Day 11 Day 11 Totally Confused

[Clio O'Toole]

I had no Internet for a week. Rough. Couldn't do my program. But back on board today. I am being a little hard on myself I think today. I have had 3 visits with a chiropractor for this recent 8 week bought of pain. Is the whole point of relieving TMS to not focus on the pain, therefore by treating my pain with chiropractic I am therefore not really accepting it's origin????. I do believe my pain stems from pent up stress and emotions. Life is difficult right now. I am trying to improve my wellness overall, better eating, no coffee, lots of water. I have stopped taking the ibuprofen, but i am still icing my lower back.
Once we settle into our new home and life takes on some normalcy maybe the pain will lessen.
I am exhausted.
I moved from NYC to the suburbs of new jersey. Major changes.

 

[Lori]

Hey, NJ isn't a bad place to be! Yes, moving is indeed stressful and I hope your pain does subside once you're settling in. When I consider moving I view it as so much work that I get a headache within a short time!

When I had back pain and was going to a chiropractor for help a couple times, I remember feeling better for about five minutes after he "adjusted" me. As I was driving home and the pain was coming back, I realized that these adjustments were not the answer for my pain so i stopped going. He had some snarky comments about Dr. Sarno, and was quite surprised I had gotten better some time later w/o any physical treatment.

The issue with seeking physical treatment, like p/t or chiro, is it reinforces to the brain that you believe the cause is physical, which is opposite of accepting the pain as being caused by the psyche. That can delay full recovery.

I would encourage you to read Dr. Sarno's books and then read them again. He says it take repitition for this new way of thinking to sink in. Also talking out or journaling about how you feel about the move, new surroundings, etc. are feeling to you.

-Lori (in NJ!)

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Clio, I totally agree with Lori (as usual). I just posted my own story about how I stopped seeing the chiro and stopped having my A-O joint go out, simply as a result of an apparently powerful suggestion by the doc I was seeing. It's on Livvy's thread "Clicking".

Have you ever practiced visualization? It's a very powerful mind-over-body technique to counteract what your brain is trying to do without your knowledge or permission. You basically take control and visualize something different.

The reason that ice works temporarily is because it increases blood flow to the area of tension - that's Dr. Sarno's whole theory behind TMS. Your brain is in charge of blood flow, and you can create that blood flow yourself, without having to stop and ice. Close your eyes, take some calming breaths, and visualize the blood in your arteries bringing oxygen to the painful area of your back. Whenever you feel a twinge, do the same thing, even briefly, and envision the blood continuing to flow even when you take your mind off it.

And you might be surprised about the ibuprofen: a lot of TMS practitioners recommend giving up the chiro, giving up the ice, and giving up the special pillows and supports. But they sometimes do recommend taking a pain reliever when you are SO focused on the pain that you can't relax enough to do the psychological work. On days when I am especially dizzy, which is when it's accompanied by a headache, I will take just one ibuprofen to take the edge off. I no longer believe that it's reducing "inflammation" (something that Dr. Sarno doesn't believe in) but it does allow the pain to back off so that I can contemplate why my symptoms have flared up. In the bad old days, my headaches were so strong that I would take three to start, followed by two more a few hours later. Now just one tablet is enough to completely eliminate the headache.

Keep us posted,

Jan

 

[Shanshu Vampyr]

Hey all,

I DON'T mean to unneccessarily alarm people. But just wanted to share a chiro horror story I saw in the ER about a week ago. Saw a 75ish year old lady who had had LBP so went to her chiro. Ended up "fixing" her LBP--at the expense of messing up her cervical spine. If I get the chance, I'll post the MRI we did on her. There's a horrible kink in her spinal cord, and she just had neurosurgery (anterior AND posterior cervical disc fusion) yesterday. She won't be able to move her neck the same way again.

Did the chiro "cause" the severe kink? Am I trying to sound alarmist? No and no. I know how it feels to feel like you need a physical fix (I sometimes snap my shoulder or neck despite myself because of the pain). But as others have pointed out, why would anyone allow someone else to mash on their spine?

Now, my snarky comments got some of the DO (osteopathic) ER doctors a little pissed, but I stand by my words. Granted I don't know anything about osteopathic medicine (HVLA and craniosacral therapy and Chapman reflexes and all that shit), but I err on the side of the conservative.

YMMV.

 

[Forest]

Essentially, chiro reinforces the physical diagnosis and keeps us from thinking about our symptoms in a psychological way. Basically anything that suggests you need to align your body in a certain way, have a certain posture, don't do certain movements will all reinforce a structural side of things and keep the TMS message from sinking into our unconscious. It's not like these things do any big help anyways. I have a very large collection of special computer mouses and keyboards that were supposed to help me work on a computer in a correct posture and stay out of pain. The only thing these devices actually did was make me think that I was weak and fragile. This just led me to be afraid of my symptoms and of being active, because I thought I couldn't do anything.

One thing that I learned was that accepting the diagnosis can be difficult and it is hard to gain the confidence that we can be active and that we don't have a structural problem. PT, Chiro, and these good posture devices can very easily prevent us from thinking psychologically and may slow our progress.

 

[Beach-Girl]

Hi Clio:

Wanted to chime in agreement with all the above. I chose to not include "other treatments" this year in my medical plan. It was a statement to myself that I no longer needed these kinds of treatments. It was a wise acupuncturist who told me I had a "totally healthy back" and to stop coming to him! This started my TMS journey.

It is all about thinking psychological. I know this now and when I experience different symptoms I calmly tell myself it's TMS. I haven't given up all the things you have already! Good for you - I'm inspired. But we walk separate paths, so we'll each get there when we do. No calender watching remember?

I especially liked Lori's suggestion of reading Dr. Sarno again. It will reinforce what you aspire to. It took me a long time to totally accept this - but I'm in this to win this.

Moving is so stressful. But soon you'll be settled. Take each day and moment as it comes and don't forget to breathe!!

BG

 

[Livvygurl]

Close your eyes, take some calming breaths, and visualize the blood in your arteries bringing oxygen to the painful area of your back. Whenever you feel a twinge, do the same thing, even briefly, and envision the blood continuing to flow even when you take your mind off it.

This is a very helpful visualization, Jan! Also, I think a longer more detailed version of this visualization could help people to get on board with the concept of using the brain to heal the body.

I agree with what has been said on this post too. However, my Network Chiropractor (Network is a light form of energy work) told me to read Healing Back Pain, cause he met some guy at a party who said that after reading the book his back healed overnight. So I listened to my chiro, read the book and now I feel like I won the lottery! Also, I recently told him that I will seeing him on an "as needed" basis, he emailed me back and told me that he is proud of me for stepping out : )