Do we need hope to recover?

Recently, I became almost entirely bedridden. I haven't made any real progress in my limp-walking in a LONG time. It occurs to me that this is for one of two reasons:

1. I'm constantly lonely/miserable, so my body refuses to heal

2. I don't have any hope that my future will be anything other than misery and drudgery.

I'd like to suddenly switch my thinking and think, "OK, now my future will be great!". I can't though. I don't believe it.

I don't have hope, and I don't know how to get it. I think this is why I'm stuck.

 

You need to knock down your wall and put up the white flag to your pain and fully ACCEPT it....not just deal with ,
! .....by fully accepting what is you will slowly take power away from your pain. Do the TMS work whatever that is to you and slowly the power what the pain means will resolve.

 

I'm talking about hope for a better life in general.

 

Yes I know you must start there and the hope you don’t see will slowly peak it’s head out ...Right foot left foot BREATHE

 

This is actually a great question. It's important when getting free of this crap to look at ontological issues like this....and to know that it's actually a Part of the whole TMS picture.

I believed what TMS was telling me . "I am hurt, I am fragile, There are things I can never do again". I got really depressed. Perhaps the most depressed I have ever been.

Than, when I found out it is a LIE, I realized that all of those things I used to hope for were all possible and in fact, more probable because I didn't just return to how I'd been... I got BETTER! I No longer , to this day, fear anything that is physical. I went from being super careful to damn near reckless. I had slowly begun to believe all of those admonishments about 'how to lift' and 'don't overdo this or that' and have found they are all BS. I have been ignoring them for 20 years in heavy labor with NO ill effects. Thank You DR. Sarno!

I have also passed this info on to too many people to count and of the ones who moved forward, ALL of them got better. And I with no medical training have encouraged dozens of my Bro's to defy the commands of the system and None of them ever suffered because of it.

Point is, when you start recovering , You realize that a lot of the cynical, sad projections you were having were based on a LIE so you start rethinking everything. Furthermore, as part of the recovery you start re-evaluating the way you perceive the world and some of your old hopes,dreams,ambitions modify or change completely....but they are still there hidden under the malaise!! I assure you

addressing your 1. and 2. I too used to feel lonely. I actually NEEDED that alone time to recover so that was a blessing. The Inner dialogue to healing takes focus and concentration. The most important therapeutic instruction that Sarno gave us was "when you catch yourself noticing the pain, forcefully turn your thoughts to something that is a source of recurrent agitation" (paraphrased)

That is hard to do in a group environment. It was a lot easier by myself on a bike ride than at work in a noisy shop full of radio, guys talking, power tools,etc.. I have talked with people who work in office environments or in sales and I've heard it's difficult to do when you have to paste on a smile for someone. Exploit that alone time NOW while you have it.

and on your Hopelessness. That's what the medieval medical model breeds! Because according to them you are F----D! So as long as you are buying their BS You should be depressed. As soon as you learn THROUGH EXPERIENCE that they are wrong, the same trash can full of their admonishments and diagnoses can also hold your depression.

Rationalism=Medieval structural model=symptoms=Hell
Empiricism=Intuitive understanding=Freedom=Rebirth....

and when you get there, who knows what new interests and stuff to look forward to you might have?

and what do you have to lose? ...except being miserable, lonely and depressed

 

Great advice

 

You've written a great reply. I suppose this applies to all aspects of life, which is more what I was getting at, rather than physical issues. Lately, meaning the past year or so, my pain levels have been extremely low. I've simply NOT been able to put on strength. I can hardly walk, even though I continually try. When I say I have "alone time", I've had three visits with people other than the two with whom I live, this year. Last year was not that much better. I'm profoundly isolated.

I am referring to hope of regaining the ability to feel, which has been taken by two decades of prozac use, to have a job that doesn't suck, etc.

I want to have hope, so I can feel like I have a reason to get up, but I just don't. I believe that my life will suck, as it did before TMS. I want to hold onto a general position of optimism, but I can't see things working out.

Do I really have to successfully work through a lifetime of psychological issues before I can stop spending 20 hrs a day in bed? Before I can walk 100 yards?

I just want to tell myself to push through this no matter what, then I feel that life will suck in other ways once I get back into the world. I need to convince myself that day-to-day life is OK and fulfilling, but I can't.

 

Upon further thought, the way to push through is simply to push through.

 

Our emotional state is our own responsibility. If you set the right incentives for health, not illness, then that is what will happen. I found this video helpful when I was going through a similar experience...