Day 1

N

nelsonaj

New Member
I am 32 years old and have had chronic neck pain for the past 2-3 years. The symptoms have varied, from your standard pain associated with sitting in front of a computer all day, weakness, feeling like my head is too heavy for my neck to support, feeling like there is a balloon inside my head, pain/tenderness in the occipital region, fullness/clogged ears, etc... MRIs show reversed cervical lordosis, and a couple bulging discs, had a pretty significant subluxation of the atlas vertebrae as well. But Orthopedist said nothing significant enough to cause the type of pain I was describing. Neurologist diagnosed myofascial neck pain and somatization. My chiropractor actually recommended the Mindbody Prescription and I read it immediately. I will do anything to be the person I was before this started.

Like many others, I felt Sarno was talking to me directly as he described TMS. I have always been a chronic worrier, and about 4 years ago my dad, who I loved very much, died unexpectedly. Shortly after I started having panic attacks. I was treated with anti-anxiety and anti-depressants and saw a psychiatrist for about a year. I was feeling better and had gotten to a point where i was sick of thinking about my dad all the time and instead wanted to push it away. Well Now it's making sense to me why this neck pain started in right around then.. I stopped therapy, i stopped grief group, i tried to bury my sadness.

I think that Sarno's theory makes so much sense, but I do have to admit it's hard to fully deny any type of structural issue...but i think that's just because I have been let down so many times by treatments/therapies not working that It's hard to let the gaurd down and submit fully to something.

I am very optimistic about this....I do feel it will be hard to break certain habits. I obsess over the pain...think about it all the time. Even when I feel a little better I am immediately fearful of when it will return. So I am excited to learn strategies and practices to break these habits. Also scheduled to see dr. Paul Gwozdz soon which I am hopeful about.
 
Hi, nelsonaj. Welcome to the TMS Wiki community. You have come to the right place to become healthier and happier than ever before.

You have trouble putting your father's death to rest. Perhaps there lies a repressed emotion. The SEProgram helps us to discover what those may be. If there is some unfinished business between you, try to learn what it was, and then to forgive him and ask him mentally or in an unsent letter, to forgive you. If you are certain there is no unfinished business, then it may be something else.

Your chiro was right in recommending you read the Mindbody Prescription. Dr. Sarno explains in his other book, Healing Back Pain, that there are 12 basic things to remind ourselves in TMS healing. I list them below.

I think you would benefit from reading that book, and here are the 12 Daily Reminders, in an excellent expanded version by another of this web site.

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.
 
Hi Walt,

Thank you so much for your reply. It's very comforting to know that there are people who understand what I'm going through on the inside. Just because I look fine on the outside, doesn't mean I'm fine on the inside.

I do have some guilt associated with my dad's passing...and I don't necessarily have unfinished business with him and our relationship, but with his death for sure...I have lots of anger and sadness related to the situation...how he died, why he died, when he died, etc... all things I'll need to explore.

Thank you for the 12 reminders as well, I just printed them out, and I plan on buying Healing Back Pain tonight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top