Two months in - still a short way to go

[Jenny]

So, it's been eight weeks since I started reading The Mind Body Prescription and three weeks since I've been following the TMS Wiki site. I am 95% pain free and can even stare a potential flare up in the face. My biggest realisation is that my pain is so very conditioned. I actually lived with torn cartilage for one and a half years and then a hip fracture (undiagnosed) for another teo years. I was in consistent pain from an underlying physical cause that when it was fixed I think my brain didn't know how to switch off the pain. All my emotions went straight into my pain. The biggest thing for me has been realising the underlying emotional triggers and also unlearning my pain. I realise that I expect to be in pain in certain situations and constantly think about it. My measure of success is how little I think about my body and pain everyday.

I was hoping to be completely pain free by now despite improving every day. The hardest part has been experiencing what I've read described as the extintion burst. My pain has gotten so bad during flare ups it's made me vomit. However, I did stare the most recent one in the face and it went away.

What I'm not sure aboutnow is how to proceed. I feelthat when I sitdown to work on the program my pain comes back just thinking about the pain. I am not sure whether I should just get on with life now and see how I go.

Any advice?

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, Jenny. It appears to me that you did condition your mind to think your pain was structural.
Put those thoughts behind you and work on the TMS causes of your pain. The SEP will help you to do that.

You didn't mention that you are working on repressed emotions. They probably are there and go back
to your childhood.

Work on TMS but not all the time. Only an hour or two a day is enough or more than enough.
Then, as you say, get on with your day. Enjoy each day. Try to take your mind off the pain.
Thinking about pain keeps it with us. Distractions that are pleasant can be healthy.

 

[Jenny]

Thanks Walt. It is so true that thinking about the pain keeps it with us. I think I have to work on the anger amd grief I'm still holding inside because I feel like I was let down by my medical practioners not looking far enough to realise I had a fractured hip. I'm not sure how to overcome that necause the anger is really strong.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Forgiving medical malpractice is not easy but can be done, and has to be done.

Steve Ozanich wrote about his experience with a doctor who went golfing when he should
have been saving Steve's wife's life and health. He sued, won the case, against that doctor and
others and a hospital, but he still had to forgive. That came hard, but he realized it had to be done.

I hope you can follow his example. Then your TMS pain from that anger will go away. Good luck.
Pray for the strength to forgive.

 

[Mala]

Jenny thx for your post.

Its really good that you have made such significant progress in a relatively short time of learning about TMS

I know how nerve pathways can be stimulated to the extent that they do not know how to shut off even when there is no real threat. You have been in pain so long that your brain has formed very deep memories of the pain that are still real despite the fact that the physical cause has been fixed.

You will have to somehow learn to 'forget' the pain which is easier said than done. By not reacting in the same way that you have normally reacted till now you will send new messages to the brain to form new & diffrent neural pathways.

The anger that you feel needs to be either discharged or some new more positive & stronger emotion needs to come to the forefront.

95% pain free is wonderful . I would rejoice & celebrate. Be aware of what you feel but don't let it consume you. Go live & do new wonderful things.

And do tell us more about your success. I personally would like to hear what you did and also more about how you got thru the 'extinction burst'


Mala