Day 1 Day 1

[ElizabethG]

I have had neck and shoulder pain and headaches since high school, over 20 years, the lower back started a couple years ago and my heels/feet started hurting a year ago and I'm realizing I'm tender in most places. I've been to the chiropractor but find little relief and concluded it's more muscle than misalignment issues. Other than that I do not bring up the pain to doctors because I don't want to be diagnosed with something just to have medicine thrown at me. I will take over the counter pain relief when it gets bad and I can't stay at least polite. A few weeks ago I was miserable and the extra strength pain meds weren't touching it. I found Healing Back Pain by Dr. Sarno and knew right away this was my issue, I wasn't sure about the feet at first but read the testimonies and knew it was related. As I started to accept that this was my diagnosis, I realized I also dealt with fatigue and a few other symptoms that I had ignored to minimize the drama, to not focus on all the things that were wrong with me. I felt incredible physical relief right away and emotional relief in having such hope for so many issues that had been concerning me. I didn't need any pain meds the following week. However, the normal everyday pain is mostly returned now, so I decided to try this educational program. I'm realizing now that the emotions I started acknowledging became an overwhelming obstacle for me to overcome and so the pain came back to "protect" me from it.

 

[Andy Bayliss]

Hi ElizabethG,

Welcome to the SEP and the Forum and Wiki! I hope you feel free to post your progress and ask questions as they come up.

I see by your post that you have a pretty good understanding of how TMS is being created in you. Great insight. I wish you luck in gently becoming more able to feel and acknowledge your deeper experience. I hope you are patient, and gentle with yourself. It sounds like you are already learning a lot. Just your awareness that the pain and symptoms are caused because you don't want to feel so much, by habit, is a very powerful treatment for TMS. In a way, you sort of know why you are in pain. This basic understanding is the essence of the approach. You're seeing why the pain is occurring. That is enough to begin to undermine it.

Andy B

 

[ElizabethG]

Hi ElizabethG,

Welcome to the SEP and the Forum and Wiki! I hope you feel free to post your progress and ask questions as they come up.

I see by your post that you have a pretty good understanding of how TMS is being created in you. Great insight. I wish you luck in gently becoming more able to feel and acknowledge your deeper experience. I hope you are patient, and gentle with yourself. It sounds like you are already learning a lot. Just your awareness that the pain and symptoms are caused because you don't want to feel so much, by habit, is a very powerful treatment for TMS. In a way, you sort of know why you are in pain. This basic understanding is the essence of the approach. You're seeing why the pain is occurring. That is enough to begin to undermine it.

Andy B

Thanks for the encouragement Andy! I appreciate it.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, ElizabethG. I echo Andy's reply welcoming you to the TMSwiki forums. You are on your way to discovering the emotions that your subconscious is sending you as pain. You are going to heal by doing the steps each day in the SEProgram. Don't set a timer for healing. Just keep working the program and be patient. The pains may get stronger or move around, but that is all part ot TMS. Get in the habit of deep breathing and also living in the present which is called mindful meditation. There are some excellent videos on MM in Youtube. My favorites are these two:

Guided Meditation for Detachment from Over-Thinking
and Guided Meditation: A Gift from your Guardian Spirit.

Watch them both while breathing deeply and enjoy the relaxation they bring.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Hi Elizabeth -

You already have a good grasp of the mechanism of TMS symptoms! The temporary relief of your symptoms is your strong evidence, and the rebound makes total sense.

If you suspect that you could possibly have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, you might want to check out the 2001 book by Dr. Nancy Selfridge, "Freedom From Fibromyalgia". Dr. Selfridge and the co-author both recovered from fibro by going through Dr. Sarno's program, so the book is based on his theories, but with a focus on fibro. There is a synopsis of each chapter on the wiki: http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Freedom_From_Fibromyalgia

Good luck, and keep posting!

~Jan

 

[ElizabethG]

Hi, ElizabethG. I echo Andy's reply welcoming you to the TMSwiki forums. You are on your way to discovering the emotions that your subconscious is sending you as pain. You are going to heal by doing the steps each day in the SEProgram. Don't set a timer for healing. Just keep working the program and be patient. The pains may get stronger or move around, but that is all part ot TMS. Get in the habit of deep breathing and also living in the present which is called mindful meditation. There are some excellent videos on MM in Youtube. My favorites are these two:

Guided Meditation for Detachment from Over-Thinking
and Guided Meditation: A Gift from your Guardian Spirit.

Watch them both while breathing deeply and enjoy the relaxation they bring.

Hi Walt,
Thanks for the response and the reminder about not setting a timer; delayed results require much patience so I will keep that in mind. Strangely, (although, like you said, it's normal) the pain in my feet has grown and is now moving up my legs. It's incredibly odd and frustrating but also reassuring because it further proves that it's TMS because it only started this week and I have not done anything to cause it physically.
I will take your advice about deep breathing and I will check out the videos. I was raised a Christian and mindful meditation is a bit odd to me but I think it's more just terminology than the actual practice being so different, but I will learn what I can and go from there.
Thank you so much for your response. I'm quite grateful for this group.
Elizabeth

 

[ElizabethG]

Hi Elizabeth -

You already have a good grasp of the mechanism of TMS symptoms! The temporary relief of your symptoms is your strong evidence, and the rebound makes total sense.

If you suspect that you could possibly have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, you might want to check out the 2001 book by Dr. Nancy Selfridge, "Freedom From Fibromyalgia". Dr. Selfridge and the co-author both recovered from fibro by going through Dr. Sarno's program, so the book is based on his theories, but with a focus on fibro. There is a synopsis of each chapter on the wiki: http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Freedom_From_Fibromyalgia

Good luck, and keep posting!

~Jan

Wow Jan thank you so much! I will definitely check out this book. Right before I found this forum I was pretty discouraged about my ability to get past this and now I fell very encouraged. The education program, all the responses and resource suggestions... I believe I will beat this.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, ElizabethG, the Nancy Selfridge book really is excellent. Jan was right-on in recommending it. I didn't have fibro, but could see that her theories would be helpful in healing most other TMS pains. They are fine examples of Dr. Sarno's beliefs on the MindBody connection.