Are you a recovering Chiro addict?

I am. And it is hard to break the habit.

Read in a thread the story of Tigerlilly, how she had finally recovered from pain without seeing her chiro, but it just seems to good to be true. In that same thread, the expression; 'Being on the SI Joint merry-go round' was used and is such a perfect caption of the life of my pelvis since ten years.

My typical bi-weekly cycle for over ten years has been pain in lower back - pelvic rotation - SI joint deadlock - more pain - chiro adjustment - feeling symmetrical and fine for 24 hrs - the pain then comes back ..etc. on repeat.

However, it has now been almost 4 months since I last visited a chiro. In December I read Sarno's book. After Reading it, I decided to see the pain through, start running every week again, not be afraid of lifting my kids anymore, go back to intensive kettlebell training etc. Amazing things started to happen after some time. First observation, was that whatever I did, my pelvis seemed to be stable and not rotate. Second, I found that I could sit at restaurants, meetings, trains, or drive my car for hours without thinking about how my back felt.

Some days ago however, that familiar popping sensation in my back came back after lifting an office chair. For two days now, I feel like my hips and lower back are twisted and it feels risky to pick up an object from the floor unless I do it absolutely ergonomically correct.

I feel ambiguos about my next course of action. I have four months of evidence that changing my mind-set really improved my situation drastically, yet for this type of condition, where my SI Joint literally feels locked in a disadvantegous position, I just have a hard time convincing myself that it could actually unlock itself without a chiropractic adjustment.

Is there anyone here that has had an experience similar to this sensation of the SI Joint/lower back vertebrae going into deadlock yet has managed to self-adjust his/her back merely by thinking away the pain/fear? Scrapping all treatments?

 

It's past my nap time, but I'll give you a quickie answer: you need to change your anatomical vocabulary. You need to throw out all those terms and thought about "locked" body parts, etc., etc. I've done chiroquacktic and got NO benefit except a lightening of my wallet. To get some time off the battlefield and balance out your rage/soothe ratio get massage but not with the intent that it will FIX any damage. You'll get more bang for your relaxation buck with a massage. If you have TMS, nothing is physically damaged--maybe some atrophy from non-use that can be toned up in a couple of weeks of activity.

You need to brainwash yourself out of the chiro talk, changing it to Sarno talk--TMS KNOWLEDGE PENICILLIN. The best way to do this is get back to the books and read them slowly word for word--de-condition your brain.

 

Thanks Tom,

Boy, can I relate to the featherlight wallet-syndrome. Given the chance, chiroquacks will obviously be prepared to munch their way all through my monthly salary and back again. I hear what you are saying and I think, and want to believe, that you are right.

But right now it is tough, Spent most of this night awake because there was no position in which I could feel comfortable. I definitely see how my legs are now of unequal length again and can feel how the pelvis is rotated. Right now, and even though I am absolutely convinced going to the chiro will only perpetuate this negative mind-body conditioning I am finding myself in, I just find it so hard to see how the rotation will undo itself without some form of intervention. Unlike sensations of pain or stiffness in general, this is really a sensation of your body being fixated and stuck in a disadvantageous position. I know that through relaxation techniques, meditation, and Sarno-like thinking I can be successful in getting rid of much pain and stiffness. But I have no experience yet of successfully combatting this condition. That is why I am truly desperate to hear from people that can recognize themselves in this condition and can testify to having beaten it.

 

HI, L:ighthouse. I am 85 years old and healed from severe back pain through total belief in TMS emotions causing my pain. Years of chiro sessions did not help me. I recommend that if you haven't yet, take the Structured Educational Program, free in the subforum of this web site, to help you discover the emotions causing your pain. It worked for me and has for hundreds and thousands of others.

 

Hi Lighthouse,

I am new to this forum just posted yesterday, not sure if you are still active?

I have a similar issue to you, I can actually see and feel when I am in rotation/locked up.......so fed up of having adjustments and spending money, plus it doesn't help when you get some relief from these albeit only temporary as you still believe it is physical (I felt something tear when lifting a weight at the gym), my left side of my body is so weak, glutes not firing as right hand side is compensating supposedly. It also prevents me doing much physical activity as being locked up pulls on my rib cage...

Did you manage to unrotate yourself via this method in the end?



Catherine

 

Hi light house ,

I can totally relate to your story : i have been in exact same boat : but with a nasty twist of footpain on
top of that. Footpain still a problem : was not related to the si joint stuff.

From experience : i suffered 2,5 years with the stuck ' joint :
Was told i had rotated pelvis.. gotten adjustments. Etc etc leg lenght difference. Had mri and x ray pelvis. Orthopedic surgeon told me ' there is no such thing as a rotated pelvis : that is Chiro language '
My advise : read website : painsience .com : the artikel ' your back is not out '
And start with the rest here ! With your feelings and emotions


What helped me with the si joint : i stopped the adjustments , stopped my own exercises for my back. Started to build op sitting time (was huge problem ) stopped to check if i was balancerend and symetrical : it became an obsession. Focus on being more mobile stop thinking about posture!

Sadly still with some footpain but got rid if the si joint problem completely (believe me was bad : twice a day felt 'out')
Hope it helps to know this

Karina

 

Hi there,

I'm new, and reviving this thread because it addresses exactly the question I've been searching all day for.

My physical symptoms are so similar to Lighthouse_Library's that I won't bother listing them. And my question is pretty much the same.

When I get a chiropractic adjustment, I feel aligned, straight, symmetrical. After the adjustment, I watch as every day I'm a little further out of alignment. The longer I go without an adjustment, the further out of alignment I get. At first, it's not really "pain," I can just feel that I'm off: I can feel these muscles over here having to work harder to compensate for those muscles over there. Maintaining good posture and staying symmetrical takes more and more effort with each passing day, and the longer the joints stay out of alignment, the more painful they get. When I see the chiro, my hip is always twisted the same way and my right leg is always back to being shorter as a result.

With daily core workouts, stretching and self-massage, plus a weekly chiro visit, I more and better than most 20-year-olds. I'm 42 and do lots of martial arts, dance, running, etc. I just would rather drop the hour-long daily routine and weekly chiro, especially if these are really just symptom management.

I dropped my whole routine 3 weeks ago after reading "Healing Back Pain" and repeating the 12 affirmations for 15 minutes daily. All the old imbalances crept back in right on schedule until I had to break down and see a chiro. For me, like Lighthouse_library, it's not just phantom "pain" I observe - I can actually measure the difference in leg length.

Is the measurable structural imbalance caused by TMS, and I just need to delve deeper into the emotional roots? Or is it something else when I can measure the physical changes happening in my body? Any experience or insight is welcome!

 

Hi there,

I completely healed from SI dysfunction with Sarno. You can read my story below. You have to totally get rid of that chiro vocabulary - symmetry, misalignment, locked hip/pelvis, longer leg etc etc. Walk away from it all. It's bogus quackery, no matter how real it seems. I can remember walking in to the chiro limping from a "locked" hip, and walking out perfectly normally after the adjustment. "Locking" is just extreme muscle tension, nothing more.

https://christianvictorianliterature.com/2019/01/18/my-story-a-victorian-healing/ (My Story: A Victorian Healing)

 

Hi grapefruit,

Thank you so much for your reply! I read the story posted in the link, and I really appreciate your taking the time to share that story with me and with everyone.

I think it's time for me to take the next step and order The Mindbody Prescription. You made an excellent case for it. I'm well aware that I have bottled rage, and I that I haven't gotten to all of it, yet. Sounds like this book is the way to get to it, and that may well be how I ditch this situation forever.

Thank you again!

 

I so agree with this. If your pelvis, hip, spine or whatever joint was "out," it would be dislocated. I don't doubt that your pelvis feels "stuck" or has lost mobility (because that happened to me many a time), but it's from extreme muscle tension (TMS). It's probably the same with frozen shoulder, or a crick in your neck etc. You can't move a joint because the surrounding muscles/ligaments have "frozen" - they are experiencing blood and oxygen withdrawal, a tension that originates in the mind. Interestingly, I am reading books on the mindbody connection in childbirth right now and many of them theorize that a stalled labour (where the uterus won't do it's job) is from a withdrawal of blood and oxygen from muscles in the uterus caused by fear and tension in the mind.

 

I wonder if this might be simliar to what happened to me before I was born.

So long story short my mother's blood would thicken when she was pregnant with me to the point where I starved for 8 weeks because the food/ nutrients wouldn't get to me.

As a result she lost a child before me during a natural birth however I was born 3 months premature via c section at only 1 pound 5 oz.

My therapist also believes my anxiety could stem from being in an incubator for the first 3 months of my life and my body was in "survival mode" and my mother never really got to hold me pshyically until after that time period. Something to do with that. Its an interesting theory just because I dont remember doesn't mean my body doesnt.

Luckily for my younger brother they fixed the issue with a shot she had to get everyday in her stomach.

 

Hello grapefruit,
What a beautiful and well written documentation of your TMS healing. It was so very inspiring to read. Thank you so much for sharing your story,