Total success with pain...new problem

[harryhaller]

I am writing this post because first of all I feel like I owe it. It helps enormously to read success stories, and I benefited from reading others' stories. But unfortunately some people might disappear and just go on with their life after their problems go away. In my case I occasionally thought about writing a success story, but putting all my thoughts into words adequately is imposing, so I kept putting it off.

To put it shortly, my neck pain eventually went away completely. It had been ruling my life for a couple of years, and then, after I discovered Sarno, I spent perhaps a little more than a year working on this and slowly getting better. I spent countless hours thinking about the interactions of the mind and body and reading books by Sarno, Ozanich, Weeks, Groddeck, as well as posts on this forum, of course. Thinking of the philosophical implications of all of it. And in a way this much more positive obsession replaced my earlier obsession with pain and its possible medical causes. Eventually this led me out of the darkness and now if I think about my neck it is only in relation to what I learned from the whole odyssey. And sometimes I can get quite emotional thinking about how the pain magically went away and I got my life back. The pain has been gone entirely for about three years.

I assure you that this will cure you. It is a fact that chronic pain begins in the emotions. It involves no physical damage to your body, and can only be cured with your mind.

Unfortunately now I have developed a new problem, with digestion - seemingly GERD. It started absolutely suddenly - I had no previous experience with reflux at all.

On one hand the timing of it developing is absolutely perfect for TMS: one day after arriving at my parents' house to spend the holidays with them; and I dealt with the most horrifying year ever (of course I realize that is the case with most people other than tech overlords, but I can venture that my year was even worse than most...).

But on the other hand it is hard for me to avoid physical thinking and health anxiety, since I am unable to get an endoscopy due to insurance problems, and my father helpfully told me that both he, his brother, and his father have life-long chronic GERD (with at least my father having a hiatal hernia). So the suspicion is there that there is a genetic connection. The problem feels absolutely physical, with unquestionable reflux in my esophagus (even bits of food getting to my mouth sometimes), constant burping, hunger pains, and in the last couple of days my mouth has started burning as well.

Now I don't know what to do or how to treat this problem, especially since, unlike with chronic pain, GERD has the potential of long-term damage. If anyone has an success stories about GERD I would like to hear.

 

[jimmylaw9]

Don’t know if it’s a success story as such but I defo had it for several months. On reflection I had chronic migraines and Gerd at same time dealing with volumes of paperwork in custody battle. Once it was over both resolved and just went away. Completely Tension related.

 

[=Tyger=]

Hi Harry,

It’s great to hear your success story. I’ve had Gerd in the past, and have fully resolved it (and before that resolved over four years of neck pain, too!) What gave me the breakthrough to recover from both was a medically based mind/body perspective, which indicates that cases of Gerd have to deal with territorial anger or an identity conflict. There’s a lot more to this, but in your experience I’d hazard that a year full of stress would prime you for responding to an unexpected and perhaps shocking conflict, perhaps with a family member, that could cause an anger or identity conflict (i.e. who am I, where do I belong?)

The inciting incident could seem quite minor, but it’s always unexpected. That’s what triggers the body’s response—a sense of overwhelm or helplessness, even if it’s fleeting.

I’ve found Sarno’s work and this perspective (it’s called German New Medicine—an unfortunate name) to be very complimentary. Both assert that full comprehension of the originating situation and the mind/body connection removes the need for the body to compensate. For me, finding out the specific correlations of conflict to symptom provided almost instant and lasting relief. If you’d like to learn more, here’s a link to a GNM practitioner’s blog post on this subject.

https://www.newmedicineonline.com/heartburn-reflux-disease-ulcers/ (Heartburn. (GERD) Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Ulcers)

 

[KseniyaM]

Hi Harry!
I relate to your story a lot! When my chronic back/hip/neck pain and toothaches and sensitivities started to get better, went away almost completely with the usage of TMS method, suddenly I started to have reflux and nausea every day! Never experienced it before, the same as you. And my first vacation in years with my family is just a week from now. Seems so similar to your story.
How are you feeling now? Hope you’re better.

 

[harryhaller]

Not really much better, although maybe a bit overall.
The stomach problem didn't start when the neck pain stopped, I had several years in between where I had no specific health problem. The stomach problem started as a result of the events of 2020, of this I am certain.

 

[Baseball65]

GERD has the potential of long-term damage

Yeah and No. The first time I had this problem I went and saw a doctor who scared the crap out of me...dropping the "C" word that everybody comes down with after reading WebMD for a half hour.

But once again, even if you say, take something for the Acid? You still use the strategy "Why is my body feeling the need to give me a symptom? What might be going on that I am unaware of?"

Remember that it's the process of investigation WHILE the symptom is going on that is the most effective part of the therapy.

I have read a lot of posts that go like this ;"If only i could get out of pain for a minute THEN I would investigate what might be going on in the realm of my unconscious"...when the truth is, the most effective time to investigate it is while you are in pain!!!!!

Having reflux for a few weeks or even a month while you self evaluate is NOT going to cause you any great harm and taking a pepcid or tagamet or whatever isn't going to downgrade the quality of your self evaluation

 

[Ellen]

I had an endoscopy recently which showed a hiatal hernia. My doctor said this could cause GERD. I had never had a problem with GERD, but shortly after being told that, I had an episode of GERD. I'm very vulnerable to this kind of nocebo. But once I was able to realize it was a nocebo, I've never experienced another episode.