Day 8 Connecting Pain to Emotions

I have had trouble connecting or correlating my pain to specific emotions. For context, I get hand and wrist pain from typing, which my doctors have diagnosed as symptoms of CTS/RSI.

First some successes:
I definitely had two times when I've been stressed at work (period with a lot of deadlines) which have correlated with increased pain.
I also noticed an increase in pain after a week with my family (which can stress me), although this pain reaction seemed somewhat delayed.

Otherwise, I have had trouble connecting the pain to specific emotions. This past weekend I was laying in bed with no stresses I'm aware of, and suddenly my left arm started feeling a throbbing sensation. Other times, after just a bit of typing on my computer (not for work) I start to feel tingling sensations. All these little instances have me confounded as to what repressed emotions I have. I really can't think of a person or activity which is specifically causing me stress.

Does this happen to others? Is there a way to isolate what's going on and the reasons for it?

 

Can you tell us what books you've read (any by Dr Sarno?) And how about working our structured educational program (the SEP)? From the context of your question, I'm not sure you are familiar with the TMS mechanism as theorized by Dr Sarno.

 

Hello and welcome,

You don't have to identify your hidden stress, acknowledgement of the stress is often enough. Understanding that we repress and have conflicts within ourselves that generate stress is one of the goals of educating yourself. Also, remember that your TMS could be from your personality. Thankfully it is a bit like driving a car, you don't have to know how the engine runs, you need to know it does and how to drive it. Keep doing the SEP and read success stories to learn more about how to overcome the brain and nervous system. I'm so glad you found the forum and started to get your life back!

Lizzy

 

Thanks for the responses, all! Yes, I'm half-way through "MindBody Prescription" and going through the structured education program.

I guess what I'm experiencing is perhaps a learned reaction. Or my body is just trying to distract me as much as possible. I'll try harder to ignore and brush off the pain.

 

It's vital to understand that it is your fearful primitive BRAIN that is trying to distract you.

It's equally vital to understand that all pain sensation is generated by our brains, not by our body parts. This is a physiological fact.

Once you accept this knowledge, the next step is to accept that you can change the pain sensation by changing your mind.

This is the biggest and most significant mind shift that we have to make before we can even begin to recover.

 

Thank you for you comment. This is a very helpful perspective!