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Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
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Steven Ozanich TMS The Man Sarno
- Thread starter Steve Ozanich
- Start date
Forest
Beloved Grand Eagle
As someone who had pain in their hands and had trouble typing, I understand the frusturation of trying to press on when you have pain. Espeically if you were like me and told that you had to have the perfect posture and do all sorts of weird things to work on the computer. I actually found one of my many "RSI Mouses" yesterday when I was cleaning out a closet. It was this goofy upright mouse that looked more like a joystick then a mouse. I used pretty much every kind of RSI tool/technique to help me limit or overcome my symptoms and none of them worked.
It is challenging, though, to keep on when you do have pain. The one thing that I did was just remind myself that it's TMS and I'm not going to injure myself. Sure my symptoms increased slightly and it was hard to do, but my perserverence forced my unconscious mind to accept the diagnosis. And that is why being active is so effective. It is in line with the idea that actions speak louder then words. When we are active and work through the pain and ignore it, we are essentially telling our unconscious mind that no matter what symptoms you throw at me, I will not let it take over my life and prevent me from doing what I want. When we do not let our symptoms control our lives, we rid it of the fuel it needs to continue.
Getting back to physical activity (and I include typing in this) is a challenge for everyone and doubt is going to try to sneak back in the beginning. When you feel the doubt creaping back in, remind yourself of the reasons you have TMS. Do something like Enrique where he made a Scorecard of the reasons he had TMS and carried it with him when he was exercising. I think the general idea is to try and develop a plan on how you are going to handle doubt and stick with it. This way, if you feel an increase of symptoms, you can almost immediatly read Dr. Sarno's reminders. Having a plan will help you use your symptoms as a signal to look inward and break the cycle of fear.
Explorer
Well known member
Hi Lala:
Guess what - I have not pain in the back of my legs of glutes. Also heading out with hubby, something I would have put of and felt depressed about before learning about TMS. This is a miracle! I've only had this pain for 9 weeks. I has to be TMS. So much work to do.
Talk soon!
Susan
Guess what - I have not pain in the back of my legs of glutes. Also heading out with hubby, something I would have put of and felt depressed about before learning about TMS. This is a miracle! I've only had this pain for 9 weeks. I has to be TMS. So much work to do.
Talk soon!
Susan
Steve Ozanich
TMS Consultant
Lala, ya got my on my knees, won't you ease my worried mind? Good luck, I wish you the best. If you have questions let me know.
I don't have a Kindle, but didn't know you had to order my book on it? Don't you just download it? Or is "ordering" just a phrase? I don't have control over what Amazon does.
Susan Explorer, you can read all about my story if you like, and have time, and want to heal. I too am an engineer. I saw you were in PA but on the farside. I'm in Ohio but near Sharon, PA, many many hours from you. If you need help let me know.
Steve
I don't have a Kindle, but didn't know you had to order my book on it? Don't you just download it? Or is "ordering" just a phrase? I don't have control over what Amazon does.
Susan Explorer, you can read all about my story if you like, and have time, and want to heal. I too am an engineer. I saw you were in PA but on the farside. I'm in Ohio but near Sharon, PA, many many hours from you. If you need help let me know.
Steve
Lala
Well known member
Hi Steve, yes, when you have a kindle you still need to buy the book, you buy/order it digitally (usually for a cheaper price than the hardcover) and then it digitally downloads right from your computer directly to your kindle (wirelessly). I am finding your take on TMS fascinating. I have read The Mindbody Prescription about 20 times and am now reading The Divided Mind, but I am finding your book refreshing and I am learning new things...is a reminder that it is good to read different authors on the same subject...I especially find your connection between early separation anxiety and TMS really interesting. I am sure I'll have other questions and comments as I read further. Its so nice to have direct access to an author (and fellow TMSer). Thanks for your support.
Explorer
Well known member
Thanks Steve - then you know how the engineer's mind works. I will order your book and see great reviews. I have found a TMS doc which should help. I would love it if you could find me some who recovered from fibro using TMS, someone I can chat with. I am only 9 weeks into this and on Day #4. This site is great! And there are so many folks who are so very supportive. Let me know if you have someone I can connect with that had all over fibro. Of course fibro is TMS.
Thanks for writing such a great book. Went to the book store today but learned I could order it only.
Take care,
Susan
Thanks for writing such a great book. Went to the book store today but learned I could order it only.
Take care,
Susan
Steve Ozanich
TMS Consultant
Susan let me know what you think about my book. All the stores can get it because Ingram has it; they're the biggest distributor. It's a catch-22, I have to move books to help more people heal, it sounds self-serving but it isn't. I wrote for 10 years to help people out of suffering, not to make money. TMS is not a seller, people in general don't believe it. But if I don't sell books, I can't help many people. I can't physically help each person one at a time like I used to. But my success also means that TMS is catching on around the world. Right now Germans have begun to pick up my book and read about TMS. Just like here in the US, many believe, and many don't. My book was just presented at the Frankfurt Book Expo, the largest book fair in the world. Waiting on feedback now. That's one reason I couldn't go to the PPDA Conf. I really wanted to meet Forest, Alan Gordon, GeorgieO, and Dr. Zafrides. But we can't have everything, as Stephen Wright said, "where would we put it?"
I spoke to many people who were diagnosed with fibro, but I never followed them after they healed. I spoke to thousands of people in the past 11 years about TMS, it was too much to control all that information. I will ponder someone who may want to talk, but most who heal simply move on and live happily ever after like Shrek. A doc once tried to diagnose me with fibro because I had so much pain, but I said, "I don't have fatigue, and I don't have those palpation points," so he backed off. Plus, I think there's a thread here somewhere warning about the balance of trying to find someone with similar symptoms and not focusing on the body anymore...yin chases yang thingy.... Although, I did cite Andrew Weil when he said that people heal better when they find someone who has healed from the same thing they have. It has a more powerful influence within the unconscious mind if we "see" healing, as opposed to reading it or having a physician tell us to heal. The unc. more readily accepts the meme. But try not to be like St. Thomas, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
You can heal without seeing, you just need full belief. That is the most important factor in healing...full belief.
Did you check this site for any happy-fibromyonians?
I am an engineer by degree. It's like the old joke Huey Lewis used to tell, "I was in medical school, but switched to electrical engineering and 'shocked' my parents." Huey switched from EE to singing. I wonder how that singing thing ever worked out for him?
Lala, thanks for the Kindle lesson. I should probably get one, and indoor plumbing. Did they ever send a guy to the moon yet?
On Friday, they re-aired my interview with Janette on SiriusXM. They put it on with Penny Marshall because she also has a new book. The sales went through the roof because Penny was a great lead-in. I passed Mindbody Prescription and Divided Mind, but can never get past Healing Back Pain (my favorite). The Sirius listeners loved the interview so they invited me back for a new TMS interview in December. Sirius: Starz radio, 107. I don't know the exact date and time, but people will hear about TMS again that day. The march is on in the Sarno Militia.
I didn't want to focus on "what" TMS was in my book since Dr. Sarno did such a great job on that, and I'm not a medical expert. I was more interested in "why" TMS is. And that took me directly to early separation anxiety/rage. Clancy McKenzie, MD, is the Dr. Sarno of psychiatry, in that, he figured it out, but gets ignored by his many of his colleagues. They like to medicate, he likes to heal.
Dr. Sarno found out quickly that these people were perfectionists. But I wanted to know why. It quickly became apparent they didn't want to fail, but why? To avoid rejection of course, but why? Rejection is the thing we try to avoid every day, but why? (do I sound like a kindergarten kid?) But why? Howz come?
People who don't fear rejection have no worries, they are the Spicolis of the world. Psychotic patients have few physical problems, but when their psychosis wanes the physical problems appear. It has to do with becoming aware of yourself, or self awareness, then shame. Once the child suddenly realizes there are outside observers life's challenges begin. But why? ~~~> ego development.
And so on and so forth. Separation rage, self-awareness, ego, Two Trauma Mechanism, memory pathways, superego, etc....all lead to the development of symptoms. It's not just pain as Dr. Sopher kept reminding me, but "unpleasant symptoms." The brain doesn't care what it uses, it just wants to poke your mind's eye out for a while, to avoid certain aspects of yourself, through unpleasantness. This is the good doctor's "distraction theory." TMS is not a theory, it is a clinical fact, conclusively proven to be true. The theories are "bloodflow reduction" and "distraction."
We hide certain things, during conscious moments, and also during dream-state, because they are socially un-acceptable to us. This is why we don't, or can't, remember dreams, or why they appear in odd forms; to disguise them from our mind's eye. Unpleasant symptoms protect us from unthinkable thoughts, that at a deep level we actually enjoy (eros vs. thanatos).
Pain is hiding something from you that wants to be expressed, but can't be, for social reasons. It's the virtual language of the unconscious mind. This is why social activity is important in healing, and why social activities often fade with TMS.
So it can get complex as one force counters another to maintain balance, but it also divides the mind with "wanting to do right" with "not giving a damn." There are 2 dogs in every man, which one survives depends on which one gets fed.
TMS is like E = MC(squared). It's elegant and simple. But, as with all great discoveries they have no meaning unless the people accept it, and understand it so some degree. Dr. Sarno brought it to the people in a way they could see it. So it becomes.
Ok, enough for today. Dr. Z just called me to talk about the conference, and I can't wait to see if Forest took some photos in his Sunday go to meeten clothes.We have a lot to talk about if the truth is to continue to get fed.
Dr. Sarno contacted me about the Forbes article on Saturday. And so all is going well on the TMS front, thanks for tuning in to this evening's TMS, solo, fireside-chat. I hope to be back here when Forest returns, for a Saturday Webinar....soon.
"Just because a guy controls his pain doesn't mean he's not limping on the inside." Hollis A. Figg, How To Frame A Figg
Steve
I spoke to many people who were diagnosed with fibro, but I never followed them after they healed. I spoke to thousands of people in the past 11 years about TMS, it was too much to control all that information. I will ponder someone who may want to talk, but most who heal simply move on and live happily ever after like Shrek. A doc once tried to diagnose me with fibro because I had so much pain, but I said, "I don't have fatigue, and I don't have those palpation points," so he backed off. Plus, I think there's a thread here somewhere warning about the balance of trying to find someone with similar symptoms and not focusing on the body anymore...yin chases yang thingy.... Although, I did cite Andrew Weil when he said that people heal better when they find someone who has healed from the same thing they have. It has a more powerful influence within the unconscious mind if we "see" healing, as opposed to reading it or having a physician tell us to heal. The unc. more readily accepts the meme. But try not to be like St. Thomas, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
You can heal without seeing, you just need full belief. That is the most important factor in healing...full belief.
Did you check this site for any happy-fibromyonians?
I am an engineer by degree. It's like the old joke Huey Lewis used to tell, "I was in medical school, but switched to electrical engineering and 'shocked' my parents." Huey switched from EE to singing. I wonder how that singing thing ever worked out for him?
Lala, thanks for the Kindle lesson. I should probably get one, and indoor plumbing. Did they ever send a guy to the moon yet?
On Friday, they re-aired my interview with Janette on SiriusXM. They put it on with Penny Marshall because she also has a new book. The sales went through the roof because Penny was a great lead-in. I passed Mindbody Prescription and Divided Mind, but can never get past Healing Back Pain (my favorite). The Sirius listeners loved the interview so they invited me back for a new TMS interview in December. Sirius: Starz radio, 107. I don't know the exact date and time, but people will hear about TMS again that day. The march is on in the Sarno Militia.
I didn't want to focus on "what" TMS was in my book since Dr. Sarno did such a great job on that, and I'm not a medical expert. I was more interested in "why" TMS is. And that took me directly to early separation anxiety/rage. Clancy McKenzie, MD, is the Dr. Sarno of psychiatry, in that, he figured it out, but gets ignored by his many of his colleagues. They like to medicate, he likes to heal.
Dr. Sarno found out quickly that these people were perfectionists. But I wanted to know why. It quickly became apparent they didn't want to fail, but why? To avoid rejection of course, but why? Rejection is the thing we try to avoid every day, but why? (do I sound like a kindergarten kid?) But why? Howz come?
People who don't fear rejection have no worries, they are the Spicolis of the world. Psychotic patients have few physical problems, but when their psychosis wanes the physical problems appear. It has to do with becoming aware of yourself, or self awareness, then shame. Once the child suddenly realizes there are outside observers life's challenges begin. But why? ~~~> ego development.
And so on and so forth. Separation rage, self-awareness, ego, Two Trauma Mechanism, memory pathways, superego, etc....all lead to the development of symptoms. It's not just pain as Dr. Sopher kept reminding me, but "unpleasant symptoms." The brain doesn't care what it uses, it just wants to poke your mind's eye out for a while, to avoid certain aspects of yourself, through unpleasantness. This is the good doctor's "distraction theory." TMS is not a theory, it is a clinical fact, conclusively proven to be true. The theories are "bloodflow reduction" and "distraction."
We hide certain things, during conscious moments, and also during dream-state, because they are socially un-acceptable to us. This is why we don't, or can't, remember dreams, or why they appear in odd forms; to disguise them from our mind's eye. Unpleasant symptoms protect us from unthinkable thoughts, that at a deep level we actually enjoy (eros vs. thanatos).
Pain is hiding something from you that wants to be expressed, but can't be, for social reasons. It's the virtual language of the unconscious mind. This is why social activity is important in healing, and why social activities often fade with TMS.
So it can get complex as one force counters another to maintain balance, but it also divides the mind with "wanting to do right" with "not giving a damn." There are 2 dogs in every man, which one survives depends on which one gets fed.
TMS is like E = MC(squared). It's elegant and simple. But, as with all great discoveries they have no meaning unless the people accept it, and understand it so some degree. Dr. Sarno brought it to the people in a way they could see it. So it becomes.
Ok, enough for today. Dr. Z just called me to talk about the conference, and I can't wait to see if Forest took some photos in his Sunday go to meeten clothes.We have a lot to talk about if the truth is to continue to get fed.
Dr. Sarno contacted me about the Forbes article on Saturday. And so all is going well on the TMS front, thanks for tuning in to this evening's TMS, solo, fireside-chat. I hope to be back here when Forest returns, for a Saturday Webinar....soon.
"Just because a guy controls his pain doesn't mean he's not limping on the inside." Hollis A. Figg, How To Frame A Figg
Steve
Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)
Beloved Grand Eagle
Steve, I'm 82 and began having back pains about 2 months ago. I read HEALING BACK PAIN and
Explorer
Well known member
Steve:
Thanks for your generous response! You have a great sense of humor!! I am glad your book is doing so well. I'll get a copy today.
It's week two of my recovery and the first week, the honeymoon phase is over. That is oh, this is what I have, I'll be healed from TMS in a few weeks. I just read about a guy who healed over night. I have a lot of work to do. That I know.
As for fibro folks, Forest and Lara are sorta in the same boat as me. I never got a firm diagnosis of fibro because it's TMS. I too do not have the fatigue or fibro fog I hear folks talk about. I am having an emotional pain syndrome. Today the pain is worse than yesterday, but I am going to walk anyway knowing tomorrow the pain will likely be worse but exercise is so crucial in this plan.
Interesting enough, my unconscious mind is sending headaches and acid reflux my way today. I've been able to overcome the headaches. I just told them to go away!!!!
Again thanks for all your inputs! Looking forward to the book!
Susan
Thanks for your generous response! You have a great sense of humor!! I am glad your book is doing so well. I'll get a copy today.
It's week two of my recovery and the first week, the honeymoon phase is over. That is oh, this is what I have, I'll be healed from TMS in a few weeks. I just read about a guy who healed over night. I have a lot of work to do. That I know.
As for fibro folks, Forest and Lara are sorta in the same boat as me. I never got a firm diagnosis of fibro because it's TMS. I too do not have the fatigue or fibro fog I hear folks talk about. I am having an emotional pain syndrome. Today the pain is worse than yesterday, but I am going to walk anyway knowing tomorrow the pain will likely be worse but exercise is so crucial in this plan.
Interesting enough, my unconscious mind is sending headaches and acid reflux my way today. I've been able to overcome the headaches. I just told them to go away!!!!
Again thanks for all your inputs! Looking forward to the book!
Susan
Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)
Beloved Grand Eagle
Steve, I didn't get to finish my email...
I was wondering, doing journaling can be a downer, remembering all the TSM-producing baddies of our past and present.
Is it okay after doing a 20 minute journaling to remember POSITIVE things we should be grateful for, and recite positive mantras?
I was wondering, doing journaling can be a downer, remembering all the TSM-producing baddies of our past and present.
Is it okay after doing a 20 minute journaling to remember POSITIVE things we should be grateful for, and recite positive mantras?
honeybear424
Well known member
"TMS is not a theory, it is a clinical fact, conclusively proven to be true. The theories are "bloodflow reduction" and "distraction."
Thank you for this clarification. I intellectually know this, but yet I have heard myself explaining to others that TMS is Dr. Sarno's theory. I have written this statement on yet another sticky note to remind myself on a daily basis.
Thank you for this clarification. I intellectually know this, but yet I have heard myself explaining to others that TMS is Dr. Sarno's theory. I have written this statement on yet another sticky note to remind myself on a daily basis.
Lala
Well known member
Yes, walt (i'm answering your questioning directed towards steve)...in my experience, healing from TMS involves a balance of digger up unpleasant unconscious emotions with doing positive/life affirming things as well (positive affirmations, positive self-talk, time with friends or family, doing something fun by yourself, taking a hot, relaxing bath. I do the emotional work everyday via journaling and therapy, but I also read and say aloud my positive affirmations. It is all about balance
Lala
Well known member
ohhh, i like that one....its even better than "I approve of myself." I was so magnificent today that i bought myself a totally overpriced gorgeous new shirt that I love, b/c I deserve it!!! And it made me feel great and look great and feel happy. Sometimes we need to give ourselves a little break and just shower on the love!
Forest
Beloved Grand Eagle
Journaling is just one technique you can use to get better. If you find it to be frustrating and adds stress to your life then think about doing something different. There is a common view that you have to go digging around in your past to find THE thing you are repressing and uncover every little past event that caused your symptoms. But you don't have to do this psychoarcheology to get better. In a lot of cases simply understanding why you are repressing can help you overcome your symptoms.
There is a great thread about this topic (started by Steve) called Seeking the Grail. There is a great passage in it by Steve where he writes:
This tends to be in line with my own experience and views on TMS recovery. I had chronic pain for 18 years and had symptoms all over. I was able to recover without any extensive journaling. I didn't really do anything that could be considered as psychoarcheology. What I tried to do was understand how past experiences developed who I am today and how I react to situations today. I found this to be a helpful approach in my own recovery and it could be worth trying especially if doing deep work is bringing up anxiety and stress.
Explorer
Well known member
I am finding jounaling both stressful and revealing. As I moved through the Day #5 exerise I just kept adding to the lists from Day #4. I think in some cases forgiveness is so helpful. It calms the rage and allows you to discover that people are only human and they have their own demons to deal with. This is especially true of friends and family. And sometimes you have to forgive yourself and move on. Guilt seems to play a big role in TMS.
Even after I went for a walk yesterday I seem to have less pain in my legs today. I am very happy about that even though I know I have a long way to go, something seems to be changing. This is definately TMS.
Even after I went for a walk yesterday I seem to have less pain in my legs today. I am very happy about that even though I know I have a long way to go, something seems to be changing. This is definately TMS.