Day 1 Some Doubts

I have just finished reading Sarno's Healing Back Pain and his theories of TMS truly resonated with me. I have the personality profile and emotional repression pattern that he described. I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in the right foot following an injury to that foot 3 years ago. Ever since I have been in a state of chronic pain and the pain has recently moved to my neck, shoulders and sometimes radiates down my arm into my hand. I have sought out specialists, PT, acupuncture, drugs, special treatments, neuroplastic pain approaches- just about everything. Now I am seeing a psychotherapist who introduced me to the idea of TMS and encouraged me to explore my repressed emotions- anxiety, fear, anger that I'm so young and unable to work and in so much pain. I do believe an element of my pain is due to TMS and I will follow the Structured Education Program and TMS recovery program to help heal my pain and address my emotions. My doubt is that because all of this was brought on by a specific injury to the nerves in my foot, can it still be considered TMS? I believe the neck pain is TMS, but would my foot/hip/knee pain also be TMS? I'm hoping to find answers as I research more.

 

Hi uclabruins11,

Welcome! You are very fortunate to have the psychotherapist that you do, recommending Dr. Sarno's work, and supporting your exploration.

You must have read that Dr. Sarno saw many many people who had pain at the site of injury, and that this was a mind-body strategy of making the pain "believable." Whiplash is an example. Or a knee strain.

I suggest you explore your doubts gently, and see perhaps what is underneath them. Doubt is actually a form of hate. We don't trust and so we hate what we perceive as false support. What do you hate?

I wrote an article on Doubt, which you might enjoy. It doesn't explore hate directly, except the Inner Critic messages which are an activity of self-hate.

http://www.tmspainrelief.com/doubts-about-dr-sarnos-work/ (Doubts about Dr. Sarno's Work | TMS Pain Relief with Andy Bayliss)

Partly by suggesting the hate factor, and partly with the article, I am encouraging you to step back and treat all your responses to life, including your responses to Dr. Sarno's work, as fuel for learning more about what makes you tick. This will give you more and more evidence supporting your TMS understanding, the specifics of how it works in you. It is this understanding which undoes the TMS.

This sure sounds like a fancy name for TMS to me, but I am not a doctor. Seems like a physician had to make up a name for the "unexplainable."

Also, since you have foot pain, I'll give you this link, showing my skiing two years into Dr. Sarno's work. I was diagnosed with nerve damage and several doctors wanted to operate.

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/skiing-two-years-after.14222/ (Skiing Two Years After)

Good Luck!

Andy B

 

Welcome, uclabruins11 - and Andy has given you the best advice for turning your life around and achieving recovery.

I have often joked about the myriad names that the medical "profession" comes up with to describe what we here suspect is TMS. I have gone so far as to say that if it ends in "Symdrome", it's likely to be TMS.

Good luck!

 

Hi, UCLBruins. A pain in the foot from an injury three years ago would not still hurt, nor would it move around. You know from reading Healing Back Pain that you have repressed emotions. Maybe concentrate on that when you see your psychotherapist.