Successful Strategies

Hey there,

For those who beat TMS or are trying to beat it, what strategies worked for you?

Was it talking to your brain? Taunting TMS? Reading the book over and over again?

I'm making major improvement with my TMS, but there are some conditional programming I am trying to break where I expect tingling and would love to hear about some strategies that worked for you guys.

 

So far I would say that reading the books has been very helpful -- I have read several now and as they all basically say the same thing, it is a reinforcement for me which is good. I have also done a lot of journaling about past events which have caused me anger or emotional distress - emotions that previously I had been unaware of - which has also been very helpful. The area I need to work on is the self-compassion/ taking care of myself , which I am not good at!

 

I am probably atypical for a Sarno patient, but after I first read Sarno and it only had a slight and temporary effect on reducing my pain (I figured it didn’t really work because I didn’t instantaneously feel better), I tried the John F. Barnes’ mindbody-based method of myofascial release (JFB-MFR) physical therapy (and read his book Healing Ancient Wounds). Going to a 2-week intensive of JFB-MFR is what helped me the most, but I went after having read Sarno and Barnes—which may be why my body was ready to make the leap it did. It was expensive and maybe had I given more time to trying Sarno techniques maybe I could have done it on my own, but I actually doubt it. My issues were pretty deep and I think I needed the assistance of the jfbmfr therapists to help me.

Then when my pain still lingered (at a lower level at least), I came back to reading Sarno (several times), Scott Brady, and Steve Ozanich and that brought my pain down some too, or at least brought down spikes at different times. Other things have too, such as a combination of EMDR and SE (somatic experiencing).

I also started doing a lot of writing after that jfb-mfr intensive which may have also contributed to my additional pain reduction. And I also stopped working a couple years after that intensive, so I can’t really say how direct an impact the reading or the writing or the slowing down (stopping work) has had, since I was doing them simultaneously.

Essentially there may have been many contributing factors to the small increases in pain reduction I had after my jfbmfr intensive, but the intensive jfbmfr physical therapy really made the biggest splash for me.

If you’re interested, I created a website (http://www.healingfromchronicpain.com/ (Healing from Chronic Myofascial Pain--Support for chronic pain sufferers: Defying Gravity--An Athlete's Journey of Healing from Chronic Myofascial Pain)) that describes my journey, including all the things I tried along the way (many were before I understood the mindbody connection, but many after as well) and I’m getting close to publishing my memoir describing my journey. I’ve found there’s not really one quick answer (at least not for me).

 

Hey Healingfromchornicpain, thanks for sharing your website link. I am definitely going to check out. I related to how you feel about how reading Sarno wasn't instant. I am definitely improving after reading his book. I also just ordered Steve Ozanich's book so hopefully that will help as well.

Archie, I admit I been kinda lazy at journaling, I need to devote more time to it. Maybe something will come out of it! I also need to work on the self compassion.

 

Yeah, I’m lazy about journaling when I tell myself I should. When I first started writing it was more like a compulsion and I had to write down my feelings and my story—so I could believe it myself. But now that I’ve written so much about the past, I don’t feel the same compulsion to keep writing or to address current feelings. I find it hard to just journal in general. Then I wonder if that would help me more so I try but then fall off the wagon, as it were

I feel I just have to keep trying what works for me and not be hard on myself (yes, that self-compassion piece)