Physical therapy

I know Sarno stopped prescribing it in his time. I know others talk about doing it if you view it as just exercise and not fixing you.

I'm curious where our regulars stand on it. Assuming it would apply to your symptoms, what do you think of it? Have you had benefits?

 

Honestly? Knowing how difficult you’ve struggled with uncovering where you stress in your life, I would not recommend it for you now.
Focus on the psychological side, and finding ways on your own to unwind, relax, slow down and take time for yourself. Stop searching for external fixes.
I just came back to the forum to respond to your earlier post about responsibilities.
Go further with this.
What would happen if you just said “no” to one thing this week?
What catastrophe might happen?
How would it make you feel emotionally?
What do you think others might think of you if you did or could say no?
Frankly, you’ve got a lot of work to do, and you need to focus on the TMS work solely for awhile.
Personally I’m not against PT but I am not for the pt of “usual fair” that gets served up at 99% of places -it is aimed at short term injury rehab. That is not your case. Success rates for PT alone is very low even in injury cases. It is the stress, anxiety, holding ourselves tight and braced against the world in mind and body that is TMS.
Let go.
Stop searching and running in circles about “curing” your pain physically. I know it hurts. I know the work is hard. I know letting go can be frightening.

 

I'm against PT. I've got an older symptom that just popped up last week and normally I would call my PT and schedule an appt. After the appointment I would feel better. But I'm pretty sure that was just a placebo effect. For this go around with symptoms, I'm not even entertaining the notion of going even though I would probably feel better afterwards. And you want to know why? Because if I rely on the PT to make me feel better than I'm always going to have to go back at $50 copay. I know this is my emotions and I've gotten back from vacation and my job is a little bit stressful. Also I think the holidays are getting to me too.

I'm looking at the bright side with getting this older symptom-my pain is moving again. My brain is grasping at straws on trying to get my attention. I'm assuming that you are asking about PT because your pain has increased/moved. Look at it that your pain is changing. That is evidence for TMS.

 

I have decreased exercise volume but not eliminated it completely, so I was looking it as a supplement, home PT. Guess my next step is eliminating exercise entirely. I don't enjoy yoga or tai chi, things like that, so I don't want to make myself more miserable doing them. I stopped doing things I dislike just for the purpose of exercise a while ago.

 

I know exactly where I stress. Just having that awareness, working through it with journaling, isn't making a difference, unfortunately.

I just need to find a way to be okay with not being active. That's where I've landed at this point.

 

“I know exactly where I stress”
Yes, in some places but this week you’ve been vulnerable enough to discover new ones.
TMS will keep you safe even with discovering stressors. That’s why we say it’s like the peeling of an onion. Your mind will keep you thinking you know things like exactly where you stress consciously, but it’s always subconcious. Always. So you just don’t know precicey, and it’s usually going to be the places we don’t want to admit because to our rational adult brain, those places are not safe.
You’ve been doing great work uncovering new things. Keep it up! Work through why not keeping active is a challenge.

 

I just want to be active. That's who I am. I enjoy it and I want to keep doing it. I'm really angry that something like TMS is stopping me.

 

yes, you are consciously angry at this. TMS work is about going deeper.
What about having it steal your identity?
What about the identity you feel others place on you that you don’t identify with.
I think it’s a great strength that you identify as someone who moves and is active. It gives you a perspective of where you see yourself moving through this TMS phase in life. It can also create a lot of inner pressure to have to be that person to the point of finding yourself unable to do it for awhile and not having another way to be. This is a very common trait to the athletic mind. The idea that the sport is stress relieving (or only stress relieving) may mean you haven’t explored other means.
It also is also simply often not true as people who are very goal oriented and focused use self-pressure as their fuel. It’s a fine balance, it takes time.
I know you’ve read my friend Jessica’s blog. Learning to be still drove her pretty nuts. She doesn’t write about all her struggles, only the path through them. To be a more consistent athlete with less downtime she had to learn other ways, things that removed her from the drive to compete both with herself, with others and with life. She began to do activities that she was totally unfamiliar with and would never compete in (surfing- even in some difficult hip pain.. that made no physical sense!), and now has become a yoga instructor after struggling to learn to sit and meditate for many years ( like I think it took 10 years of learning, maybe 20 until deciding to teach and adding in physical yoga). Don’t take what I wrote literally. I know you dislike mind arts, but you may prefer praying or breathing or whatever slows you down.
I have a lot of compassion for all you have on your plate, yet the old ways aren’t serving you and the new ways can take time to allow your mind and body to settle in. I’m a mover too. My entire identity was turned upside down by TMS and age. It’s taken time but now I am freer than ever. You will be too, but you can’t rush or force it all.

 

Thanks, @Cactusflower. I just don't want to lose these aspects of my fitness life forever.

 

TMS is not forever chronic. Sarno, Sarno, Sarno! This is TEMPORARY! He reminds us that TMS is not an illness, it is not a weakness, and any episodes of chronic pain are not permanent.

 

Trying to remember. Something happened today. Everything that hurts hurts 10x as much and another TMS symptom I have flared as well, hard to explain but it's almost like my trigeminal nerve in my sinus is irritated or something is pressing there, causes a lot of sneezing. I get it here and there. I'm pretty scared, honestly, never been in this much pain. Nothing new in my workout this morning to cause it.

 

But what’s going on psychologically that could cause it? That should always be the question. And I’m right there with you! Journaling, journaling, journaling… still in pain. (For now!) …but just keep peeling the onion. And one of these days, we’ll get to the bottom. Or, we may realize that there’s something in our life that we can never change. A circumstance. But, we can change how we react to it— this might take time. Meanwhile… your symptoms are doing the crying for you. They’re saying: Why me? This isn’t fair? I’m getting deprived of what I love. (Think back: have you ever said that before? Or as a child?) Maybe your inner child has had enough with being ignored? (These are the kinds of thoughts I think myself; I just thought I’d share them with you…)

This video blew my mind today “What Happens When A Sensitive Soul Stops Pleasing Everyone.” Food for thought:

 

A) none of it makes sense or is logical
B) you’ve already stated this is a heavy week for you
C) you’ve already are struggling with control vs. surrender. You fear surrender, you thought you thrived on control.
D) this is an excellent sign. We often can’t force surrender until we get to the “what else the f*ck can you do” state.

 

I have a lot of it, just journal raging about it doesn't seem to change anything. Hating my mom and fiance right now for all the expenses I have been putting up (they both have low paying jobs and can't contribute much, my mom being worse in that area than my fiance), so when emergencies happen, it's on me as the breadwinner. My kid driving me batsh*t lately with just being a kid. Also trying to journal on past stuff, older trauma, nasty family revelations in the last year or so. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

 

Guess you feel pretty trapped and used. That would make me mad. What would happen if you lost your job and couldn’t find another (or let’s say hypothetically you couldn’t work)? Would your fiancé and mom try to get better jobs? Or would the ship just go down?