I have read Healing Back Pain and The Divided Mind and completely accept the idea that TMS is the root cause of my health issues.
Although I can trace symptoms back to my mid-teens, my eruption of symptoms really began in my freshman year of college. I had an episode of vomiting after a highly-regretted night of binge drinking to celebrate the end of my first semester, and the next day I felt a pain in my throat I had never felt before. It was acid reflux. I had given myself acid reflux by vomiting too hard. That was my understanding as I suffered the burning, torturous pain in my throat for the next 10 years.
Reflux was the most extreme symptom I had during that time, however it was not the only one. I also realized that the muscles in my stomach, back, shoulders, neck, face and pelvis were tight all the time. Sometimes it was only one or a few of those muscle groups, but it was always at least one of them. And under certain circumstances, the tightness would increase greatly.
During periods of increased tightness, I would find it was difficult for me to think clearly. My brain was in a fog, and even though I didn't look like there was anything wrong with me, I would have difficulty understanding what people were saying or thinking of things to say back to them. It made socializing so hard that I started to fear moments where I was around people. I had trouble doing my job, which involves working at a computer. It has beaten me down over the years and hurt me in every part of my life.
A couple years ago I made a list of all the doctors I've seen trying to get help for my condition. At that time, it was well over 20 people, and the sum total of there opinions was that I have a lot of problems, but there's nothing wrong with me... This has left me feeling abandoned and angry at the medical community.
I've tried every alternative medicine treatment I could find in the hope of finding an answer. The list includes herbal supplements, Alexander technique, massage, osteopathy, e-stim units, heat/ice, trigger point therapy, biofeedback, neurofeedback, and more. The things that have actually helped me manage my symptoms have been meditation, acupuncture and physical therapy. Acupuncture even seemed to fix my acid reflux, which has been very much under control for about two years, however I've never felt like any of those methods were directly addressing the source of my problem and the brain fog and muscle tightness still cause me a lot of physical and emotional pain.
Enter Sarno's ideas. I was directed to buy Healing Back pain from my therapist a couple months ago and I saw myself on every page. The limited work I've done to understand what TMS is doing to me and how to overcome it have already produced some good results. But I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm looking forward to more improvement as I go through this structured plan, and I've also made an appointment to see a TMS specialist. He's booked until January though, so I'm really hoping this structured plan gets me on the right track!
Although I can trace symptoms back to my mid-teens, my eruption of symptoms really began in my freshman year of college. I had an episode of vomiting after a highly-regretted night of binge drinking to celebrate the end of my first semester, and the next day I felt a pain in my throat I had never felt before. It was acid reflux. I had given myself acid reflux by vomiting too hard. That was my understanding as I suffered the burning, torturous pain in my throat for the next 10 years.
Reflux was the most extreme symptom I had during that time, however it was not the only one. I also realized that the muscles in my stomach, back, shoulders, neck, face and pelvis were tight all the time. Sometimes it was only one or a few of those muscle groups, but it was always at least one of them. And under certain circumstances, the tightness would increase greatly.
During periods of increased tightness, I would find it was difficult for me to think clearly. My brain was in a fog, and even though I didn't look like there was anything wrong with me, I would have difficulty understanding what people were saying or thinking of things to say back to them. It made socializing so hard that I started to fear moments where I was around people. I had trouble doing my job, which involves working at a computer. It has beaten me down over the years and hurt me in every part of my life.
A couple years ago I made a list of all the doctors I've seen trying to get help for my condition. At that time, it was well over 20 people, and the sum total of there opinions was that I have a lot of problems, but there's nothing wrong with me... This has left me feeling abandoned and angry at the medical community.
I've tried every alternative medicine treatment I could find in the hope of finding an answer. The list includes herbal supplements, Alexander technique, massage, osteopathy, e-stim units, heat/ice, trigger point therapy, biofeedback, neurofeedback, and more. The things that have actually helped me manage my symptoms have been meditation, acupuncture and physical therapy. Acupuncture even seemed to fix my acid reflux, which has been very much under control for about two years, however I've never felt like any of those methods were directly addressing the source of my problem and the brain fog and muscle tightness still cause me a lot of physical and emotional pain.
Enter Sarno's ideas. I was directed to buy Healing Back pain from my therapist a couple months ago and I saw myself on every page. The limited work I've done to understand what TMS is doing to me and how to overcome it have already produced some good results. But I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm looking forward to more improvement as I go through this structured plan, and I've also made an appointment to see a TMS specialist. He's booked until January though, so I'm really hoping this structured plan gets me on the right track!
