Day one of structured plan

[Forest]

A wiki member, Vannie79, on the wetpaint forum recently posted the following in the old forum.

Hi everyone!
I just recently learned about TMS and the more I read about it, the more it makes sense to me. I definitely see myself in the descriptions of "typical" sufferers and in the stories of others who have been through similar experiences. I truly believe the mind-body connection is very powerful and the pathogenesis of TMS makes a lot of sense to me. It's very consistent with my experience. My low back pain has evolved and changed over the last 18 months...it started as tingling in the leg, then hot, stabbing, burning pain, more tingling, spasms, and eventually more muscular soreness and stiffness...sometimes it's more on one side vs. the other, and now involves my hips too, and occasionally i get some leg spasms. I have had an X-ray that shows good spacing between my discs and no structural abnormalities that would in my mind cause this kind of presentation. After seeing the X-ray about 6 weeks ago I became convinced that I could resume as much physical activity as I wanted without fear of "damaging" something structurally. If it was only muscular/soft tissue, then I was ok with trying to work through it. I started running again, and returned to yoga class and the gym. Low and behold my pain did not get worse... it got slightly better and I have been able to continue these activities. Now I need to start thinking about the psychological aspects. I just received 2 of Dr. Sarno's books today and will start reading them tonight, and am committing to the 6 weeks of the structured plan on this site. I'm hopeful i will find some relief and success with this, and at the very least be able to do some introspective work that will be helpful in my personal journey. Good luck to everyone here!

Hiya vannie and welcome to the wiki,

Having chronic pain is really tough, but you are in the right place. One of the clearest signs of TMS is when someone's symptoms change or fluctuate like yours do. Use this to gain confidence in the approach. It is great to hear that you were able to start being active again. I had a similar experience. I basically stopped all physical activity due to my pain, but when i learned about TMS I decided to give it a go. Sure enough, like you, my symptoms didn't get worse and I gained so much confidence in this approach.

I'm glad to hear that you are reading Sarno's books and are committed to doing the wiki's program. Sarno's books contain great information about the true cause of our symptoms, and the wiki's program has activities for people to do to help identify and accept their repressed emotions.

One of the biggest parts of recovery is accepting the diagnosis. If you ever sense yourself doubting the TMS diagnosis, ask yourself why and investigate your emotions. This approach does work. I went from debilitating pain to being pain free today.

Best,

Forest