physical/Psychiatrist Type Therapy and even though I show some Degenerative Disc and Mild Foraminal Stenosis through-out my Spine, ALL of the Doctor's that I've seen can't give me a Confirmed Pain Diagnosis as to "Why." I've been Falsely Diagnosed w/ Post-Herpetic Neuralgia, Addison's Disease, and last week "Fibromyalgia," (B.S.) ALL except for Fibromyalgia CONFIRMED as a Mis-Diagnosis according to 2-3 separate Providers per Condition.

Unfortunately, I'm at "Double-Whammy" because my Body is ALSO Suffering from VERY Low Testosterone, Seratonin, Cortisol, ACTH, DHEA-s, and Estradiol. (I just started Bio-Natural Hormone Therapy this week...) I just want to Heal as NATURALLY as possible, but don't know how to Transition my Mind since this has been such a long fight (i.e. 14-years of Lower Back Pain, Acid Reflux, Anxiety, etc...)

I'm almost done reading Dr. Sarno's "Healing Back Pain," (and just ordered his other 2-Books on Amazon) but I'm trying to get a better understanding of "How" to Transition my Mind from where I am now, to become Completely Healed. My biggest Obstacle/Concern is that I'm currently Struggling to come to terms of letting go of Supplements/Meds/Physical Therapy.

Unfortunately there are No "TMS" Physicians In or Around Utah, and I'm getting desperate to LEARN "How" to Self-Heal so that I can start to become Pain-Free.

So... Probably "TMI" to whomever is reading this, but I'm SICK of being "Sick" and in Pain. It only seems to be getting worse despite Physical Therapy, Natural Supplements, Bio-Meridian Scans, EVERYTHING!!

ANY Help from you guys on "How" to get this Uneducated Pessimist into the Healing-process would be SO Appreciated!! THANK YOU ALL!!

 

Hi Ryan, welcome to the TMS Wiki and Forum, and congratulate yourself for taking a really big and positive step towards changing your life and taking control.

Yep - this is the the point at which so many of us were desperate enough to try anything - and we were lucky enough to discover, and "try" Dr. Sarno's theories. That's the first step. The Mind Body Prescription is a great overview of the many conditions that Dr. Sarno thinks are TMS and its equivalents. The Divided Mind was my Dr. Sarno book, and what I responded to was the fact that he reviews and updates his theories very efficiently in four chapters, and turns the book over to six other health professionals (five MDs and a therapist) to discuss mind-body conditions from their different points of view. It's a growing field, with more discoveries all the time, about how our minds affect our bodies - and, consequently, how much power we actually have to change the physical experience of our bodies.

So - we have two free programs on the wiki, in case you haven't discovered them yet. The one that most people start with is the SEP: Structured Educational Program: http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Structured_Educational_Program (Structured Educational Program). The SEP was put together by the founding volunteers of tmswiki.org. It's a series of 42 sessions ("days" if you are able to do one per day) with different videos or readings, and exercises to introduce you various practices (such as writing/journaling, and meditations/affirmations) to help you discover the underlying repressed emotions that are causing your brain to distract you with so all these fake symptoms. You'll find authors and practices in the SEP that really resonate for you and that you will want to continue doing.

The other program is the TMS Recovery Program, generously donated by our friend Alan Gordon, LCSW, Director of the Pain Psychology Center: http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/TMS_Recovery_Program (TMS Recovery Program)

As you do the SEP you'll be invited to post your thoughts and progress here, in the SEP subforum - where you can either just post for your own benefit (it's good to look back on old posts to see how far you've come) or you can ask questions as you go along.

We always advise people to make sure they've been checked out before assuming any condition is TMS, which is really important since most of us who respond to questions are not health professionals. But we've been where you are, and many of us have achieved or are achieving success at recovery and control of this TMS mechanism. Anyway, it sounds like you've done that, that you know what your physical issues are, and that you are ready to see how much improvement you can make by addressing your other issues as TMS. As for your physiological issues, medical researchers have shown that stress alone can affect the entire endocrine system - that's hormones, if I'm not mistaken. So... deal with the underlying issues of TMS, and help your physiological issues as well? I think that anything is possible.

I say that you need three things to recover: Knowledge, Belief, and Faith:
I have Knowledge about how my brain creates symptoms
I Believe that my body is actually healthy
I have Faith that I can heal myself

Good luck, and keep us posted!

~Jan

 

If someone diagnosed you with low serotonin, I would be real skeptical. There is, as far as I know based on extensive reading of this stuff, no way to reliably measure serotonin. What kind of clinician told you this and what was it based on?

 

pspa, in my opinion, focusing on these kinds of details is not particularly helpful - it could even be seen as a distraction, by those of us who prefer to stick to the emotional realm when doing this work.

Look, we know from scientific and medical research (I learned about it from Dr. Gabor Mate, MD) that the endocrine/hormonal/biochemical systems* in the body are affected by stress. Dr. Mate describes these physiological changes, and his definition of stress is the stress of emotional repression, which means he is totally on the same wavelength as Dr. Sarno even though he doesn't mention Dr. Sarno in When The Body Says No.

If someone is willing to deal with their other tangible symptoms as TMS, this should eventually reduce the stress on their entire physiology, which I would like to believe can help turn hormonal and other biochemical levels back towards normal.

With this in mind, I prefer to focus on the big picture (the psychological), rather than get bogged down in the physical details. Many people have extensive biochemical tests done (which may or may not be complete hokum) in their desperate search for answers and cures. Ryan is just beginning his journey, and there's a good chance he will make his own decisions about these diagnoses in due time.

~Jan

*and if my wording is technically wrong, I don't care, LOL. Before becoming an accountant, I was a liberal arts major - I barely passed "Physiology for Non-Majors" in 1972 in order to get my science credits out of the way!

 

Another thing that might help, Ryan, is reading success stories. This way you can see what worked for others. There are over 1,000 success stories on Amazon if you look at reviews for the book Healing Back Pain. There are also success stories on this website and others on line.

The SEP program will definitely get you on the right track.

 

If the OP has a specific medical condition related to an endocrinological problem I would not reflexively assume it's due to stress, it may or may not be. I don't doubt at all the wideranging biological effects of stress, my point is that we aren't doctors and don't know enough about this person's labs or medical history to draw conclusions. That said, the mention of low serotonin, and a couple of other things in the original post ("Bio-meridian scans" and "bio-natural hormone therapy") strongly suggest to me this is not coming from a mainstream doctor but from an alternative practitioner, in which case I would be very cautious and skeptical. Based on extensive personal experience, I consider most of these people on the same level as chiropractors, namely purveyors of unproven BS selling expensive diagnostic tests and even more expensive fixes. There is a wonderful website, Science Based Medicine, debunking so much of the alt med world.

 

Thanks to EACH of you for the Reponses!
The Hormone Levels were all Tested on a "Fasting" AM Basis via Blood and 24-Urine Tests.
It's definitely a Learning Process... I've just completed Dr. Sarno's Book "Healing Back Pain" and Today finished Steve Ozanich' Book "Dr/ John Sarno's Top 10 Healing Discoveries." I'll be starting Dr. Sarno's other 2 Books tomorrow.
The transition is DEFINITELY the hardest part for me.
I'm focusing my Life right now on the Concept of TMS and Learning as much as I can about it, but despite the 12 Rules of TMS from Dr. Sarno, I'm just not seeing a lot of "How..." Just "Why."
I understand the Why aspect quite well and aside from Natural Supplements (Whole-Food Vitamins) and Tramadol, I've cut out ALL other Medications including Omeprazole which I've taken for YEARS!
I do feel that my Body (Mind) is "Fighting Back" causing MORE Pain at this moment assuming that it's because I've uncovering Truth...
So, I assume that All of my Past Snowboarding/Football Injuries are "Relapsing" because my Brain is getting Upset with me for Uncovering Repressed Emotions. (Hopefully this makes sense to some of you!?)
Anyways... I'll keep posting to this Forum w/ any Progress (or Frustrations) and I'm VERY Grateful for each of your Feedback, Concern, and Help!

Ya'll ROCK!!!

 

Best of luck. I do hope you are getting your advice on the physical side from an endocrinologist, not an alternative practitioner. Just trying to give you the benefit of my own experience and mistakes. Messing with hormones is serious business. For example, testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) can shut down your body's natural production and it can be hard to restart it.

 

Thank You for the Advice PSPA. My Endocrinologist was an IDIOT and now I'm going through a Clinic that does Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy where they Exactly Match your Hormone Replacement to your Body, Blood-type, Genetics, etc. (Expensive, but by doing it this way, you don't have to be on Hormone Therapy for the rest of your life!) DEFINITELY Worth it! It's just meant to Balance out your body to "Jump-start" your Hypothalmal Axis & Adrenal Glands.

 

That sounds like a standard alternative/integrative/functional medicine sales pitch. As your mind is apparently made up to go that route, I will simply wish you luck.

 

Speaking from experience you will only see a lot of relief when you stop thinking about the physical and focus on the psychological. You have a healthy body. You are strong. You don't need any of those physical distractions that your inner child is trying to make you think you need. It's hard at first but it's important to make the switch to feel well. When I finally threw away my tramadol I made sure I stared at it so my inner child would know. When people asked how I was doing, I said, "Great!" for the same reason.

As long as you continue to see specialists and take meds, the inner child knows he still has control. The pain will continue.

 

Hi, Ryan. Pspa and Lady Phoenix have given you the best advice. Medications seldom if ever solve pain problems and often make them worse. You have just begun the SEProgram, so give it time. I found that journaling led me to discover repressed emotions going back to my childhood. That led me to forgiving my parents for divorcing when I was seven, and that then to healing, from severe back pain.

The TRT clinic therapy may not heal you. You admit to being a "goodist" who wants to please everyone, and who takes others' problems on yourself. I don't think you need to totally change those character traits. Just modify them so you are easier on yourself. Let others deal with their lives and problems themselves.