Pushing through the pain

[Imagyx]

Hi again.

I like to know if anyone here on this forum
applied the approach Steve O. describes in his book
"The great pain deception" to him-/herself.
Meaning: Has anyone had success in fully pushing through all the pain
and being released of it that way ?
I really like the book so far (35 % read), it made me cry for some reason I think, because
I'm normally not touched by such emotions.
I want to do that myself, even though I'm not feeling nearly as bad as he must have.
Fear of getting much worse again is in the way...

 

[Stella]

I have not read Steve's book but I have done this. I started walking over a year ago. I just had to walk. This was before Sarno but I just new it made me feel better. i have had problems with shin splints for years. when I realized they were TMS I talked to myself while walking...telling the shin splints "you are not stopping me or slowing me down."

I have numerous others symptoms that also come and go around walking: tight inner thighs, It band pain, butt pain. Now they are just ignored while I walk like the wind 4-6 miles each day.

 

[gailnyc]

Imagyx, I have really been struggling with this. I am unable to push through the pain--I guess I'm just too much of a coward. Instead, I have been increasing my activity very slowly. However, I do wonder if I am limiting my recovery by being so afraid of the pain. Steve struck me as incredibly brave, being able to fight through the pain like that. I wish I could.

 

[Karen]

This nice fellow says to resume all of your normal activities. It's a good little you tube!! Hope you're feeling well today!!

 

[Imagyx]

Thank you all for your kind answers.

Gailnyc, it's exactly the same with me here, I may be a coward myself and I'm slowly increasing my
activities. But what keeps nagging at my mind is, that I did this for 10 years before and
had a hard relapse, if you could even name it that way without ever being fully healed.
Steve seemed extremely brave to me as well. I think he didn't have anything to lose there and
I may still feel to well to be able to think that way.

Stella, I don't want to offend you, but I'm always thinking: "What is a man/woman without arms."
I pushed through some major pain in my legs before, knee, middlefoot, all very painful, but
only for a short time, because I didn't care that much. I think it really depends on one's weakest spot
and that's my arms for me because I've been learning "weak arms" all my life, at least since I can think in a rational way.

Karen, I watched some videos of M.H. before and if I agreed with his opinion I guess all I learned about TMS
before would be for nothing. He has a different view on TMS which scares me more.

 

[Imagyx]

My right hand is getting numb between thumb and index finger.
Feels weird and I don't have full control over my grip anymore.
It's not that much pain and my blood seems to flow freely.
I tried to push my luck for a bit in the last two days...

 

[charcol]

The only suggestions I have:
1) try slowing down the movements that cause the pain. Reaching, walking, kneeling- whatever. Just slow down. While tossing frisbee, I discovered that running after it (which I love to do) caused the pain to shoot down from my back into my leg. So, I decided to "practice" running again on the treadmill at the gym. Starting with a fast walk and slowly increasing the pace, which is easy to do on the treadmill. I believe this action was instrumental in my recovery.
2) don't think about those movements while performing them. Anxiety will surely come up as you attempt to do the things that cause you pain, so don't think about them. Just do them. Better yet, think of the life you're going to live after you overcome this. When I felt a sneeze coming on, I would immediately tense up and brace myself- ANXIETY, knowing that it would send a shockwave of pain. The pain was so severe, I felt I couldn't help but brace for the impact. I soon realized that bracing for it did absolutely nothing, so I stopped doing it and took the pain full-on. Harder than Hades to do, but eventually it left.

Of course it goes without saying- 15 minutes of the affirmations daily, stop physical treatments, resume normal physical activity.

 

[cherrybomb]

Hi, i have this exact same issue right now.

Ive decided not to go crazy and start jogging for eg just yet. Im going to see if i can almost forget / ignore the pain and enjoy where i am in my life right now. Does that make sense? So im starting to do normal day to day things (ive been pretty disabled by pain ) so stuff like taking daughter to school, having a bath, getting up and getting dressed on a morning etc, yes the pain is there but its kinda like me saying to it "right i know you are tms NOT fibromyalgia, i will no longer allow you to distract me from unwanted emotions" and then i try and do the activity without focus on pain soreness etc.

the reason im not going full on activity yet is i havent had a massive reduction in pain yet, just a slight change of symptoms and pain abit less. I think i need to have more confidence in the diagnosis first. so although i agree with the tms theory intellectually im not sure its quite sunk in yet, intergrated into my unconscious, there is clearly fear there, so im gonna work on viewing life psychologically for a few weeks , just being open to new ideas and ways of thinking.

I loved steve's book! it really did help me and if you read my profile blurb i had some amazing things happen while i was reading it .

i'll tell you what im finding it abit hard not getting cross at myself at this pain. This am i felt low - morning stiffness was awful and it hit me on waking like a brick, "why am i not better!" i asked my hubby. I guess i just need to enjoy where i am in my life right now and not keep a watch on pain levels so much , like i need to take the pressure off myself to be pain free x

 

[dabatross]

that seems to be the way steve got out of his pain. he just said Im sick of this and im going to push through it until it goes away. like in his book when he went outside and stomped his feet into the ground, or went running for miles even though he was in crippling pain. i could be mistaken but i believe this is telling the subconscious you dont fear the pain anymore and you're going to do this anyway. when you remove the fear of the pain the pain goes away, sometimes i think it can be that simple. reading about steve and forest i saw the same two types of successes with them. they stopped fearing the symptoms, and the pain went away so its fear and anxiety i think are the root causes for TMS.

 

[Imagyx]

Thank you very much,
in every one of your answers is some hope for me.
I'm far from full activity myself, but I'm beginning to change. Today I
drove shopping with a car after my workout which I normally wouldn't do.
The pain worsened to a certain degree, but I think I can manage to go on.
I have to read more to let the knowledge get to my subconscious as well.

Just one more question in this matter keeps bothering me right now:
When I was younger - around 16 years - I pushed trough the pain and it got worse in a few months, not better.
Same last year at work.
But I didn't know anything about TMS that time(s). That's the key point here, right ?
With the knowledge I have now, this shouldn't happen again ?!

I think one of my biggest problems is, that I don't know what normal activity is, I stopped
doing what I want without thinking 11 years ago at the age of 15.

 

[gailnyc]

Hi, i have this exact same issue right now.

i'll tell you what im finding it abit hard not getting cross at myself at this pain. This am i felt low - morning stiffness was awful and it hit me on waking like a brick, "why am i not better!" i asked my hubby. I guess i just need to enjoy where i am in my life right now and not keep a watch on pain levels so much , like i need to take the pressure off myself to be pain free x

Yes, exactly. Stop monitoring the pain, stop watching the calendar. Hard, but important.

 

[RN64]

Imagyx - it sounds like you are doing exactly the right thing, slowly trying to challenge the pain by doing things like driving. And yes, I think the key point is to challenge the pain *with the knowledge* of TMS.

I recovered several years ago using the TMS approach, and the only thing that worked for me then was to challenge the pain and be willing to have it flare up. The turning point came on a cross-country flight. Instead of roaming the aisles, I decided to just sit and see how bad the pain would get. It got really bad, but I forced myself to keep sitting without squirming. I think the key there was the attitude - I wasn't so much afraid as *curious* about how bad it could get. I was in serious pain for the rest of the day. But the next day, it was a lot better (unexpected, given that I'd done something that I thought was sure to make it flare up), and that gave me the confidence to keep challenging it. But I mostly did this in smaller ways - for example, sitting through a 1-hour meeting at work.

I'm dealing with a relapse now, and challenging the pain seems to be less successful this time. Part of the problem is that the first time around, I was really restricting my activities, so it was easy to find ways to challenge it. I'm not restricting my activities much at all this time (just avoiding a couple of things that cause excruciating pain), so it's hard to find small ways to challenge it. I have started doing the things that cause excruciating pain - just a little bit at a time. It's only been a few weeks, so we'll see how that goes ...

 

[Forest]

I also used this challenge the pain approach. Little by little I also tried to do more things to see how severe the pain would get. I started with typing on the keyboard for a few minutes at a time, and worked my way to to longer and longer periods. You are right, that at times this can be hard to do, and this approach may not be for everyone, but in the end it does really boost your confidence, which was something I really needed to do.

I think it is also important to focus on our emotions as well. This was something that I didn't really do the first time around, but when I had new symptoms popped up I have found valuable. This isn't about thinking about past hurts, but more of focusing on what my emotions are in the present. Am I feeling anxious? If so, why? Is there something that I have been worrying about recently? Once I begin to ask myself these little self-exploration questions I begin to pinpoint some of the underlying emotions behind my symptoms. The good part though is that my confidence always remains high. Use all of that confidence you built up the first time you recovered to push you through this relapse. If this approach worked once, it will work again.

 

[JoyceVT]

Years ago I applied Dr Sarno's work to my wrist when it flared up playing my flute and using my mouse at work. I pushed through the pain and it went away. I have done this with some of my running "injuries". Sometimes it worked and other times it didn't. With my first shin problems it didn't work as I wasn't convinced 100% it was TMS. For me personally I need to feel 100% confident it is TMS in order to push through pain.

 

[Imagyx]

It's good to hear, that this approach worked for you so well, Forest.
I'm going this way again and try to push it further and investigate my emotions, although it's very
hard for me, since I rarely feel anything emotionally.
The problem with my first "recovery" is that is wasn't a full recovery.
I built up my computer time from less than half an hour in 2004 to 6 hours a day in 2011 at university.
The next jump to 8-10 hours a day at work in 2012 seemed possible to me, in the end
it wasn't...So I never even fully recovered at all, therefore there's no confidence to build on.
But I hope with this new knowledge I can move past this.
Thank you very much for your time and help, it really impresses me everytime I read
success stories like yours.

Thank you Joyce for keeping my hopes up. Pushing through seems manageable for so many here.
This is what I need to hear and maybe some buttkicking as well ;-)