Day 25 - setbacks

[Dwiegman]

I am on day 25 and in some ways I feel like I'm improving and in some ways I'm not. It was really weird. I know my job and long commute play a huge role in my stress. I recently took almost 2 weeks off. I knew it was coming and was highly anticipating it. I thought I'd be symptom free or at least a lot better while off. The first night of my vacation I started getting a cold. Also 2 days while on vacation I got really bad allergies out of nowhere. Then I had pelvic pain with burning and frequent urunation come back. I suffered with it for almost 4 years but pretty much hadn't had it in about 3 years. Now my original symptoms are bothering me less but the pelvic pain is driving me crazy. Also even though I've had these symptoms almost exactly before I'm having trouble not thinking the worse. I know this sounds like symptom imperative but i can't understand why all this came on when I began vacation. And why the pelvic pain is not going away. I'm going to keep working the program but setbacks like this are so frustrating. And sometimes knowing a symptom is TMS doesn't prevent it from driving me crazy. Then again I guess I'm not fully accepting it yet.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, Dwiegman. Your last sentence is a clue as to why you have a setback and still have some pelvic pain.
You need to increase your belief in TMS to 100 percent. It's not easy, and took me some time, but when I finally told my subconscious I believed my severe back pain was TMS, and discovered repressed emotions fromy boyhood, the pain went away. Keep working on believing. It's the "miracle" cure.

 

[Andy Bayliss]

Hi Dwiegman,

Your experience is described by Dr. Sarno in most of his books, I believe. It is in Healing Back Pain, as I recall. Have you read this before? "Taking a vacation can bring on symptoms, perhaps because the distraction of work and work stress have lessened. So the mind-body chooses to fill in your awareness (with pain) so that difficult feelings don't become conscious." ----paraphrased

As part of your program, I urge you to read, and re-read Dr. Sarno's books.

I hope this reminder helps you understand that your experience of more/increased symptoms completely falls in line with the good doctor's experience!

Andy B