Great news! Somatic tracking is working for me!

[Diana-M]

Hi gang,
This is my best breakthrough yet! I truly tried somatic tracking, and I guess the timing was finally right. It worked! I cut my symptoms in half (temporarily). But the exciting part was how dramatic it was. I was so excited that it worked. I was excited that I “get it.”

When I first heard of somatic tracking months ago, I didn’t get it. Now I do. It just clicked! I’m listening to Alan Gordon’s The Way Out. The book is written in a simple and engaging way. It’s easy to learn the concepts and retain them. The overall concept is teaching your brain that it is alarmed for no reason. TMS is a false alarm. You need to shut it off.

But TMS is perpetuated by FEAR. Pain causes more fear. Hence, it’s a PAIN/FEAR cycle. Somatic tracking can break that loop.

Here’s how it works for me. I pretend I’m an observant scientist, outside my body. Also a poet. I use scientific observation to systematically observe and describe my symptoms WITH ZERO EMOTION. That’s the key. I use my poetic side to describe it even better. “The feeling in my back is like icy rainfall,” “Bands are wrapping around my knees and tightening, then loosening. Kind of like a massager.” “My body is tensing and my legs are stiff. It’s like a really firm isometric squeeze on my thighs.” “My feet feel crackly, like cellophane.” I try to find ways to describe the sensations that aren’t your typical fearful descriptions. That’s all there is to somatic tracking. You can do it for one second or a long time, per session. I can easily do it for 30 minutes at a time. Whatever feels good to you. The symptoms might change while you do it. For me, they mainly subside while I do it.

How does this help? It helps, because you are telling your brain you aren’t afraid. You are just observing. It breaks the fear/pain cycle. That’s all there is to it!

To find out more, read here in Alan’s course on the wiki. His new book, The Way Out, expands on it more.

It’s working for me! I couldn’t be happier! Just getting something to change. Even for a moment. Gives hope.

 

[Ellen]

Great work, @Diana-M !

I think somatic tracking also works because it provides a real life demonstration that your symptoms are produced by the mind. Your symptoms were reduced simply by changing your thoughts. It's concrete evidence. I remember well the time I got rid of a migraine by using the technique. I was never the same again.

 

[Booble]

That's great!
For me paying that much attention to symptoms is a death knell.
I think maybe it's not the best for those whose health anxiety is stronger than their TMS?

I like the sound of your method though and the beautiful descriptions.
I've had similar success with describing (to myself) allergy triggers as lovely things and attaching them to happy memories of the past.

 

[Diana-M]

Great work, @Diana-M !

I think somatic tracking also works because it provides a real life demonstration that your symptoms are produced by the mind. Your symptoms were reduced simply by changing your thoughts. It's concrete evidence. I remember well the time I got rid of a migraine by using the technique. I was never the same again.

That’s great it worked for you, too. Ellen. I don’t think it works for everybody. It is truly a testimony that TMS is created in your mind when you can move the needle on symptoms just by doing the tracking.

 

[Diana-M]

That's great!
For me paying that much attention to symptoms is a death knell.
I think maybe it's not the best for those whose health anxiety is stronger than their TMS?

I like the sound of your method though and the beautiful descriptions.
I've had similar success with describing (to myself) allergy triggers as lovely things and attaching them to happy memories of the past.

I think that’s why it didn’t work for me months ago. I was too afraid to feel the symptoms and focus on them. Now. I’m in a different place, I guess. I’m more accepting of them. And I truly have no doubt they are TMS. Who knows?! I think the ticket is to just keep trying and trying all different things til something works. And even circle back and try things again.

 

[Duggit]

I truly tried somatic tracking, and I guess the timing was finally right. It worked! I cut my symptoms in half (temporarily). . . . I couldn’t be happier! Just getting something to change. Even for a moment. Gives hope.

Alan Gordon’s The Way Out book was written for a lay audience to explain his Pain Reprocessing Therapy. It grew out of the Boulder Back Pain Study. Gordon, together with the other researchers who did that study, published an article about Pain Reprocessing Therapy in a professional journal called JAMA Psychiatry. The Way Out discusses corrective experiences when one does somatic tracking. The JAMA article, in an electronic supplement, expands on that. The quotation below from the JAMA supplement uses the term “central processes.” That is a reference to the central nervous system, i.e., the spinal cord and brain. Here is the quotation:

Often during a somatic tracking exercise, patients are able to get a “corrective experience.” If they sit/stand/walk/bend with little to no pain, it further reinforces that the pain is due to central processes, and that there is nothing wrong with their bodies. This frees them up to engage in previously feared positions and activities. Subsequently when the pain does arise, instead of responding with fear, frustration, or despair, the patient is able to authentically reappraise the pain as a misinterpretation by their brain, as opposed to a reflection of tissue damage in their body.
​

It looks to me, Diana-M, like your somatic tracking has given you some mini corrective experiences (partial and temporary). I think that with more corrective experiences, you should expect to achieve fully authentic reappraisal of future recurring pains as being just a misinterpretation by your brain and not an indication that you have damaged or defective body tissue where you hurt. Keep up the good work.

 

[Diana-M]

@Duggit
As always, thanks for your added insight and research material. I’m happy to get the JAMA article reference. I think you’re right about the corrective experience. And for me, it’s even more interesting, because the “pain” is so widespread and unusual. Just lots of strange sensations and weirdness. Some is painful (like cramping and tightness) and some is nerve-related like tingling and buzzing. But the somatic tracking seems to work on all of it. Thanks for your support and encouragement!