I was a chronic back pain suffer for many years since the age of 15. Finally in 2001 or so I had a "book cure" after reading Dr. Sarno's books. For ten years, I've been essentially pain free with the occasional pain during difficult times. I'm in the heart of the "years of responsibility" with, demanding job, kids, aging parents etc. and little free time for myself. I am completely aware of all my anger generating items, both personality and environmental and the lists are looking mighty long these days! lol. I have not stop any physical activity at all and am not not really in painwhen I work-out, fish, play ball with the kids etc.. The pain seems to be mostly when I lay down and wake up!! Ridiculous right??!!. Is this common after so many years of being pain free? It's been easy to nip the pain in the bud, but this flare-up seems stubborn.
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Flare-ups after 10 years of no pain
- Thread starter Fishhead
- Start date
BruceMC
Beloved Grand Eagle
Funny, my experience with back pain was just the opposite of yours, Fish. While I was taking care of my aging mother, working two jobs, publishing books, and managing my father's wrongful death law suit, I was totally pain-free. However, 6 months after my mother died and I inherited her house (where mom and dad had always had the most unpleasant fights in front of yours truly, incidentally), I was struck down with a massive back attack that was diagnosed as a herniated disk between L3 and L4. As Dr. Sarno has observed, it was like I could put up with any stressor as long as I was in a fight-flight emergency mode protecting my mother and family, but then when the pressure was relieved, all the unresolved unconscious emotional problems began to surface and I went symptomatic. Once I had the "free time" as you put it, that's when I had to face the music! We both have the same symptoms, but have activated them through different sets of stressors I guess.
Forest
Beloved Grand Eagle
Heya Fishhead and Welcome to the Wiki
While it seems odd, having pain when you lay down or wake up, but not while being active is a clear sign of TMS. It seems like when all of the other distractions go away, your mind has to create the pain so you won't think about your emotions. Having a relapse is always really frustrating, but if you continue to use the pain as a signal to think psychologically you will get through it. I have had my own occasional relapses and the main thing that helps me is to simply ask myself where my focus is and to simply list all of the possible things that may be behind the relapse. Also, check out http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/im-a-tmser-triathlete.262/#post-2485 . It is a great thread about how Enrique overcame his own relapse.
While it seems odd, having pain when you lay down or wake up, but not while being active is a clear sign of TMS. It seems like when all of the other distractions go away, your mind has to create the pain so you won't think about your emotions. Having a relapse is always really frustrating, but if you continue to use the pain as a signal to think psychologically you will get through it. I have had my own occasional relapses and the main thing that helps me is to simply ask myself where my focus is and to simply list all of the possible things that may be behind the relapse. Also, check out http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/im-a-tmser-triathlete.262/#post-2485 . It is a great thread about how Enrique overcame his own relapse.
thanks Forest and Mor!, ya know, just sifting through the wiki and reading the forums seems to have refreshed my memory about what is really going on! Just reading here reminded me and help to put the focus back where it belongs. No more Advil, ice or heat for me! I literally felt the pain easing and melting away. Not completely gone, but on its way. I' glad I found this website!
BruceMC
Beloved Grand Eagle
It is certainly odd, Fish and Forest, that my back pain and sciatic symptoms disappear completely when I'm sleeping and only start up and intensive as the day proceeds, like there's a kind of internal clock operating. That's something else Dr. Sarno observes in Healing Back Pain: How you can have exactly the same set of TMS pain symptoms, yet they rise and fall according to different sets of typical patterns. No pain at night, gradually increasing during the day. No pain during the day, but waking up every night at exactly the same time to pop pain pills. Random back attacks that arise during moments of physical or emotional stress. Work all day loading and unloading heavy objects, pain only begins when you come home and begin watching TV. All of which, I guess, offers further confirmation that TMS pain begins in the brain and is not the direct result of structural anomalies in the neck, hips or vertebrae.