Not sure how to pinpoint my sub-conscience emotional issue. Help!

I have been having low back pain for over a year and as most of you have tried everything to solve this physically. No success. Then I ran into Dr. Sarno's book and of course read it right away. I also called Dr. Sarno's office but found out that he has retired and that Dr. Ira Rashbaum has been continuing his work at the Rusk Rehabilitation of NYU Medical Center. I have met with him twice now and I know we have not completed his sessions, there are still two more to go. I know I will have to deal with how to identify my emotional issues but am not sure how to deal with that. I do believe that I have TMS and see the flicker of light ahead, but would be good to hear from some of you who have actually done the identification of the issues and how you went about it. Thanks for all the help!!

 

AJR I identified my issues by journaling about my lifes pressures whether that be now or the past or future thoughts. This will be the bases for how you learn to think emotional and psychological. See as long as you think about your emotions you shouldn't be thinking physical so your changing the way you have learned to think your whole life. A reconditioning phase will occur and you will start to feel better and get better further along toward your cure.

You will have plenty of time for all of this to sink in so you can go at your own pace. Don't try to keep up with everyone else just do your style of work ok. Now you will have lessons to practice daily and you can ask all the questions you need to . I hope I helped.

If you'd like you can start the SEP here at the forum, its free and it will teach you everything you need to know to get well ok. http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Structured_Educational_Program

Thank You.

 

To discover the emotional issues that cause TMS look at the Rahe-Holmes list using the "SEARCH" feature above.

 

Thanks Eric for the response and tennis tom for the recommendation. Knowing that there are people to help me through this in itself is such a help. I will follow your advises. I look forward to the day when I am pain free. Thanks. I will get back to you all if I need further guidance.

 

Hi, AJR. We've all gone through it and some still are working on it... discovering our TMS repressed emotions.
I found mine by journaling... just writing about 20 minutes a day on what I remembered bugged me in the past or was
worrying me at the present. Dr. Sarno and Steve Ozanich are right... most of our pain comes from childhood.
I had a lot of separation anxiety from my parents divorcing when I was only about nine, and living in poverty
during the 1930s Great Depression, and wanting to be the perfect son, the perfect employee, the perfect Catholic.

An aunt even told me once, "You're too good for this world." I guess without knowing why, I was trying for that.

I later felt guilt from not being able to be the caretaker for my elderly mother more than 2 years. It was getting
to be too much for me. I did all anyone could humanly done for her so I shouldn't feel guilty, but I did, and maybe
still do. God forgives us, so I know He has forgiven me for the mother care guilt, so now I just need to accept
God's forgiveness.

So believe me, you're not alone. Journaling will help you discover your repressed emotions. Forgiving is maybe
the biggest thing you will learn, and it will make you pain free.

Keep us informed as to your progress or concerns.

 

Thanks Walt. I am also thinking about starting a journal but maybe once I have completed the third and fourth visit to my TMS Physician, Dr. Ira Rashbaum. Maybe I will also start seeing a therapist after that. So far, I have noticed that the pain levels are going up and down. Someday, it hurts like before and some days it does not hurt much, gets me confused at times. Is it working? I defintely believe that I have TMS and that there is nothing wrong with me physically and that my degenerated disc is just a normal abnormality due to ageing. So, how does the pain relief process start? Does it happen at once suddenly or does it go down slowly and progressively? Or should I not be even asking these questions? How long does it take? Or is that dependeent on how firmly one believes in the diagnosis? So many questions, but I know I need to be patient......

 

AJR. I would start journaling now if your having pain. You have had it all laid out what to journal about ok, what's the wait? Pain will go up and down -- that's normal. Pain does all sorts of crazy stuff. Its main point is to get your attention that you need to think about your emotional issues. Do things that you have always wanted to do but haven't been doing. Get in touch with nature with long walks and make sure to mend your relationships to your friends and family and also the goals you have set for yourself in your lifetime -- to get started on those goals is relationship to life.

The pain relief starts by doing all of the above and then loosing any focus you have on the pain and the pain area. Lose the fear you have of the pain too. Those two -- focus and fear are really the main culprits in your pain and then we have worry and depression. If you have those then look around the sight here and you will have all kinds of styles to break the hold of the fear and the pain.

The pain eventually will gradually fade most of the time. WE often get to where we will have days and even weeks without the pain and in those times you are doing all the right things like meditations to calm down your autonomic nervous system and so on. If I were you I'd supplement the SEP program here at the wiki for free. All your questions will be answered as you work through the structured program. http://tmswiki.org/ppd/Structured_Educational_Program

Yes be patient and learn all you can by asking questions ok. You will only learn by your studies and your questions and your applied knowledge ok.

Bless You

 

It's been a while and I am back to update. I have started journaling but I need to be more regular. I have been thinking about my past and also moments closer to the current that may be upsetting me. I finished my last session with the TMS doctor about 3 weeks ago. I have read Dr. Sarno's book a few times. I just listen to his audio book as I walk to work. It reinforces information and concepts.

So, my pain is still there but it is acting very confusing. For instance, yesterday when I woke up my back pain although different from previous pain (area and type) was almost dibilitating. It seemed to vanish in the course of the day. Sometimes it was pain in a very specific area and sometimes it hurt as if that area was sending pain lines to other areas. Today, totally no low back pain, but shoulder blade area pain, which I very seldom have. My low back feels like there was never any pain there before??? Can it be true? Will it go away?

Anyway, the pain is confusing. But I am patient and will see this through no matter what. I like Dr. Sarno's reference to "Pity me the heart is slow to learn what the swift mind sees at every turn".

My name is Abhiyan.

 

All of the above and likely more to come below. Everyone is different, like snow flakes/tms flakes/"the universal condition"--don't feel singled out. I also like that Edna St. Vincent Millay quote that sums up the TMS conundrum so perfectly--and for some reason my TMS gremlin won't allow me to put to memory--maybe I need tattoo !?!

All my TMS perp/symps (except my hip) have gone away on various timetables of their own's, that my unconscious mindbody has decided for its'selves. Some like calf cramps on the tennis court, or while pool-running, I can shake off almost immediately. My c6/c7's shoulder/upper-arm may take days/weeks or months. It gets faster the more the mindbody BELIEVES in TMS and there's nothing to fear.

It's a brain-sport, the more you practice it the better you get at it, the more autonomic it gets. LOTS of variables like the flakes. It took your mindbody a life time (+ womb time) to develop your TMS thinking. It may take a minute or two, or somewhere between a a googol and a googolplex to figure some of this stuff out--then sleep on it.

Some basics:

Don't watch the calendar--that's called the "Calendar Effect" or "the watched pot...".

No need to do PSYCHO-ARCHEOLOGY. You don't have to find the black-psycho-bullet emotional experience, buried in your un-C, to be TMS cured.

Dr. Sarno says, all you need to heal is THE TMS KNOWLEDGE PENICILLIN--learn the principles of TMS, BELIEVE in them consciously and let them sink into your unC.

Start doing normal physical things for you to recondition your confidence that's it's TMS and not structural damage.

G'luck!
tt/lsmft

(Boilerplate: I'm only a tennis player, this is not medical advice, you get what you pay for, get checked out by a doc or a quack wearing a white-coat for medical advice to eliminate anything serious that's hard to cure like toe-nail fungus, don't sue me all I have are used tennis balls.

p.s., AND!, don't be a TMS PERFECTIONIST/GOODIST. Reading your posts there's some references to doing things right--perfectionism--it's that last 2% that makes you crazy-- screw up some--the Indians would leave imperfections in their crafts for evil spirits to escape from.

 

Tennis Tom, I love what you posted about Indians leaving imperfections in their crafts for evil spirits to escape from.
Indians were very wise. Maybe not all, but a lot of them.
We could have learned a lot from them if we hadn't stolen their land and killed as many as we could.