DVD Video: Mistakes That Delay Recovery

FredAmir

FredAmir

Well known member
Last edited:
Thanks again for posting this. It's really useful.

To summarize what you say: Don 't fear the pain. Don't give in to it. Don't focus on it.

It's really challenging to basically stop trying to do any kind of corrective exercises (strengthening the core, etc), particularly if you truly do have a minor structural issue that could potentially benefit from it, as I believe I do. I'm trying to find the middle ground between doing some exercises that could make that issue better, and overthinking or obsessing about it, which certainly has made the pain way worse than it needs to be.
 
hawaii_five0 said:
Thanks again for posting this. It's really useful.

To summarize what you say: Don 't fear the pain. Don't give in to it. Don't focus on it.

It's really challenging to basically stop trying to do any kind of corrective exercises (strengthening the core, etc), particularly if you truly do have a minor structural issue that could potentially benefit from it, as I believe I do. I'm trying to find the middle ground between doing some exercises that could make that issue better, and overthinking or obsessing about it, which certainly has made the pain way worse than it needs to be.
Click to expand...

Try this:
Write down 2-3 physically exciting activities that you want to do in the next 2-4 weeks and start working on achieving them. Make them your focus from the moment you wake up to when you fall asleep and see what happens to your TMS.
 
Thanks a lot. I do love the idea of incrementally getting to your goals (and having goals), I am going to try to move in that direction
 
hawaii_five0 said:
Thanks again for posting this. It's really useful.

To summarize what you say: Don 't fear the pain. Don't give in to it. Don't focus on it.

It's really challenging to basically stop trying to do any kind of corrective exercises (strengthening the core, etc), particularly if you truly do have a minor structural issue that could potentially benefit from it, as I believe I do. I'm trying to find the middle ground between doing some exercises that could make that issue better, and overthinking or obsessing about it, which certainly has made the pain way worse than it needs to be.
Click to expand...
I had this exact same thing for a long, long time.

focusing on the physical to ‘fix’ a structural issue was terrible for me. Exercising was fine. Warmups/stretches were fine. But in my opinion, they have to be restricted to that moment/day. Have a routine of activity and stick with it. Don’t throw anything in there because ‘this exercise will strengthen my problem and reduced my pain’. It may have a placebo effect short term but ultimately won’t do much.

you may not be in the same amount of pain when you are ‘strengthening’ but that’s because you’re already focusing on the physical, the need for pain as a means of focus has gone, it’s that vicious cycle

I have certainly obsessed over every little thing as you mention. Obsessing over the need to do the exercises, obsessing over every sensation, obsessing over finding the next miracle strengthening exercise. It is a hard cycle to break.
 
rob89 said:
I had this exact same thing for a long, long time.

focusing on the physical to ‘fix’ a structural issue was terrible for me. Exercising was fine. Warmups/stretches were fine. But in my opinion, they have to be restricted to that moment/day. Have a routine of activity and stick with it. Don’t throw anything in there because ‘this exercise will strengthen my problem and reduced my pain’. It may have a placebo effect short term but ultimately won’t do much.

you may not be in the same amount of pain when you are ‘strengthening’ but that’s because you’re already focusing on the physical, the need for pain as a means of focus has gone, it’s that vicious cycle

I have certainly obsessed over every little thing as you mention. Obsessing over the need to do the exercises, obsessing over every sensation, obsessing over finding the next miracle strengthening exercise. It is a hard cycle to break.
Click to expand...

@rob89: Yes, agreed, very hard cycle to break, particularly if like me you are a "do-er" and an "exerciser". But I agree that at a minimum keeping to a normalish exercise schedule and not obsessing about doing another exercise to "fix" yourself is key.

What is your situation now? You make it sound like you went thru this cycle for a long time (for me it's going on 6 months) but have found a better path?

thanks
 
hawaii_five0 said:
@rob89: Yes, agreed, very hard cycle to break, particularly if like me you are a "do-er" and an "exerciser". But I agree that at a minimum keeping to a normalish exercise schedule and not obsessing about doing another exercise to "fix" yourself is key.

What is your situation now? You make it sound like you went thru this cycle for a long time (for me it's going on 6 months) but have found a better path?

thanks
Click to expand...

I have suffered since September 2018. Until March of this year I was still adamant there was something wrong. Reading about TMS in all honesty was my last chance and so much resonated with me. I’m far, far from fixed. But to go from pain everyday, to maybe having a blip twice a week is progress. We will all get there.

i posted an intro yesterday, I used to play professional sports years ago, so very active and a doer like yourself. Throughout my pain since September 2018, I managed to continue training. No pain, but debilitating pain doing the most mundane things. Looking back now, the reason was there. Whilst training I was already actively focusing on the physical. So I didn’t need the pain as a distraction.

that’s why it’s a very touchy cycle, balancing being active for the health benefits and enjoyment or being physically active because there’s still a part of your that believes something is wrong.

I personally planned my activity for a week. So I allowed myself a warm up of upto 30 mins, then my training session, then 15 minutes at the end. The warm up and cool down were timed. During these times I could stretch and do all the things that could improve athletic performance and help my training that day. Outside of that window- nothing. If I had pain, or felt a knot, or a tight muscle it was ignored; as hard and difficult as that can be. By being disciplined, the need to constantly be focussing goes. I have my time and that’s it. I treat it like going to work. It’s not ideal, and obviously there will be tough times, but it has worked for me. One could argue my obsessive nature has now simply transferred to organising my physical activity to a T. But if that helps me on the road to pain reduction, I’ll take it
 
rob89 said:
I had this exact same thing for a long, long time.

focusing on the physical to ‘fix’ a structural issue was terrible for me. Exercising was fine. Warmups/stretches were fine. But in my opinion, they have to be restricted to that moment/day. Have a routine of activity and stick with it. Don’t throw anything in there because ‘this exercise will strengthen my problem and reduced my pain’. It may have a placebo effect short term but ultimately won’t do much.

you may not be in the same amount of pain when you are ‘strengthening’ but that’s because you’re already focusing on the physical, the need for pain as a means of focus has gone, it’s that vicious cycle

I have certainly obsessed over every little thing as you mention. Obsessing over the need to do the exercises, obsessing over every sensation, obsessing over finding the next miracle strengthening exercise. It is a hard cycle to break.
Click to expand...
Obsessing is an attempt to feel secure. It is mind’s way of dealing with insecurity. If you keep focused on controlling your environment or people or something else, it gives some sense of security through control.

A lot of these feelings of insecurity are developed early in life and lead to such negative mental and emotional habits. Hopefully, your therapist is helping you to sort things out and overcome it,
 
FredAmir said:
Obsessing is an attempt to feel secure. It is mind’s way of dealing with insecurity. If you keep focused on controlling your environment or people or something else, it gives some sense of security through control.

A lot of these feelings of insecurity are developed early in life and lead to such negative mental and emotional habits. Hopefully, your therapist is helping you to sort things out and overcome it,
Click to expand...
100% and I never realised it previously.

I always put it down to ‘drive’ but it wasn’t. It was a need to be in total control because of some kind of insecurity
 
rob89 said:
I have suffered since September 2018. Until March of this year I was still adamant there was something wrong. Reading about TMS in all honesty was my last chance and so much resonated with me. I’m far, far from fixed. But to go from pain everyday, to maybe having a blip twice a week is progress. We will all get there.

i posted an intro yesterday, I used to play professional sports years ago, so very active and a doer like yourself. Throughout my pain since September 2018, I managed to continue training. No pain, but debilitating pain doing the most mundane things. Looking back now, the reason was there. Whilst training I was already actively focusing on the physical. So I didn’t need the pain as a distraction.

that’s why it’s a very touchy cycle, balancing being active for the health benefits and enjoyment or being physically active because there’s still a part of your that believes something is wrong.

I personally planned my activity for a week. So I allowed myself a warm up of upto 30 mins, then my training session, then 15 minutes at the end. The warm up and cool down were timed. During these times I could stretch and do all the things that could improve athletic performance and help my training that day. Outside of that window- nothing. If I had pain, or felt a knot, or a tight muscle it was ignored; as hard and difficult as that can be. By being disciplined, the need to constantly be focussing goes. I have my time and that’s it. I treat it like going to work. It’s not ideal, and obviously there will be tough times, but it has worked for me. One could argue my obsessive nature has now simply transferred to organising my physical activity to a T. But if that helps me on the road to pain reduction, I’ll take it
Click to expand...

@rob89: if you have gone om daily pain to having a blip 2x per week, that sounds like fantastic progress! Nice. I went back and read your intro also.

Yeah, my obsessive nature has also made this hard to cope with. I keep seeing that "letting go" and "acceptance" may be keys to all this, and I am trying to find a way to do that. I have not had my issue as long as you, "only" 6 months (also basically the worst 6 months of my life), but I have not really had any progress either, despite ridiculous number of specialists, exercises, etc. So at some point I will surely just say f*ck it and just do nothing, and maybe that will be the trick. I sometimes wonder if I was hit by a car and went in to a coma for a month, if I wouldn't wake up and the back pain would just be gone. Not that I intend to try that :) But this may be something like Chinese finger cuff, where the harder you try to get out of it, the tighter it gets.
 
hawaii_five0 said:
@rob89: if you have gone om daily pain to having a blip 2x per week, that sounds like fantastic progress! Nice. I went back and read your intro also.

Yeah, my obsessive nature has also made this hard to cope with. I keep seeing that "letting go" and "acceptance" may be keys to all this, and I am trying to find a way to do that. I have not had my issue as long as you, "only" 6 months (also basically the worst 6 months of my life), but I have not really had any progress either, despite ridiculous number of specialists, exercises, etc. So at some point I will surely just say f*ck it and just do nothing, and maybe that will be the trick. I sometimes wonder if I was hit by a car and went in to a coma for a month, if I wouldn't wake up and the back pain would just be gone. Not that I intend to try that :) But this may be something like Chinese finger cuff, where the harder you try to get out of it, the tighter it gets.
Click to expand...

You will get there eventually. I have known for a long time, deep down that I had to deal with the psychological. But the devil kept telling me, in the time of pain, that something was physical.

it’s interesting you mention an accident and I pray that doesn’t happen to you but you may find the focus moves. I have had a few instances over the last 3-4 months where something ‘serious’ has happened and it’s required immediate physical intervention/activity.....no pain. Yet simply getting out of bed some days is agony. It’s a complicated beast for sure :)
 
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