In such pain and conflicted about treatments

I know I shouldn't be asking for a miracle right now as I just started again hard-core into treating this, but I was doing well and it seems like my TOS has flared up again. I'm also conflicted about just trying to get some pain relief while I am doing this program. I've been doing more journaling and doing more writing and reading, but for some reason this stupid pain is flared up again, to where even doing menial things is causing muscle spasms. What can I do? Because right now, just working through the pain isn't helping, and in fact it's making it worse. Yet, I don't want to feed this pain either, because I believe it is 100% TMS. Just so frustrated.

 

You may be pushing yourself too hard to overcome TMS right away. That would be counterproductive. You don't want to create even more expectations by demanding of yourself that you get over it NOW!

One of the secrets of recovery is learning self-compassion. Take time for yourself. Back off when you feel overwhelmed. Slow and steady will get you much farther.

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with taking something to relieve your pain temporarily, as long as you know that what you're taking is only relieving symptoms, not the cause of the symptoms. Continue to work on treating the psychological cause in the meantime, but at David states above, go slow and steady.

 

I agree with Ellen.

Also just to add that people with chronic pain are often told about the concept of pacing and not falling into the trap of going hell for leather on good days and conversely not retreating into inactivity etc when things are a bit tougher. I think that this also applies to emotional work and not just physical activity. The key really is consistency I feel.

 

Yeah, it makes sense. It's just when you're in so much pain, you don't want to do anything. And vice versa, when things are good, you have to catch up doing the things that you couldn't do before when you were in pain. It's a stupid cycle. But I am still doing The recovery program every day. Of course my pain increases, probably because my brain is afraid of emotions coming to the surface.

 

Yeah you're right. I guess after doing this work for more than four years, I just wanted over and done with, and I am going slow but I so badly want to and the pain for good, but my patience is wearing thin. After nearly 19 years of this, it just gets really old.

 

I know. It's been more than ten years since I first read Sarno. I've improved greatly since then, but still have work to do.

One thing I've learned from this site -- there are many paths to healing, and different things work for different people. You just have to find what works for you.

 

I am in the same boat you are. I would say don't try hardcore to overcome it. It's like pulling tighter on a chinese finger trap, it won't get you anywhere. I saw a video from a disabled child who said, "I don't concentrate on the things I can't do, I concentrate on the things I can do." That really has helped me

Stage one of any healing process is acceptance as well. We just have to accept we have a chronic pain condition, this is our lot in life.

This is only my opinion, but I think journaling is best for people who can't face their emotions and tend to repress them. If you are an emotional person you can write a whole autobiography and it probably won't do any good.

I've been working on TMS for about 4 years too, so I'm where you are at. It's like, okay I've learned my lesson already, can we move on?

So, obviously our only problem in life isn't pain, that's the symptom. So we have to figure out, what is the cause, the problem we are dealing with? This is where journaling can really come into play when you aren't sure.

But once you know it, what is the problem, the root of your pain, you can then take those slow and steady steps towards recovery. And again, I really think the first stage of recovery is acceptance. there's some problems we just can't fix, but we can accept them though, and then we can learn how to deal with them and see what the solution is. If that disabled child whose problem is he can't walk, continues to try and walk, it will only frustrate himself because that problem cant be solved. But, he can focus on what he can do and not let what he can't do bother him as much.