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Conditioning and oxygen deprivation

E

ellie freegan

Peer Supporter
I understand that Repression of emotions Leads to mild Oxygen deprivation which causes pain and the idea of conditioned responses makes sense to me on some levels. However what I don't understand is how oxygen deprivation happens when for example I sit at a computer which is one of the things that are pain triggers for me due to conditioning.
 
Any human behavior pattern including Ischemia (reduction of oxygen in the extremities) can be conditioned or programmed. Sitting, walking, squatting, picking up a pencil can all function as physical triggers for mind-body symptoms. I believe Dr Sarno gives an example of this in the first few pages of Healing Back Pain where he speculates that at the time of the onset of pain symptoms someone sits at a computer and begins to associate sitting with the pain. A behavioral psychologist would call this a conditioned response. To cite a more prosaic example, why do you blush when you get embarrassed or get goose bumps when you watch a scary movie? Same phenomenon. Of course, it's absolutely essential to get checked out by an M.D. to make sure there's no physical cause for the pain. But sitting in a chair triggering the onset of TMS symptoms is very, very common.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this phenomenon?
 
Excellent explanation on Triggers Bruce i have the same problem with them....

Its funny and not to be graphic or out of line..but when i have sex i have no pain issues at all.Incredible how the mind operates
 
I was just borrowing an example from Dr Sarno and paraphrasing it, Boston. But, yes, sex can function as a distraction from your TMS pain that's for sure. Just think of all the evasive behavior that can function as a distraction: If my sciatica is acting up after doing stretches in the gym, when I walk downstairs to the men's room I can feel the pain all the way to the urinal and wash basin. However, after I wash my hands and start back down the hall to the main gym area outside the men's dressing room, the sciatic pain in my left leg disappears completely. Just the slight moment of distraction while washing my hands completely eliminates the pain symptoms. I "forget" about it. Obviously the pain was already programmed in my brain (read subconscious mind). It wasn't "real" (whatever that is!). I think Dr Gabor Mate talks about how compulsive shopping functioned for him as a distraction from painful memories of the Holocaust he carried with him from his childhood in Hungary. The list becomes endless!
 
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Good explanation Bruce.

I would add to that the comparison to how Pavlov's dogs were conditioned. If you keep ringing the bell but do not provide the meat, dogs stop salivating.

As I explained in Rapid Recovery from Back and Neck Pain, if you keep sitting (that's the bell ringing part here) and do not give into the pain as the subconscious wants you to (that's not providing the meat) the reduction of blood flow stops (that's the no longer salivating part).

If you combine this with other steps in the Nine-Step Rapid Recovery Plan, recovery can be quite fast.
 
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