rsi to back pain

[M]

Hi,

I've been steadily improving with my symptoms (rsi, neck, shoulders etc...!)

I have had some lower back pain but not much. I fee like i'm about 70 percent better, I've read Sarnos books and I'm 2 weeks from completing the presence process.

This week though I've started getting agonising pain in my lower back. My intuition is it's part of the process my meditation is digging up more emotions to deal with hence the increased pain in a different area? It's hard to not be alarmed by it. As getting up is now difficult. I think the emotion for me to deal with hear is fear/terror....

has any one else here had a simliar situation?

many thanks,
Matt
P.S
I've been blogging about my experiences .. I will post here when I'm a bit better!

 

[Forest]

Hiya Matt and Welcome to the Peer Network,

Symptoms moving around is normal, and happens to pretty much everyone. It may sound strange but it actually is a really good sign that you are making progress. Can this be alarming? Sure, but that is why it so important to accept the diagnosis. If you know the symptoms are not due to a structural problem, then you also know that they will fade away in the near future. This gave me a tremendous amount of hope in my own recovery. Chickenbone recently wrote a post that may be really helpful to you in the thread: The Importance of Addressing Childhood Issues. There is a lot of great info in it.

Oh, and keep us updated on your blog. I would love to read about her experiences in more detail.

 

[M]

thanks forest. Yeah I think when you know for a fact it's psychological it takes away the panic/fear. My blog is here: www.curersi.com I'm going to amend it as I go along, I kinda wanted to wait until I was about 90 percent better before getting evangelical about it! but I think there's some useful stuff on there.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Matt, it will be interesting to see how you amend your blog as your recovery progresses! What we know now is that many of those physical practices (eg, MFR) and tools (eg, Miracle Balls, which I also had for a while) do work for TMS - either because they get the blood and thus the oxygen flowing to the TMS areas, or because they act as alternative distractions - but that they tend to only work temporarily, because the symptoms keep coming back.

It sure sounds like you're experiencing the symptom imperative - your brain is fighting back, but you will win!

There are probably a lot of people who would like to hear more about The Presence Process when you complete it. Some people have a hard time getting through it - I hope you'll write about your experience.

Jan

 

[M]

Hi Jan,

Yeah for me I had to understand how your Myofascia network tightens and tenses and restricts blood flow and how that's related to your autonomic nervous system/ stresses. It wasn't enough for me to think that it's just a lack of oxygen to your muscles... I think my mind is quite technical and I was always going to need more details for this kinda work to give me results. However the tissue has muscle memory and will always go back to it's tense state unless those psychological issues are resolved. When I first read Sarno's books I could intellectualise it, however it didn't benefit me, I struggled to put it into practice it was only when taking on a job that allowed me to relax that I realised the relation between stress and the physical...

The presence process has been very interesting for me. I still have a couple of weeks to go and I plan to continue the meditation for another 6 months at least. I will blog more about it. It's interesting how it puts all those emotions right in front of you. It starts to become clear that you are not depressed, anxious angry you just FEEL it. (hard to accept.. I struggle with this)
The meditation seems to put these feelings right in front of you. I think it makes the unconcious more concious. I think anyway!!!!! I have a long way to go yet My emotions that have come up appear to have done so in layers It started with fear and sadness, then anxiety, then anger. I noticed I couldn't go near my computer without this intense frustration/rage! I tried to be more expressive of this.. deal with things as they appear. I think there's probably lots more that I have not integrated yet to come. How much? I have no idea!


My life situation is quite challenging at the moment as I have been made redundant. I think the flare up in my back is related to that. The fear/anxiety of not being able to pay my rent. losing confidence etc....

thanks,
Matt

 

[M]

I've just re-read my blog and I'm thinking my issues are not resolved 100% due to not committing 100 percent to the tms theory. So I'm doing that now 100 percent psychological not physical!

 

[Forest]

Recovering is all about fully accepting that your symptoms are benign. If you don't then your symptoms will continue to create fear and anxiety. Of course, I also found that the more I did the work, the more I accepted the diagnosis. It can always take some time for the message to sink into your unconscious, but every time you do the work and think psychological you send a message to your unconscious that your symptoms are caused by repressed emotions. Overtime, this leads to full acceptance.

 

[M]

thanks Forest. Well done for putting this forum together too. Sites like this and youtube have been more helpful then the actual books themselves for me.

 

[Forest]

That is true for me as well, Matt. I really connected with people's success stories online more than reading the books. Part of this was that one of my biggest problems was feeling so alone with my symptoms and not having doctors understand what I was going through. The forum really helped me connect with people who have been through what I was going through. That connection was, and still is, a major reason I was able to recover.

 

[M]

since making this post my back pain had completely gone... it's since come back again with a vengeance! but it doesn't scare me... Is it likely that once getting almost better the brain makes one last play before it's beaten?

I think by submitting to the TMS theory people including myself probably feel like there admitting there's nothing wrong with them... which doesn't sit right..

I guess there physically isn't anything wrong... Just some thing on the emotional side of things has gone a bit wonky!

 

[Forest]

I think by submitting to the TMS theory people including myself probably feel like there admitting there's nothing wrong with them... which doesn't sit right..

The fact that the simple idea that we don't have anything wrong with us is bothering, is the reason we have TMS. There is a great anecdote in one of the Thank You, Dr. Sarno posts about how this woman wanted to see Dr. Sarno about her back pain. She called him on the phone and the conversation went as follows:

Dr. Sarno: “This is John Sarno.”​

Me: “Dr. Sarno, thank you for taking my call. I read your book and I think I’m a Sarno patient, but I need to see you to be sure.”​

Dr. Sarno: “You should read the book again instead.”​

Me: “You don’t understand, I’ve…(and here I listed what I’d been through)…and I just need to be sure there’s really nothing wrong with my back.”​

Dr. Sarno: “There’s nothing wrong with your back.”​

Me: “I just need to see you in person.”​

Dr. Sarno: “I’m not charismatic. I’m not going to ‘heal’ you.”​

Understanding that there really is nothing wrong with us, and nothing we need to heal, leads to recovery. The full story is at: http://www.thankyoudrsarno.org/kos-thank-you.

 

[TomPNY]

I had the opposite happen. In fact, its happening right now.
Several months of severe back pain, and it has virtually gone from my body - Only to be taken over with hands falling asleep at night, pain in hands and arms, difficulty typing at work, etc etc.
Its really tough for me to come back around and apply the same TMS techniques to this, because its less of a pain and more of a disability. I'm working on it... but its like I have to start all over again.
I certainly don't miss my back pain - but this sucks!

 

[Leslie]

Its really tough for me to come back around and apply the same TMS techniques to this, because its less of a pain and more of a disability. I'm working on it... but its like I have to start all over again.
I certainly don't miss my back pain - but this sucks!

The symptom imperative is definitely lousy! My physical TMS spot is upper body. The lower body will get involved from time to time and I can generally blow them off, but the absolute worst for me is when the physical issues are accompanied with anxiety and/or depression. It happens and it can definitely feel like starting all over again. I remind myself that the feeling that I'm "starting all over again" is thanks to my perfectionist. Certainly "perfect Leslie" wants "once and done". Did it all, step by step, exactly the way I was told so the outcome would be "perfect", symptoms banished FOREVER. Nope, what I want to banish forever is "perfect Leslie". The "imperfect" accepting Leslie is much less "stressful" to have around. When symptoms show up or move around it's important to remember that we're never starting over, we've already got the tools, our task at hand is to identify "who" is in the driver's seat and replace that driver with the one who actually takes us where we want to go.

 

[Forest]

Excellent post Leslie. As long as you know to think psychologically there is not starting over. I have been recovered for about 5 years and will have a new symptom come up every once in awhile. When this happens, I never feel like I need to start over, but simply get in tune with my emotional state. Being recovered is not about never having symptoms. It is about knowing how to react to the symptoms. If the symptoms no longer create fear and worry in you, then you are recovered.