Day 10 "sitting"

I've been getting better, my flare has taken four weeks to go from a 8 to a 4. Some days when walking I feel so good I think I'm over it.
Tonight I set out for my walk and ended up sitting and chatting with a neighbor friends for 30 minutes.
My pain went from a 3 to a,six in that shirt period of time. As I explained in my story my first account of back pain happened when I was 16 and riding in the car. I want to specifically address this. I have it my mind that there has to be some correlation, as sitting is has been the most difficult and pain inducing. How do I break the cycle. Is this conditioned response?

 

Hi LoLo,

When I first started working on my TMS, I assigned numbers to my pain levels like you are. I came to realize that this is a symptom of monitoring and focusing too much on pain and will impede progress. Instead focus on the other aspects of your walk---what was the weather like, how did the air feel, what sounds did you hear, and how was the conversation with your neighbors, etc. It is only when we shift our attention away from TMS that it will leave.

 

It is certainly a conditioned response, Lolo, and as Ellen said, any kind of counting or measuring reinforces the response because it means you are focused on the pain.

The only way to break the conditioning is to change the conversation inside your brain which right now is obsessed with counting days and measuring pain. You have the ability to change this, but you have to decide that you want to do so, then have the will power to do it.

I was just listening last night to the introductory materials that came with my registration for the Mindfulness Summit, and I was reminded that neuroscience is discovering that we absolutely can change our personal emotional and physical health by reprogramming our thoughts. If you haven't already signed up for the free Summit, I highly recommend it! It's co-sponsored by Sounds True which a couple of years ago offered a wonderful and free series of interviews about self-acceptance (which is also still available). Check out my signature line for the registration link. A whole bunch of us are signed up, so join us!

 

I am suddenly reminded of my brief hospitalization in 2008 when I crashed my bicycle and broke my femur. This was "before Sarno" but I recognized that my pain decreased significantly the moment I heard that the fracture was non-displaced and that it could be pinned up in a short surgery and I could be on crutches the following day.
I was terrified of being bedridden, but when that fear was removed, the majority of the pain went away.

Before and after the surgery the nurses kept asking me to describe my pain level, which I found very annoying because I didn't care, and I had no intention of taking any opioids. My response was that I used to get cramps worse than this and that a couple of ibuprofen would be just fine. Both of which were absolutely true in spite of the fact that I had a fracture across my femoral neck, that someone had sliced through all of my thigh muscles, and then screwed three metal pins into my bone. I had such faith in the process, and in my own ability to heal quickly thanks to this marvelous technology, that there was no reason for my brain to create a bunch of pain or anxiety.

It wasn't until doing this work that I understood the mechanism behind what I experienced at that time. It also kind of explains why my version of TMS typically gave me neuro symptoms and "equivalents" rather than pain, because my brain knew that pain wasn't the most effective way to distract me!

 

Hi, LoLo. Most of us feel some pain if we sit too long. It's common today because we spend so much time at the computer or watching tv. I try to get up and maybe stretch or walk a little every 15 minutes or at least every half hour.

And if we think we will get pain from sitting or walking, it is bound to come on. It's better not to condition our mind to expect pain. Think positive and say a mantra like "I can do this, it's a piece of cake." Or, "I can do anything I set my mind to do."

 

I have another thought I am pondering.
On top of the chronic back pain. I have cyclic pain that comes with my menses. This pain is new . It definitely exasperates the existing back pain. And then foll8wing this, I have pelvic pain for awhile.My migraines also seem to come before during or after. Is this TMS? Or what I've always assumed hormone imbalance. Since I've gone gluten free my migraines have significantly reduced????

 

Just remember that your brain will latch on to anything physical in order to create a custom symptom designed especially for you to worry about.

So yes, our hormones definitely fluctuate (well, mine don't anymore, but yours still do ) And yes, your brain will be glad to give you any number of symptoms that relate to your hormonal changes.

Special diets are typically a placebo. Placebos without knowledge work on TMS symptoms for a while, but not in the long run. However, I believe that the power of the placebo could, and should, be harnessed, to be used as a tool around which your brain can visualize a different health outcome. Does that make sense?

Example: I take echinacea and extra Vitamin C in the two weeks before April 15 (I'm a tax accountant) when I am burned out and exhausted, but I can't afford to relax and I definitely can't afford to get sick. They say that these supplements don't do a think to ward off a cold or 'flu, but doing this has always had the desired outcome (I don't get sick those last two weeks) and even now that I know they work as placebos, I still take them, because I believe that they are like a mantra to a meditator: every morning and night as I take my C and echinacea, I am reminding my immune system to stay strong and healthy, and I am visualizing that outcome. The thing is, I have faith in my body's ability to do that simply because I have asked it to do so.

Knowledge, belief, and faith. You need all three.

 

LoLo,
You may want to look at my Success Story, as I had many of the same issues. Pain free now. You can do it too.

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/thread...ibromyalgia-and-a-lifetime-of-migraines.7924/

 

Thank You Jan, I just can't thank you all enough for being there for myself and others. This forum is amazing.
I will keep up my GF diet. As I feel better overall without it. I will keep in mind any symptom is possible with TMS.
There are many unexplainable ones that occurred in my lifetime I did not share in my story. As I've have time to understand TMS it all makes sense now.