Low Back Pain and Sciatica Healed: My TMS Success Story

[richard13]

Sadly, these things are still happening to my parents and my sister, despite them witnessing my transformation ... It is beyond frustrating to see how deep the old paradigm is entrenched, but I realize all I can do is give a gentle nudge; they have to "discover" it for themselves.

Thanks, Mark W. I'd received an email of your recent posting and it brought me back to this site after some busy time away. Good to hear of your continued success. I quoted some of what you had shared as yesterday was Thanksgiving and I was again gently sharing my hopes with my mother that she might re-explore Sarno's material that she so resists. After mentioning that she had been told by her doctor that there was nothing more he could do after a series of steroid injections and that she just had to live with her chronic pain as part of having stenosis/arthritis/old age, I had hoped she might be more open.

Anyhow, I was able to affirm my own recovery and give thanks that I had been chronic pain free during a particularly stressful/emotional past few months when I had needed my body for much lifting, some of it very heavy.

It was strange to see my profile photo on this site again. I had chosen it as it was emblematic of my own TMS healing journey. One of the scariest parts of that journey had been following Dr. Sarno's suggestion that after recovery one needs to return to the activity that had brought on the temporary pain that the mind had made chronic. In my case, it was returning to landscaping with the heavy rocks that we had collected during various vacations. The thought of again experiencing the excruciating back pain that had made a trip to the bathroom from bed a tearful, ten minute crawl was terrifying. Now, the pond in that photo is gone. Our neighbors helped me move all those rocks to their various yards, as well as the plants and sculptures, and it has all been razed to a lot following our house fire. If I have ever needed a healthy back (as well as the other places in my body that TMS later moved to and had to be re-treated years ago: neck/shoulders, elbow, wrist, legs, feet) it has been these past few months. And, too, the psychological/emotional insight gained during TMS recovery to help deal with the ensuing loss/sadness/shame/anger/frustration/despair during a challenging post-house fire/demolition process.

Thank you Dr. Sarno (RIP), and Mark W, and all the folks who share on this site.

 

[Click#7]

It's been almost three years since I overcame TMS, so I thought I'd post an update.

I am still pain free! I am a living example of the "A little TMS is ok." quote from Dr. Sarno. I occasionally feel a twinge in my back, or knee, or elbow, or my sinuses become stuffed up, or I feel the start of heartburn, or I feel a little urinary urgency, and a few other assorted symptoms of common "medical problems". But here's the key: THEY NEVER GO ANYWHERE!!!!

I notice the symptoms, recognize they are just TMS at work, ignore them, and not long after I notice they are gone. They have no negative effect on my life, and do not limit or hinder me in any way. In fact, I'm grateful for the occasional symptom, as it reminds me to think about things that may be unconsciously bothering me and to also remind me just how incredibly astounding Dr. Sarno's discovery of TMS was. I hope we are reaching a tipping point where TMS will be accepted for what it is: THE CORRECT DIAGNOSIS FOR MILLIONS OF CHRONIC PAIN SUFFERERS!

I finished pharmacy school and I now work at a hospital. Going through TMS has been a Rosetta Stone for me as the patterns of TMS jump off the screen when I go through a patient's medical record. You see them by the characteristic makeup of a common medication list: inhalers, PPIs, antidepressants, muscle relaxers, antihistamines, benzodiazepines, migraine treatments, and of course, opioids. You recognize it in their past medical histories: chronic back, neck, knee, and foot pain that has lingered for years despite surgeries, injections, PT, and loads of other expensive and sometimes risky treatments. There's also long allergy lists, GERD, anxiety, asthma, restless legs syndrome, and a host of other conditions that just scream hyper-reactive immune system, overactive sympathetic response, or just generally a dysfunctional physiology that has been knocked out of homeostasis by some "unknown" factor. Symptoms are the only thing that gets treated, while the true cause of these problems, unaddressed emotional pain, is far too often ignored.

The reason I feel so strongly about this subject is that I was one of these patients. Over my lifetime, I have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, asthma, GERD, chronic pain, allergies, migraines, eczema, hypertension etc., and I have taken medications for these conditions, but since going through my TMS journey ALL OF THESE "PROBLEMS" ARE NOW GONE! If I hadn't been lucky enough to have Dr. Sarno brought to my attention by a reputable source, I would still be suffering from a long list of "conditions", worrying constantly if they were going to get worse, and draining my bank account on medication refills and visits to specialists. Sadly, these things are still happening to my parents and my sister, despite them witnessing my transformation and my having shown them the "All the Rage" documentary. It is beyond frustrating to see how deep the old paradigm is entrenched, but I realize all I can do is give a gentle nudge; they have to "discover" it for themselves. Fortunately I have had a few friends and co-workers be open to Sarno, and they have changed their relationship to pain.

Looks like my "update" spiraled into a venting of my frustrations. I guess I need to start reading my pressures list more often.

If anyone new to TMS or struggling to overcome TMS is reading this, here's my advice: Follow Dr. Sarno's treatment and stay with it. Don't worry about how long it takes for the pain to go away. It's hard at first, but the less I worried about it, the faster my pain decreased. And perhaps the best piece of advice I found on this site when I was going through my healing was "Release your death grip on the universe." It still makes me laugh. You cannot control everything, nor do you have to, so stop trying. It sounds paradoxical, but I found that the only way I could control my pain was to stop trying to control my pain.

Work with your uncomfortable emotions and thoughts, with a therapist if it helps. As Eckhart Tolle says "It isn't pleasant, but it won't kill you." As the clouds of psychological toxins get less and less dense within you, you will find your life improves in every way. Mine has, and I am eternally grateful.

Best of luck to everyone and I hope to see your success story soon!

Just a quick question...it took you 6 months to get over your pain from a herniated disc...just saying 80-90 % of patients with your diagnosis get better without treatment ? Maybe 10 % see surgeons for a surgical evaluation and then they go from there. I believe you have Tms, but I'd like to see more success stories where folks have suffered with your symptoms for well over a year. Congrats.

 

[Mark W]

So I'm closing in on five years since my discovery/episode of severe TMS and my subsequent healing.

I still feel great. I don't even get back pain anymore. When I do have a TMS symptom, which isn't often, it is usually short-lived nasal congestion, or a random pain in a random joint that dissipates quickly. I credit meditation and yoga, which keep me tuned into my uncomfortable emotions on a daily basis, so I feel them fully and they can't hide, build up, and be used as fuel for TMS.

I recently started running again after 15 years, and I caught myself having this thought: "My knee always used to hurt when I ran, so I'll have to keep an eye on it in case the pain comes back." Then I realized, "A-ha, the reason doctors could never find anything wrong with my knee and pain meds didn't help was because there never was actually anything wrong with my knee in the first place!" Been running every other day for a couple weeks and...no knee pain, of course.

To anyone starting out or working through your TMS: Stick with Dr. Sarno's program, do what he recommends, and you will move past your TMS pain.

For me, the hardest part about TMS is that once I healed, it changed my paradigm about chronic pain completely, so now its difficult to watch friends and family try to treat their TMS pains with drugs, surgery, and expensive doctors. I still tell them my TMS story briefly and point them to some resources, but sadly 95% of them can't even entertain TMS as being a real thing. It sucks, but what can you do?

Best of luck to everyone on their TMS healing journeys!!!

 

[JanAtheCPA]

That's awesome to hear, @Mark W, and thank you so much for continuing to check in and post updates. As you well know, doing this is one of the things that makes this community so powerful.

And, to anyone reading this, please go back to page 1 and read Mark's story. You will be inspired, I promise you.

 

[richard13]

Hi Mark W, I just came here from a link in an email from your 2017 update to see what responses had accrued (am a sporadic visitor), so was surprised and delighted to find your 2019 update. Congrats on your continued success! Glad you are still out sharing your story and advocating Sarno info with others, despite their misgivings and resistance.

As I mentioned in an earlier response in this thread, I share your frustration with the slowness of medical mainstream acceptance of mind-body solutions, despite the mounting evidence of the power of the mind in controlling health. Was just reading an article on the brain scans of patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and how one could instantaneously switch to an alter personality that experienced blindness, and all the brain activity in the visual processing area would immediately cease despite the person's eyes being open. Remember being fascinated by case studies of MPI (now DID) in which a patient's physiological condition (blood sugar level, blood pressure, or visual acuity) would change immediately as they entered an alter personality that was diabetic, hypertensive, or myopic. Imagine there were probably some who had alter personalities with chronic back pain.

Sad, as you mentioned, too, the waste of medical resources on TMS related conditions. Remember Senator Harkin, himself having had chronic pain recovery success, lamenting the hundreds of millions of misspent US taxdollars that could be saved using Sarno's treatment.

I'm also having continued success. After dealing with our housefire, I took a job doing professional natural stone masonry that sometimes requires me to lift tons, literally, of flagstone or boulders during the day. On occasion I'll get some temporary soreness or strain (I did turn 60 this year!), but if it lingers, I get right back into that Sarno paradigm and it leaves.

Thanks for your postings, and best wishes.