My Peers and their 'situations'

Had an interesting chat tonight with one of my old friends from my old 'life'. That was before TMS and recovery made me reach a rock and a hard place and give up my career in the TV and Film Industry in Los Angeles.
I moved to Tennessee and still work in construction, but not in that 'mental environment'. It was never the work that got me down...it was all of the psychological crap and rage inducers and ego driven unreasonableness of the productions themselves. Stress city. Nepotism. Politics. Unrealistic schedules. Hurry up and wait.

Tonight..We talked about mutual friends. Most of the men we worked with were our same age (mid to late fifties).

From the conversation, I gathered that virtually all of our friends are either DEAD from hypertension (heart attacks) or 'permanently disabled' with some sort of condition, or a variety of them that most of us would recognize as TMS synonymous.

I am not talking about 'a lot' or a 'majority'... I mean virtually ALL of them are disabled to one degree or another. Pretty Gnarly. Mostly a variety of 'disc/spine disorders' (TMS)

I did not/do not preach TMS and Sarno at them. Been there/done that and it only causes hard feelings. One of them actually did get better reading HBP, but when his bad marriage didn't change he came down with "Real" shoulder issues and is several surgeries deep now.

I am still doing the same activities at the same intensity I did when I was 30...just not in that industry. Even more because I do it without Fear of injury... so either I am some sort of crazy statistical fluke (unlikely) or that industry has a serious ANGER problem on their hands.

Many people who are new ask "Do I have to change my life to get better?" and I always answer "No". But to REMAIN pain free, you may have to change where you do your life, who you do it with and under what circumstances.

I have never regretted leaving Hell A. But tonight I was EXTRA grateful. I really enjoy so many things in my life and apparently if I kept going the same way I was going, I would be living with a very different reality.