Day 1

[readyforjoy]

I am 61 and read Dr. Sarno's book many years ago. I applied some of the suggestions, made some big life changes, and my back pain improved.

I have been doing mindfulness meditation since last December, in an attempt to relieve knee pain since 2013, and back pain from a whiplash injury in July 2014.

The meditation has brought me insight that I have repressed emotions. I have already observed that the physical pain is less when I am under less stress.

I was thinking about signing up for a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, but no one at the orientation last Tuesday is experiencing physical pain.

Somehow I came across Steve Orzniack's book and spent 6 hours reading it on a Kindle 2 days ago.

Yesterday I found this group and watched the week zero information.

I then watched for times when the pain would improve even though I was sitting for longer than I felt I could. Or knee pain feeling okay even though I walked a bit longer. I also watched the pain increase with stressful interactions.

I had improved quite a bit from PT, including exercises, chiropractic and recently adding a type of massage that addresses the nerves.

About 2 weeks ago I lifted something too heavy and found myself once again in excruciating back/knee pain.

I very much appreciate Steve Orzniack's book and thus forum. I will do the day 2 exercise today.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

I love your positive name, readyforjoy.
I doubt your pain is structural. Most likely TMS since you say you know you have repressed emotions to deal with.

The Structured Educational Program is wonderful and has healed many, may people in TMS pain. It will heal you too. Believe this 100 percent.

Here is a recent post on how it is helping one of our TMS community.

Kevin healed 95 % from SEP


Welcome to the SEP and to the path of recovery. I am on my final two days of the program and I can say with complete confidence that I am a changed man. I started after 6 months of nasty low-back/butt/leg pain, could hardly walk, stand, etc. was in physical therapy, chiropractor, acupuncture, pain medications, etc.. the usual. My MRI showed 3 disk bulges/herniations touching nerves, so that is what I believe it to be....that is until I read Dr. Sarno and found this site.

I encourage you to really get involved, follow the instructions, do the journaling, take time to read all the suggested readings, and watch the videos. I'd say I'm 95% cured. There is still some very light lingering "annoyance", but I still have some work to do. I've been walking miles with hardly any pain these last few weeks. But even more, if the pain comes on now, it just doesn't bother me like it used to, I sorta just see it, acknowledge it, and go about my business. It took working the program to get to that point, but 6 weeks compared to 6 months is nothing! I made more progress in the first week than I did from two months of PT!!! It's going to challenge you and your "beliefs" in medicine, but you have nothing to lose. We generally wind up here when all else fails.

So give it a shot, especially before considering anything invasive like surgery. If you put the work in, you will get better. Have you read Dr. Sarno yet? I assume you have since you're here, but in case you haven't, definitely readHealing Back Pain. Again, it will challenge everything you've believed about your pain, and backs in general. You'll be encouraged to resume life as normal, i.e. stop ALL "therapies" (PT, chiro, etc.), stop taking medications, and most importantly, stop thinking STRUCTURAL problems are the cause of your pain and shift to psychological as the reason.....again, this can be difficult and takes some time to sink in, so be patient and kind to yourself.

It was a process for me. A few of the bigger moves in my case were: I ripped up and threw out my MRI test results (I found myself obsessively reading over them and comparing them to other results I could find on the web and even here on the TMSwiki site...); I got back to the gym and stopped using a weight belt; and I even cancelled an appointment I had made with aTMS doctorbecause it was more than a month away and it was hindering my recovery (that is, my 100% belief in TMS was lagging because I had this pending appointment, but as soon as I cancelled it, my recovery sped up significantly). Everyone's journey is unique to their situation, but I've found that really committing to the program and brining what I learn from it into my daily life has had profound results. Also, sharing along the way here in these forums has been extremely helpful - there's something about knowing that you're not alone in your TMS recovery that really helps. I encourage you to look through my past posts for some insight into my experience with SEP. Like I said, I'm just now finishing, tomorrow is my final day, and I feel like a changed person. It's amazing. And I feel as though it is something that one carries on with, not just like a one time 6 week thing and that's that...it has helped me to get to know myself and taught me tools to "deal" with my emotions. Learning and accepting TMS is a life changer for sure.