Using the power of mind/body information against yourself...

I've been plagued with TMS symptoms for as long as I can remember. In elementary school, it took the form of stomach pain and severe anxiety attacks. As I grew out of the anxiety attacks, back pain became stronger and stronger, and has hindered my way of life (to a great extent) for what is essentially my entire life.

About two years ago, I read through John Sarno's book and believed (and still do) in his thoughts on the subject. I experienced relief for some time. However, the back/stomach pain slowly came back (and always occurs in tandem). Prior to reading Sarno's work, I had gone to many of the top doctors in NYC and undergone a litany of tests, all of which can be summed up by one particular specialist saying "I guess you'll just have to deal with it".

I haven't followed up on the daily reminders/work Sarno recommends, which is likely the reason I haven't seen my success last permanently. I know with my history of TMS symptoms, I likely have very deeply repressed emotions and will not experience the cure some enjoy with a simple single read through. I've ordered a few of the other books recommended by other members here in an effort to re-engage my brain in the reality of the situation on a routine basis as opposed to reading the same book for a third time (which might work but I frankly find it too boring - and have in fact listened to his abridged audio book probably 6 times in the last year).

So, with that brief background out of the way, on to the title of this post. I whole-heartily agree with the power of Dr. Sarno's "solution to the problem". However, I'm chronically guilty of over-thinking/analyzing situations (likely a significant component of my overall psyche that exposes me to the disorder in the first place). In one part of the Mindbody Prescription, Sarno indicates some of the more serious complexes, including certain types of cancer, may be TMS related. I've recently taken this thought to a disheartening conclusion, which is we are capable of giving ourselves serious medical conditions. I may have had this thought buried in my head since first reading Sarno's books, which could be hindering my progress as I'm obviously aware of it.

I've done a great deal of reading, and haven't seen this particular thought discussed. I'd be appreciative of any insights on this. The brain obviously isn't rational, so what's to stop it from becoming aware it's capable of even more serious damage than back pain and in fact inflicting it?

 

Clearmind,
I just want you to know reading that in Dr. Sarno's book also upset me about how the brain can inflict serious conditions.
I do not think we should over analyze this. I believe even with the symptoms of TMS, we have to trust that our bodies know how
to self-heal and wants to heal. I do believe we can help facilitate this by learning relaxation techniques such as deep breathing,
thinking positively, capturing every negative thought, positive affirmations....Our belief system is very powerful. Sometimes,
when we are challenged with TMS symptoms we have to investigate our limiting beliefs which I think are only human.

A great book that I highly recommend is The Anatomy of a Miracle by Dr. James Richards. Every page you will glean from
and will surely encourage you. I keep this book constantly in front of me because he explains how to change things in all aspects
of your life from a somewhat scientific approach. It is a must read for everyone who is challenged with TMS. It will give you
hope and motivation to move forward.

I really enjoyed reading your post.
G.R.

 

GR is so right-thanks GR-write me more sometimes ok.

(Quote-ClearMind)- So, with that brief background out of the way, on to the title of this post. I whole-heartily agree with the power of Dr. Sarno's "solution to the problem". However, I'm chronically guilty of over-thinking/analyzing situations (likely a significant component of my overall psyche that exposes me to the disorder in the first place). In one part of the Mindbody Prescription, Sarno indicates some of the more serious complexes, including certain types of cancer, may be TMS related. I've recently taken this thought to a disheartening conclusion, which is we are capable of giving ourselves serious medical conditions. I may have had this thought buried in my head since first reading Sarno's books, which could be hindering my progress as I'm obviously aware of it.

Eric)- the worry when we hear symptoms that others could have per se-here we call that tmsing
you are fine, a normal person like all of us, dont sweat the small stuff was a little book that said hey eric
get your mind out of there-we all do it periodically without even realizing it at times-as long as we catch ourselves and stop sweating it.
See i was a contractor,for a lot of years and we tore off more asbestos roofs than i can count-then those commercials come on -where the guy has mesothelioma-and hes like hey im ralph and i have meso, like its normal-well its not normal-( and i hope the best for ralph and his family)- but that commercial with the others thats been airing since i tore off all those asbestos roofs
has been running about as many years as i have been trying to get over the first one-
heres the fact; i conditioned myself to know thats not true-but see at first i was trying to run from the thought and we cant run from our fears-thats our foundation-we face them- see the more we run the more we get conditioned to that thought, dont accept those thoughts -although way back there i can still think of it in an instant,it doesnt really bother me anymore.yes i know how to worry about cancer-and i also know how to make that worry of no effect-ill have to say though first, you have to put that issue to the side for a moment and talk to me about what is physically bothering you-or if thats it
let us know-ok,-we really care about your well being here.

(ClearMind)- I believe even with the symptoms of TMS, we have to trust that our bodies know how
to self-heal and wants to heal. I do believe we can help facilitate this by learning relaxation techniques such as deep breathing,
thinking positively, capturing every negative thought, positive affirmations....Our belief system is very powerful. Sometimes,
when we are challenged with TMS symptoms we have to investigate our limiting beliefs which I think are only human.

Eric)- tms healing is to let us know what were doing wrong and correct it-looks like you have the solutions above-do you practice them with a whole heart everyday-if not id get to doing that-it will help a lot but like any bad habit-we have to give the practice all we got and time is crucial-like 3 weeks of believeing and practice and applying,then see how your doing and let us know.
i wanna say your not going to get cancer by hearing sarno say it could be a symptom
but i leave that to the scientist-my part is to get your mind healed and off those thoughts and you can do it-so you can heal
see when we start to explore the beutiful world of tms healing, were not going to expect anything really-but you really should-thats how we heal here with thoughts an actions and as you see theres a lot of healing going on-your success story is what you should keep your mind on.
i mean nothing else worked-huh. well it works here, this is a site for miracles if you ask me.
tms healing does work clearmind, and your thoughts are not your enemy,their there to help you soar to the greatest parts of life you can hope to have-in my thinking would be happiness and helping others. when were done youll love to tell others of the benefits
we have to get you cleared first
1) go back to sarnos books and read the treatment chapter
2) do all it says to do again and again for three weeks
3) learn to re-frame and face or journal any bad thoughts and keep reframing,journaling and facing-over time-3 weeks-speak your good affirmations here-look at my post on affirmations
thers much more ;
these thoughts of insecurities shold leave and youll start to see a new way to think about stuff
4) if you have more questions-ask more and we will be happy to help here at tmswiki
your with folks just like you here.we all have been in very conflicting battles-but for reasons of the mind
we always win.
5)- thinking positive is a powerful tool and its the first line of defense in sarnos reminders to me when he says its not structural-that alone had me thinking good thoughts-we can have all the negative thoughts in the world-than a few hours much less weeks of thinking the truth can really free ya mind to do what it supposed to do -protect you-there a lot more-do these stategys as GR and i have laid out.let us know how it works for you.
god-bless

 

Eric,
Thank you, I so enjoy reading your posts.
G.R.

 

(Quote-ClearMind)- So, with that brief background out of the way, on to the title of this post. I whole-heartily agree with the power of Dr. Sarno's "solution to the problem". However, I'm chronically guilty of over-thinking/analyzing situations (likely a significant component of my overall psyche that exposes me to the disorder in the first place). In one part of the Mindbody Prescription, Sarno indicates some of the more serious complexes, including certain types of cancer, may be TMS related. I've recently taken this thought to a disheartening conclusion, which is we are capable of giving ourselves serious medical conditions. I may have had this thought buried in my head since first reading Sarno's books, which could be hindering my progress as I'm obviously aware of it.

I too am an over-analyzer, over-thinker. I am just now beginning to realize the true extent of this for me. I believe these tendencies are the result of some of my pain-prone personality traits - the perfectionist can't miss a thing because that wouldn't be perfect, the goodist can't miss a thing because the thing that gets missed might upset or hurt someone else, and the fear-prone is overwhelmed with the "what if's" of possibly missing something. All of these combine and generate all sorts of dangerous emotions for me. Recently I was 'circle ruminating' (that's what I call it when there's a question on a race car track in my head) about the accuracy of a childhood memory I had. I was all caught up in the "details" and I was looking for guidance or direction from multiple sources. One of the responses I got stopped me in my tracks: "do the details really matter? and if so, why?". The memory itself is from an event that really transpired. When I thought about that response I realized - the reason the details mattered to me was because I was looking for a way to keep myself from having to feel the emotions the memory was generating. If I could somehow confirm through the details that the memory was not as bad as I was recalling, it would negate the emotions - which is how I got into this whole TMS mess to begin with! I'm trying to direct my natural "analysis" at my thoughts these days and it seems to be helping. I force myself to answer questions about my thoughts until I have the truth for me. What I'm realizing is that somehow I became very skilled at lying to and believing myself - this took me quite by surprise as I am honest to a fault with others - but then again, others rarely force me to be honest with myself - just with them.

As for your disheartening conclusion - let's assume for a moment that it's true - that we are capable of giving ourselves serious medical conditions. If that is true (and the evidence does seem to support it) than the inverse of that also must be true. If we are capable of giving ourselves these serious medical conditions than we are also capable of healing ourselves from them. It sounds as though you are predisposed to focus on the negative - I am 100% guilty of that myself and working hard to change it. The doctors who have written these books surmise that we are entirely capable of healing ourselves. Incidentally, it is not just human doctors that subscribe to that line of thought. I had a conversation with an animal doctor recently and he told me that the most valuable thing he learned in medical school came from an internist who told him to remember that his real job was to recognize when his skills were actually needed, to keep in mind that 60% of the animals that were brought to him for treatment did not require anything from him at all to heal completely - all living organisms have a remarkable ability to cure themselves.

Incidentally, I also do not derive much value from reading the same book over and over. I find my mind will automatically speed right past anything it has already seen before, regardless of which book contains it. What seems to work best for me is reading a variety of books and authors slowly - taking notes as I go along (a tip I got from my wise little sister). The note taking not only prevents me from reading very quickly - which is my natural tendency - but also serves the additional purposes of instilling the information further into my brain and being available for review later on.

 

The point of reading the information over and over is that it takes time for it to sink into our minds. The same way symptoms may have built up over time, the mind needs time to process things over time. I remember being stuck in bed, unable to do anything, and read the pages Dr. Sarno gave me (these exact papers are in The Divided Mind) EVERY DAY for 30 days. yes, I do recall thinking "I just read this five times, why again" but since I was stuck in bed unable to do ANYTHING, I did it because my only other option was surgery. I pushed through and read it. Even though I knew what was on the pages. Repitition for emphasis is necessary for healing.

The fact that our emotions can cause physical conditions is new information to most people--thus the new information needs to be fed to us repeatedly.

If you don't want to read the same info over, there are many good mind/body books that will reinforce what we need. You can check my profile for a list of such books.

And though I do believe our emotions/situations/resentments/unhealed [ ] can cause both serious and livable conditions, if we can create them, we can also heal them as someone mentioned above. There are people who have done just that.

Please don't spend your time worrying about what could happen and concern yourself with the good you can do for yourself!

Best wishes!

 

Oh. Man. Did this resonate. I have found that I try to find the source of the feeling/emotion so that I can avoid feeling it in the future. "If I just swipe this issue out at the roots, I won't have to suffer at its hand in the future." Part of me believes that. My therapist calls it willful behavior

I agree, and second your suggestion to read multiple sources if that's what it takes to get the information into your brain over and over again. Repetition reinforces meaning. I have moments all the time where I can hear something 5 times and on the 6th, it clicks and I'm like Oooooohhhhhhhh....

 

Clearmind,
How are you doing?
G.R.