Day 10 Difficulties

[Lars]

Hello everyone,

So far I enjoy doing the SEP, I can see some positive changes in my pain and I'm hopeful I can become pain and symptom free someday. The program particularly helps me to keep the focus on the psychological and not the physical, more than the books I already read. Keeping the focus on the psychological is still something I'm struggling with.

I'm having 2 main difficulties where I'm still struggling with at this point:
1. Identifying which emotions are the cause of my symptoms.
I find it very difficult to pinpoint the emotions which are causing my symptoms. In my childhood I had some stressful events which happened, but they are not that shocking compared to what others experienced in their childhood. I already journaled a couple of times about these events, before I also did some other techniques on these events like EFT. So it seems that these events are not really the cause of my symptoms/repressed emotions. Now I find it difficult to pinpoint what else it can be.

2. I'm still worried that an inguinal hernia surgery I had in the past is causing me pain and made things worse.
Each time I'm having pain in my groin area and lately my belly area, I'm worried that this surgery is the cause.
I want you to know that I already had pain in my groins many years before this surgery.
It is a bit ridiculous the surgery was 7 years ago. I felt fine immediately after the surgery. 2 years later I went back to a specialist, because I was keeping pain in the groin area, they told me everything is fine.

A couple of months ago I was reading something about inguinal hernia surgery, where they exactly place the mesh mat, since that moment I'm having pain in exactly that area. Before I didn't even know exactly where they performed the surgery. I did not have pain in that area before, normally it was always just in my groins in my legs. Now the pain is in my belly area, which reminds me of a spastic colon diagnosis a doctor gave me when I was 16 years old. So it looks like the symptom imperative has kicked in again. I'm sure this is TMS again, but the pain is so persistent. This makes it very difficult to focus on the psychological instead of the physical.

Best wishes,

 

[Baseball65]

1. Identifying which emotions are the cause of my symptoms.
I find it very difficult to pinpoint the emotions which are causing my symptoms. In my childhood I had some stressful events which happened, but they are not that shocking compared to what others experienced in their childhood. I already journaled a couple of times about these events, before I also did some other techniques on these events like EFT. So it seems that these events are not really the cause of my symptoms/repressed emotions.

I have been recovered for a looooong time. I still have no absolutely positive idea which ones are the 'cause' though I could speculate. That's why they are repressed so I have to assume they are ALL GUILTY. Every single thing I looked at as I got better had been addressed before, just never with the URGENCY of knowing that enough digging would resolve my pain issue...and not with the knowledge that whatever I was aware of was Not a FRACTION of the degree of rage that my "inner 5 year old brat who never grows up" was feeling.... no matter what other therapy you've been in. I had written a 400 item inventory in AA and still got TMS anyways

Not as shocking as what others have been through? How do you know? That is a very mature and healthy way to approach the world...but a formula for disaster when we're doing tms work. A couple of times you journaled and you sorted out your childhood rage issues?

That stuff you seem to be glancing over is the key to recovery,..the stuff you spent the rest of the post on (your symptomology and study of your condition) is what will keep you miserable. Unlearn about that and take another closer look at the first stuff and don't worry about what other people may or may not have been through .... it's YOUR recovery.

Sarno addressed all of the "I've been in psychoanalysis my whole life, why did I get TMS?" in all of his books. Most people who get TMS bad have been through a lot of other programs. Only the knowledge that I don't have the knowledge (cause it's repressed) was the key to recovery