Day 1 Starting

Well, day 1. Right now I'm 27 years old woman who is experiencing a lot of pain in the neck/shoulder. Well, I've been experiencing pain true out my whole body, like my back, arms and legs, but that's pain that comes and goes. It feels like I can overcome that pain, but the pain in my neck/shoulder stays (especially the pain in my neck). Because I also have juvenile arthritis, my rheumatologist blames my arthritis for the pain. Cause pain in tendons (and muscles) are very common and normal with arthritis, she said. But my arthritis is under control, with medicine. There is no inflammation and the X-rays for both, the one from my shoulder and neck, were normal.

In the last 2 weeks I've been reading dr. Sarno's book, "Healing backpain" and in those 2 weeks I was feeling better. I had less pain (could take less painkillers) and find out that I could do things, I was usually afraid to do. Untill yesterday.

One of the things I blame for my pain is driving my car. (it's a manual, so changing the gear has to be done with my arm/shoulder). But saturday when I was driving my car (I decided to go driving on that moment) nothing really happens. Normally the pain in my shoulder would get worse, but this time, yes, there was pain, but not as it is usually. But a day later on sunday, at the end of the afternoon my neck started to hurt a lot and I got very dizzy. So at that moment I started thinking why this happenend and I'm connecting this, to me booking a ticket for the movies. And well, not really the visit to the movies, but when I booked the ticket I allready knew I would have to drive there, because of bad weather and that my brother, who now drives most of the time, could not bring me. So I think that, when I made this official (having to drive by booking the ticket) my body got very anxious and responded very fast and hard. So yesterday when I found this program, I thought, maybe I should do that to!

A life without TMS would mean that I would have less or no pain, but more importantly that I could live my life the way I want it to. Without having to worry if I can do something, cause I never know if I will be able to do it at the time, especially when it's about something in the future. So I hope this program will help me more, but since the past 2 weeks were a lot better, I have hope it will!

Many love,
- Wendy (btw, I'm Dutch, so I'm sorry if my English isn't perfect )

 

Hi, Wendy. You're pretty young to have arthritis, but I'm not a doctor. You've read Dr. Sarno's book and it helped you with your pain, so I would keep in the Sdtructured Educational Program and discover the emotions that are very likely causing your pain. I think it came on from being anxious about driving to that movie theater. But try not to associate any pain with driving. It is from something emotional that you may have been repressing for a long time. You are going to be free of pain soon and be healthier and happier than you ever imagined.

Here's a posting by someone who recently healed 95 percent after doing the SEP. He posted a few days later than he was totally pain-free. So the SEP does work!f I healed after doing the SEP and so have many, many others.


Kevin healed 95 % from SEP


Welcome to the SEP and to the path of recovery. I am on my final two days of the program and I can say with complete confidence that I am a changed man. I started after 6 months of nasty low-back/butt/leg pain, could hardly walk, stand, etc. was in physical therapy, chiropractor, acupuncture, pain medications, etc.. the usual. My MRI showed 3 disk bulges/herniations touching nerves, so that is what I believe it to be....that is until I read Dr. Sarno and found this site.

I encourage you to really get involved, follow the instructions, do the journaling, take time to read all the suggested readings, and watch the videos. I'd say I'm 95% cured. There is still some very light lingering "annoyance", but I still have some work to do. I've been walking miles with hardly any pain these last few weeks. But even more, if the pain comes on now, it just doesn't bother me like it used to, I sorta just see it, acknowledge it, and go about my business. It took working the program to get to that point, but 6 weeks compared to 6 months is nothing! I made more progress in the first week than I did from two months of PT!!! It's going to challenge you and your "beliefs" in medicine, but you have nothing to lose. We generally wind up here when all else fails.

So give it a shot, especially before considering anything invasive like surgery. If you put the work in, you will get better. Have you read Dr. Sarno yet? I assume you have since you're here, but in case you haven't, definitely readHealing Back Pain. Again, it will challenge everything you've believed about your pain, and backs in general. You'll be encouraged to resume life as normal, i.e. stop ALL "therapies" (PT, chiro, etc.), stop taking medications, and most importantly, stop thinking STRUCTURAL problems are the cause of your pain and shift to psychological as the reason.....again, this can be difficult and takes some time to sink in, so be patient and kind to yourself.

It was a process for me. A few of the bigger moves in my case were: I ripped up and threw out my MRI test results (I found myself obsessively reading over them and comparing them to other results I could find on the web and even here on the TMSwiki site...); I got back to the gym and stopped using a weight belt; and I even cancelled an appointment I had made with aTMS doctorbecause it was more than a month away and it was hindering my recovery (that is, my 100% belief in TMS was lagging because I had this pending appointment, but as soon as I cancelled it, my recovery sped up significantly). Everyone's journey is unique to their situation, but I've found that really committing to the program and brining what I learn from it into my daily life has had profound results. Also, sharing along the way here in these forums has been extremely helpful - there's something about knowing that you're not alone in your TMS recovery that really helps. I encourage you to look through my past posts for some insight into my experience with SEP. Like I said, I'm just now finishing, tomorrow is my final day, and I feel like a changed person. It's amazing. And I feel as though it is something that one carries on with, not just like a one time 6 week thing and that's that...it has helped me to get to know myself and taught me tools to "deal" with my emotions. Learning and accepting TMS is a life changer for sure.

 

Hi Walt,

Thank you for your kind respond.

Yes, I am young, but I didn't get diagnosed this year. I was diagnosed with it, when I was like 14 years old (therefore the juvenile). But like I said, that's been under control with medicine. And the kind of pain problems I have now, weren't there in the beginning. They started to develop, like 4 years ago and last year they became severe. Therefore I'm inclined to not connect it to the arthritis, to see the pain and the arthritis als 2 different things.

I'm trying not to associate driving with pain. But I know it's gonna be difficult, cause the last 1,5 years, I almost never drove. I mean, I think that you can count the many times I went behind the wheel on 1, maybe 2 hands. But yesterday I drove to the movie theater and everything went just fine. So that's a victory for now! I'm just gonna have to keep trying!

And yes, I will definitely follow the program. I mean, what do I have to lose?

Thanks again!
-Wendy

 

Hi, Wendy. I'm so glad you got behind the wheel of the car again and drove to the movie theater and that all went well. Now you know you can do that again anytime, and go to other locations you avoided before. This is really wonderful progress.