cyclingFred
New Member
I’m a software engineer living in London. From Dec 2020 to Dec 2021 I had horrible chronic pain in my hands. I was terrified and scared and had some really bad lows. I was very lucky to have a supportive job, friends, family and partner I'm SO grateful for them. But here is how I cured it. I hope this helps you!
The cure, summarised.
For the first 6 months of pain, I went to see many many specialists who all either couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me or even if they claimed to know what was wrong their treatment did not help. I even paid to see the number 1 hand doctor in London and after a 5-minute examination, he said that there was nothing physically wrong with me that he would be able to fix but just maybe I’m unlucky and should consider a career change.
At this point, I found out about TMS - and this website. I got addicted I read all of the books by Dr Sarno, I read all of the work by Alan Gordon. I listened to his podcasts which were great. I downloaded the app curable. I read the way out by Alan Gordon. I was so so excited about this idea. My mind completely opened to the fact that I could cure this which my brain and move on with my life.
I started doing all of these exercises that they suggested, journaling, catching thoughts etc.. I started looking at my life, my job, my relationships. I didn’t change any of them. But I realised I could of viewed them a little better. This didn’t really work tbh, but I think it was a good way to begin to convince myself that the pain was not real and change the way I thought.
In the end, I took the key step. This was a very small step at first. I did what I was most scared of doing without fear (because I now learned that this wasn’t real pain) and my brain relearned that it was okay. I started off by driving. I was away on holiday and drove to the airport and back - an hour and a half journey. During the drive, I had pain a little later, but it faded away quickly as I just went back to enjoying my holiday.
This gave me the confidence to take a larger jump. - I started having physio back in London for something else and the physio used to work at a chronic pain clinic. He said that the process is to rule everything else out so that you can be certain the pain is being created by fear in you’re brain. We started working on strengthening my posture by doing rotator cuff exercises. This used to be a huge red flag exercise that would bring on pain when gripping the bands. But I started doing them every single day. At first, they hurt. I was sacred. But as I did them every day the pain stopped - I literally train my brain that using my hands in this way was fine, not scary, not dangerous. This small hand-based exercise was the key to training my brain.
And these baby steps grew and grew. I next went to the gym and did some very small light sets of weights. Bench press, bicep curls etc.. I went 5 days a week. Everything from this point onwards was now a fear to overcome. After the month I was CURED. I had 0 pain, 0 fear and I was out! I now lift weights 5 times a week, cycle, drive, swim, the lot! I’m free BABY! Now when I’m in pain in any way I address the medical causes as best I can and knowing that it will always definitely go away I carry on with my day-to-day life!
The cure, summarised.
For the first 6 months of pain, I went to see many many specialists who all either couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me or even if they claimed to know what was wrong their treatment did not help. I even paid to see the number 1 hand doctor in London and after a 5-minute examination, he said that there was nothing physically wrong with me that he would be able to fix but just maybe I’m unlucky and should consider a career change.
At this point, I found out about TMS - and this website. I got addicted I read all of the books by Dr Sarno, I read all of the work by Alan Gordon. I listened to his podcasts which were great. I downloaded the app curable. I read the way out by Alan Gordon. I was so so excited about this idea. My mind completely opened to the fact that I could cure this which my brain and move on with my life.
I started doing all of these exercises that they suggested, journaling, catching thoughts etc.. I started looking at my life, my job, my relationships. I didn’t change any of them. But I realised I could of viewed them a little better. This didn’t really work tbh, but I think it was a good way to begin to convince myself that the pain was not real and change the way I thought.
In the end, I took the key step. This was a very small step at first. I did what I was most scared of doing without fear (because I now learned that this wasn’t real pain) and my brain relearned that it was okay. I started off by driving. I was away on holiday and drove to the airport and back - an hour and a half journey. During the drive, I had pain a little later, but it faded away quickly as I just went back to enjoying my holiday.
This gave me the confidence to take a larger jump. - I started having physio back in London for something else and the physio used to work at a chronic pain clinic. He said that the process is to rule everything else out so that you can be certain the pain is being created by fear in you’re brain. We started working on strengthening my posture by doing rotator cuff exercises. This used to be a huge red flag exercise that would bring on pain when gripping the bands. But I started doing them every single day. At first, they hurt. I was sacred. But as I did them every day the pain stopped - I literally train my brain that using my hands in this way was fine, not scary, not dangerous. This small hand-based exercise was the key to training my brain.
And these baby steps grew and grew. I next went to the gym and did some very small light sets of weights. Bench press, bicep curls etc.. I went 5 days a week. Everything from this point onwards was now a fear to overcome. After the month I was CURED. I had 0 pain, 0 fear and I was out! I now lift weights 5 times a week, cycle, drive, swim, the lot! I’m free BABY! Now when I’m in pain in any way I address the medical causes as best I can and knowing that it will always definitely go away I carry on with my day-to-day life!
