• Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
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New Program Day 21: Paving Your Own Path

hambone said:
Now that we have Alan's 21 part masterpiece, how would you advise a new TMS patient (a friend of mine) to start the healing process? Up until now I've had people begin with reading Dr. Sarno's Mind-Body Prescription followed by Dr. Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain workbook.

Question: Where do you see "Alan's 21" fitting into a new patient's learning curve? Only if the one- two punch of Sarno/Schubiner above does not work? Or substitute Alan's 21 for Schubiner? Other?

I realize each person has his or her own path. My goal is to implant key concepts in new patient with a minimum of confusing complexity. I wonder if a new patient could start with Alan's 21?

Question: Where is "Alan's 21" program located in final form on tms wiki? I can't find it. I find his recovery program from 2013.
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Hambone, I usually suggest that newbies start with the SEP. I also prefer Healing Back Pain. It's my favorite Sarno book.
Blessings,
Gigi
 
Gigi said:
It's the Structured Education Program, found on this wiki.
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Hi Gigi, I put in structured education program in the search and nothing came up. If you or anyone knows where it is could you please please post a link. Thanks!
 
Thank you, Alan! I cannot say thanks enough times. I have found many things that you shared about very helpful-- empowerment, cognitive soothing, somatic tracking, etc. Before this program, I have read so many books on MBS/TMS/neuroplasticity as it relates to pain, learned and practiced Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, journaled, wrote unsent letters, and what have you... I still had pain, though overall about 85% improved. I was still missing something, and this program has been such a blessing-- just what was needed to help me get through the final stretch!

Over the last few weeks, as I committed to practicing what you've shared in this program, I watched my pain go down. I am no longer preoccupied about sitting, even though it was the bane of my existence for years! My longtime wrist tendinitis is almost totally gone, as Dr. Sarno predicted in patients with multiple TMS symptoms. My primary care doctor was so surprised at how well I looked last week, she asked me how it happened. I happily shared a condensed version of TMS and referred her Unlearn Your Pain as well as this forum. She said she will definitely read up on this because she felt that pain management has always been inadequate in modern medicine, and she has been looking for answers for a long time.

For those who found partial relief through the mind body route-- no need to be discouraged (as discouragement would imply outcome dependence), you are on the right track and will make it! Keep practicing thinking in ways that Alan recommended, until your brain becomes structured as such, and being pain-free is as natural as breathing.


Alan Gordon LCSW said:
Day 21: Moving Forward

*TMS Program Update

Hi everyone,

Thank you all so much for the valuable feedback in the comments section. Over the next week, I’m going to be shuffling the order around of some of the posts to make the steps a little more cohesive. I’ll probably be taking out a few things that may have been confusing, and I’ll be adding some things to fill in the gaps. A week from today, we’ll put the updated version of the program back up. It’ll be under the announcements section on the home page of the wiki.

Special thanks to Forest for overseeing this whole process, and Paul Uipi for his brilliant artwork.

Now back to the program…

Next Steps

Two psychologists out of Columbia University conducted a unique experiment on the topic of choice. They set up a display table at a grocery store with 6 different types of jam. Over a hundred people stopped by for a sample. 31% of them decided to buy a jar.

The next day, the same display table was set up, but this time with 24 types of jam. Even more people stopped by for a sample than the day before…but guess how many of them ended up making a purchase? 4%

More isn’t always better. Sometimes when we’re offered too many choices it can increase our anxiety.

Over the past three weeks, we’ve covered a lot of different topics: pain, fear, safety, empowerment, cognitive soothing, somatic tracking, systematic desensitization, conditioned responses, overcoming repression, and embracing joy.

As comprehensive as the program is, it may leave you with the following question:

“Where do I start?”

Now that you’re familiar with the layout of the program, it can be helpful to skim through it a second time.

As you review the different topics, see what speaks to you: Do you prefer communicating messages of safety, or taking a strong stance of empowerment? Are you more interested in leaning in to emotions, or tackling conditioned responses?

You don’t need to do everything. This is an overview of different paths to recovery, and you can choose the parts that resonate with you.

Above all, have patience. It can take time to develop neural pathways, but trust in your capacity for change. Like Winnie the Pooh said, “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

Best,
Alan

[​IMG]​
Click to expand...
 
ricecakes said:
I am no longer preoccupied about sitting, even though it was the bane of my existence for years! My longtime wrist tendinitis is almost totally gone, as Dr. Sarno predicted in patients with multiple TMS symptoms. My primary care doctor was so surprised at how well I looked last week, she asked me how it happened. I happily shared a condensed version of TMS and referred her Unlearn Your Pain as well as this forum. She said she will definitely read up on this because she felt that pain management has always been inadequate in modern medicine, and she has been looking for answers for a long time.
Click to expand...
That is so great to hear! I'm thrilled that you're doing so much better and that you're helping to spread the word.
 
Hi Alan,

Thanks for the ton of work you have done creating this program! I have only been 'Reading into it' so far : waiting for the whole program to be on the wiki. Now its here : i will start 'my program' reading it all and filtering what is best for me to explore and to use ..
You can be proud to be helping so many people

Great job
Greetings
Karina
 
Thank you so much for this program Alan and to all the contributors. I'm running my first 8km/5 mile race today. I followed this program and I'm halfway through the SEP. I've read so much, written in my journal, practised meditation. I've worked through sciatica, knee pain, calf pain, hip pain. Here I am on race morning without a pain or an ache. This works ! That's not to say I won't have more TMS syndromes but I am so happy and incredulous to be where I'm at today
 
I'd also like to add my thanks and gratitude to Alan and all the folks who made this program happen, and who continue to work on refining it! And to everyone who quoted Winnie the Pooh. ;)
 
Forest said:
In another thread, there seemed to a lot of interest in an outline of the program:




@robodelfy @shmps @plum @Ellen @James59 @Laleah Shoo Shoo @nele @Lunarlass66 @nele and others...

Perhaps we could crowdsource a summary?

Basically, just like shmps dove in and added detail to the outline, perhaps we could collaboratively enrich it even further.

I'd be glad to help out some, though I'll need help if we want it to be good.

I added it to a document that anyone can edit. Just click and type. Please, edit with abandon! Make any changes that you think might help. Be bold!

http://go.tmswiki.org/summary (Psychogenic Pain Recovery Program Summary)

I linkified some of @shmps ' tools to make it easier to start us off.
Click to expand...

I've been tinkering a bit and am creating a list of non-pain symptoms and woes people have. This issue was raised during the program so can people either reply here or add their thing to the document @Forest links to above. (Click to expand reply. Link near the end of Forests post).

Thanks.
 
This New Program is great. I have read all 21 posts and all your comments. I am working on me. I can recognize a lot of fear thoughts. I am trying to feel my emotions in my body, but often I cannot feel anything. I am trying to live mindfully, smiling, singing...
Day 15 - "Overcoming Conditioned Responces" gave me some very important information. I could relate it to my IBS. It felt great. Next days I even felt some reduction of my symptomes.

Some days later something strange happened: One day after running my usual distance (i am doing it once or twice a week) - my left knee begun to hurt. It felt stiff. I was wondering, why? I never had pain in my left knee. Last 2 years I was very active (running, cicling, hiking in the Alps). And now during this new program I developed new pain? 2 years ago I had some pain in my right knee after overcoming my back pain. Doctors told it is osteoarthritis, see my story http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/members/nele.4828/ (nele). Since then I feel, my rigth knee is a bit sensitive and more stiff then the other. I cannot sit with it in correct Yoga position. But it is ok for me: osteoarthritis without pain.
So I immediately thought this left knee pain is TMS, I even thought about extinction burst. Until yesterday I did not mind it: the pain and stiffness in the left knee persist. They increase the day after doing something strenuous (running or cicling long distance), and reduce during rest of 2-3 days.
Somewhere in my mind I have got the thought "osteoarthritis has not to hurt, it hurts only in very serious cases".

Yesterday I went running again, I tried it the "Sarno-kind": not fearing, running with joy, talking with my brain, even running a bit farther as usual. During the run the left knee hurt only a bit. In the evening it hurt much more then usual and it was swollen and stiff. The right knee hurt too a bit. Same state today. Stiffness troubles me more pain. Strange feeling!
Now I am nervous. I looked into Dr. Sarnos "Healing Back Pain", did not find remarks about osteoarthritis in the knee (only about osteoarthritis in the hip).

I would be very grateful if somebody of you has an advice for me.
What should I think? How can I grasp my knee pain? Can it be TMS, even when the knee is swollen? Or is it something structural?
Should I see an orthopedist, or should I simply wait?
I know from experience, the opinion of a doctor has an impact on me. But not knowing has also an impact.
Please mind, I live in Germany, no TMS doctors here.
 
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When I first started putting these lessons into practice my physical symptoms didn't change much, but I was sleeping better and my disposition improved considerably. But then some recent developments in the news upset me greatly and quickly undid the modest progress I had made. That was over a week ago and I've had the devil of a time getting back on track. I've been going back through the lessons a second time, and am gradually getting re-focused, but it's been more of a challenge this time. I understand this is not a linear process. Ups and downs are to be expected, but they're still frustrating.
 
During the last days I have read the lessons again. In the end I had a good feeling: I have understood the program, I took it in and have the feeling, that it will help me to recover.
My last question I answered myself, so I want to share with you my answer.
The Program tells us:
(1) Brain is not perfect, can’t always distinguish one type of danger from another → wrong danger signal, in case of TMS: psychological danger → pain
(2) Pain is a danger signal, and in the case of neural pathway pain, the belief that the pain is dangerous is the only thing keeping it going
(3) The way to turn off this danger signal is to reduce your fear around the pain.

Long time I could not grasp why just to do (3) and not somehow act directly at the pain. I could not see the logic of it.
But now I see it that way:
- The belief that the pain is dangerous creates fear, which increases our fear status (increases brain's alertness), i.e. psychological stress
- The origin of the pain was also psychological stress
- Therefore it is the only way: reduce the psychological stress, i.e. reduce the fear around the pain

Hope this makes sense.
 
James59 said:
When I first started putting these lessons into practice my physical symptoms didn't change much, but I was sleeping better and my disposition improved considerably. But then some recent developments in the news upset me greatly and quickly undid the modest progress I had made. That was over a week ago and I've had the devil of a time getting back on track. I've been going back through the lessons a second time, and am gradually getting re-focused, but it's been more of a challenge this time. I understand this is not a linear process. Ups and downs are to be expected, but they're still frustrating.
Click to expand...
hsbarry said:
I had an epiphany today. I decided that I am going to start treating myself like a dog because I actually treat myself worse than a dog. Let me explain.

Let's pretend your dog is wounded but let's say you know that the wound will heal and isn't harmful. The dog doesn't know this, though, and is very distressed and afraid. You would speak very softly and quietly to the dog telling it that everything is going to be okay and that the dog is safe (cognitive soothing). You might check the animal all over for other wounds not to heal them but just to check in a very loving, soft way (somatic tracking). You would move slowly and speak softly. You wouldn't rush. You would take your time. You would breath with the dog in a quiet manner. You would pay total attention to the dog and not be distracted by anything (active meditation). You would offer the dog some food from your hand and let it lick water from your fingers. You wouldn't force it to eat what it didn't want and you would let the dog take a lot of time. You would praise it for any little bit it could get down and not worry about what it was eating. Then, when things were more settled, you might smile at the dog (Julia Robert's smile) and remind it about how fun it is to chase squirrels (embrace joy). If the dog snarls at you (more pain), you wouldn't get angry but you would understand that it needs more time, more soothing, more gentle attention.

Hope this might be helpful. I also think if I can keep working with these tools, as a reward I will buy myself a little stuffed Winnie the Pooh. Take care.
Click to expand...

I just saw this and love it. What a great metaphor for the entire process. Thanks so much for a cute, thoughtful story. Happy healing all, Lew
 
Alan Gordon LCSW said:
Day 21: Paving Your Own Path

Two psychologists out of Columbia University conducted a unique experiment on the topic of choice. They set up a display table at a grocery store with 6 different types of jam. Over a hundred people stopped by for a sample. 31% of them decided to buy a jar.

The next day, the same display table was set up, but this time with 24 types of jam. Even more people stopped by for a sample than the day before…but guess how many of them ended up making a purchase? 4%

More isn’t always better. Sometimes when we’re offered too many choices it can increase our anxiety.

Over the past three weeks, we’ve covered a lot of different topics: pain, fear, safety, empowerment, cognitive soothing, somatic tracking, gradual exposure, conditioned responses, overcoming repression, and embracing joy.

As comprehensive as the program is, it may leave you with the following question:

“Where do I start?”

Now that you’re familiar with the layout of the program, it can be helpful to skim through it a second time.

As you review the different topics, see what speaks to you: Do you prefer communicating messages of safety, or taking a strong stance of empowerment? Are you more interested in leaning in to emotions, or tackling conditioned responses?

You don’t need to do everything. This is an overview of different paths to recovery, and you can choose the parts that resonate with you.

Above all, have patience. It can take time to develop neural pathways, but trust in your capacity for change. Like Winnie the Pooh said, “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

Best,
Alan

[​IMG]​
[/QU
Thank you so much Alan. You put a lot into this program.
Click to expand...
 
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