BACK...Again

[KevinB]

I just need some good news or to hear someone else who was this bad off and still broke through.

Hey Trent,

Sorry to hear you're growing through the shit man. In response to this, there are thousands of people who've had it that bad, or worse, and have recovered (have you read Steve O's book/story? My man had it BAD). Stories can be found in Sarno's books, here on the site, in the SEP etc. Yes, it sounds like you're experiencing some serious pain... but I'm going to be very direct and point out some things (hopefully not to offend you). This is your journey, and of course you decide your own path.

1. The body heals itself. If you break your femur bone, it heals in 6 weeks (biggest bone in the human body). The body improves after injury. Why, then, if your's is a structural injury, has it been getting worse? There is no logic there.
2. You've had back surgery before. The pain has come back, and even worse. Why would another surgery help? Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. On the other hand, you improved before using the TMS approach.
3. Not only does that MD you saw sound like a condescending prick, he also clearly knows nothing outside of treating the body, and it sounds like he may even lack there as well. Before I found TMS, all of my research on the "normal" approach states that a herniated disk takes months and months to "heal", if it ever heals at all! Even these tradition medical doctors mostly admit that the disk doesn't "heal", just that we move on past the pain..... but to give a 2-weeks-to-get-better-time-frame is ridiculous. This brings me to #4.
4. I've found for myself, and hearing from most other TMSers, putting a time frame (calendar watching) on the symptoms is futile. It's just feeding the fear fire and adding unwarranted pressure to our already perfectionistic, and therefore extremely demanding, selves.
5. If you don't have cancer in your back/spine, an infection of some sort, or clear-cut damage (this is usually from an external force/accident, like something physically harming your back, think a piano falls on top of you), then there is no reason to believe, and it does boil down to belief, that any structural abnormalities are causing pain. There are TOO many people walking around with these same abnormalities, completely pain free. I came across this short article the other day from a TMSwiki user - have a look.
http://www.jospt.org/doi/full/10.25...7e591b21df88b631b21feb27c182d5e66048a203aac1&

Look at the images, especially Figure one - this lady had NO PAIN, and her spine looks nearly disconnected!!!!

Here's another website that has compiled many different studies that show there is no significant evidence between MRI findings and pain: http://www.chirogeek.com/000_MRI-Abnormalities_Asymptomatic-Pats.htm#7

I refer back to that site often when the "structural fear" begins to creep in. It's hard evidence. Nobody can make the argument that disk abnormalities cause pain, stating scientific inquiry. It doesn't exist. Here's my favorite piece of info from that site:

Here's the bottom line: if I would gather a group of middle-age folks (45 average age) who have NEVER had back pain before and perform MRI scans on them all, here's what we would find: 38% would have disc bulges, 29% disc protrusions (aka: contained herniations), 10% disc extrusions (aka: non-contained herniations), 0% disc sequestrations (aka: free fragments) and 4% of nerve root compression by the disc herniation. (1-4) A more shocking statistic is that 60% of asymptomatic middle aged people would have findings of disc bulge or worse (protrusion, extrusion) on MRI!

I hope this stuff helps.

Kevin

 

[Tennis Tom]

Trent, you mentioned your "wife is back in town", I assume she's working away somewhere. This to me is perhaps the major part of your pain equation. I'm assuming there's a real good reason she can't be there to help you with both of yours child. You are not breaking any TMS rules by taking pain killers, so you are NOT following the Good Doctor's advice as you think you are. The TMS gremlin is clouding your thinking and preventing you from getting the advice from the books and what people here are telling you.

Dr. Sarno did prescribe meds and also advised his patients to curl up with a bottle of wine when all else failed. Sorry, I had to laugh when you finally broke down and took an Alleve--you are being way too tough on yourself! I take an rx strength Tylenol followed a half hour later by an Alleve before playing tennis--but now it's more with the thought of easing the emotional pains that I will endure having to play with clueless rec hackers, then for the physical pain. The great tennis player, coach and sports psychologist, Dr. Allen Fox said, "...the human emotional system was not designed to endure the mental rigors of a tennis match.", that's my excuse.

My questions are have you tried seeing a TMS doctor in person or consulting with one by phone or Skype?

Why can't your wife be with you and your child during this crisis?

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, Trent. I am not a doctor, but I will try anything before taking any kind of pain medication or having surgery. I believe strongly in TMS emotions causing pain. Dr. Sarno's books helped me and thousands of others to heal from pain, mine being back pain. Dr. Sarnos 12 Daily Reminders are, to me, the crux of his books and the way to heal. Another of this TMS community, Herbie, wrote an extended version which I will add here. It is good to read it every day and believe in TMS.


Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.