TG957
Beloved Grand Eagle
In my recovery (oh, how long it has been!), I experienced several plateaus, when progress would stop and I would feel stuck. It seems like every couple weeks of palpable improvements were followed by at least a month of being stuck.
Being on one hand stubborn, but on the other hand having no other options (luckily, my doctors did not even try to offer me any treatments for my symptoms), I kept following Dr. Sarno's and Dr. Weekes' route: work on my emotional issues, meditate, calm my nervous system. And each time, after I lost hope and got despaired, I would discover another small sign of improvement. And then I would reach another plateau. There were enough of them that I started getting less frustrated with lack of progress for long periods of time.
Well, today I was reading the book by Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself. He talks about many things useful to TMS-ers (I would certainly recommend this book!), but there is this passage that caught my attention.
It talks about brain's post-stroke recovery, but I find it very relevant as our symptoms are result of emotional brain injury: "these learning plateaus were temporary - part of plasticity-based learning cycle - in which stages of learning are followed by periods of consolidation. Though there was no apparent progress in the consolidation stage, biological changes were happening internally, as new skills became more automatic and refined".
Folks, don't get despaired when seemingly "stuck", just keep doing what you have set to do! Your brain just needs to absorb and get used to new order of things before you can push it further, out of the world of pain and misery!
Being on one hand stubborn, but on the other hand having no other options (luckily, my doctors did not even try to offer me any treatments for my symptoms), I kept following Dr. Sarno's and Dr. Weekes' route: work on my emotional issues, meditate, calm my nervous system. And each time, after I lost hope and got despaired, I would discover another small sign of improvement. And then I would reach another plateau. There were enough of them that I started getting less frustrated with lack of progress for long periods of time.
Well, today I was reading the book by Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself. He talks about many things useful to TMS-ers (I would certainly recommend this book!), but there is this passage that caught my attention.
It talks about brain's post-stroke recovery, but I find it very relevant as our symptoms are result of emotional brain injury: "these learning plateaus were temporary - part of plasticity-based learning cycle - in which stages of learning are followed by periods of consolidation. Though there was no apparent progress in the consolidation stage, biological changes were happening internally, as new skills became more automatic and refined".
Folks, don't get despaired when seemingly "stuck", just keep doing what you have set to do! Your brain just needs to absorb and get used to new order of things before you can push it further, out of the world of pain and misery!
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