Day 7 The stuff that dreams are made of....

I'm currently on Day 7 of the Structured Education Program, and wanted to post a bit more about my situation. I had a dream last night that a TMS doctor (Sarno? TMS specialist?) told me that it would be best in my situation to go ahead and have the epidural cortisone injections done that my pain mgmt doc recommended. I have been diagnosed with "herniated disk" at L5 / S1 but am convinced that my sciatica is the result of TMS. Or so I thought. It appears my subconscious mind is still not accepting the diagnosis. My "pain" is always worst in the morning, but this morning it was especially increased. I knew it was the result of my dream. I will continue to read HBP, work on journaling, and further educating myself on TMS. I know I can be pain-free, just need it to completely sink in and allow myself to accept the TMS diagnosis 100%.

 

Sounds like you have the right idea! I had some stress dreams early in the process too...keep reaffirming your belief in TMS and working through the SEP, I think it takes time. I have the same diagnosis as you and have had good results. I also find that after a few weeks I still have some lingering pain in the morning, which I believe is related to conditioning (I think I still expect morning pain subconsciously) and sometimes increased stress/emotions. It takes time for those learned pathways in the brain to unlearn themselves.

 

Hi, beachbum. I would forget that dream and put off surgery if I were you. Give TMS and the SEProgram a chance to heal you. It is going to take some journaling to discover the emotions causing your pain. They may be emotions you have been repressing, or you have a perfectionist personality or what to please people too much. It takes 100 percent belief in TMS to heal. Keep working on that. Good luck and keep positive, then you will heal.

 

Thanks, MindBodyPT! I appreciate your continued support and thanks for pointing out the conditioned response pain upon waking- didn't consider that! I'm going to keep ignoring that pain and put my focus on the psychological. Hope you are continuing to stay positive on your journey!

 

Thank you for your encouragement, Walt! Your story is inspirational and I appreciate your feedback. I haven't returned my doctor's phone call to schedule my cortisone injections, and don't plan on doing so. I just finished up a great journalling session- it is a wonderful outlet and road to self-discovery! I've been able to identify some of my repressed emotions (got a few good cries out of it so far!), and definitely recognize my perfectionistic and "goodism" traits. Thanks again!

 

beachbum. You're welcome. You're discovering some very important reasons why you have physical pain, caused by harmful repressed emotions and perfectionism and goodism. Keep up the good work and you will be a new persom, healthy and happy.