TMS returned now in the back, 80% cured, how to cure last 20%

[Hannibal41]

It has been a while since I last posted on here. A quick recap of my story. Last year I got a sudden bout of RSI in both wrists, which took me months to struggle with before turning to TMS, which I had heard about in my early days of suffering from the pain. When I decided that I was going to try cure my wrists via TMS, I continued physio, just to see if I was improving from it, but also started to tell my brain that my pain could be TMS. I then started reading the Mindbody Prescription then A Way Out. Followed by listening to Healing Back Pain on Audible. Whilst listening/reading I tried to see myself in the person Dr Sarno described (I fit 50% of the description). I also did about a week of journaling for 5 minutes a day, each day on a different topic, ending with writing a sentence of what I am thankful for that day. Finally I continued telling myself that the pain was TMS and slowly over a month or to my pain disappeared.

Fast forward, over Christmas I was sleeping for about a month on super uncomfortable beds while visiting people. One day, I felt a twinge in my back and my back pain started to creep in and became a constant pain. I have started physio and done that for a few months now, and was seeing minor improvements. But the past few weeks I decided to explore TMS again. So far it is only mentally thinking 'this could be TMS' and stuff like that. The pain has reduced by half to 80%, this reduction of pain was especially present last week when I was away from my home and visiting parents, but now that I'm back has crept up a bit.

Currently the pain is mostly the uncomfortable stiffness you get when sitting down for too long, although it appears fairly quickly after sitting down. If anyone has experienced TMS return in another body part, how did you go about resolving it, seeing as you already know about TMS. Do I listen to HEaling back pain again and start journaling again?

Secondly, once I do get rid of this second bout of TMS, how do I go about preventing it appearing again?

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Do I listen to HEaling back pain again and start journaling again?

Absolutely! Also read Success Stories, and consider doing the Structured Educational Program.

how do I go about preventing it appearing again?

That requires becoming more mindful in general, regularly checking in with your mental health, recognizing all of the other ways in which your brain tries to distract you with symptoms. And it also requires accepting that this is a normal brain mechanism, albeit a very primitive one that doesn't work well in the modern world, and that the modern world is becoming more stressful and existentially dysfunctional every day. Your brain is going to want to keep protecting you from emotional distress by giving you physical symptoms.

Fantastic podcast on the symptom imperative and current stressors: the Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs, season 3 episode 27.

 

[Cactusflower]

I think you had more of a “book cure” meaning you did a fantastic job of scratching the tms surface, but perhaps it was not enough?
A week of journalling for 5 minutes a session is s very short time to discover the ways and means you tend to “work” - your thought patterns and personality traits that feel the need to create pain - you inner tension patterns. TZmS symptoms tend to come and go for many, and as @JanAtheCPA pointed out, simply learning to recognize your inner tension and tend to your emotions will help you quickly work through their need to reappear. Not knowing why they show up is simply a sign you still aren’t aware of your repression at times.
The SEP takes you through more journaling and helps you reflect on personality traits and takes you through the process of making mindfulness more of an ongoing habit.

 

[theacrobat]

Excellent advice above. All I would add is that the trick with TMS journalling is to figure out what exactly in the unconscious is causing the pain. This I suspect is where many stumble, because it is very hard to understand something invisible (the unconscious). Generally speaking the whoppers like bereavement tend to cause more trouble than current minor everyday stressors in my experience (unless something awful has just happened). I looked at a list of life events (bereavement, divorce, abuse, childbirth, loss of job, demotion etc) and wrote about any that applied to me in a detailed way, trying to fully recreate the scene, anything I could recall. It was a trial and error approach, listening to the body as I did so, and doubling down on those events that yielded symptom relief.