| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| fs1epop |
Posted - 06/07/2006 : 14:44:58
Hi
I am 32yr old british male who lives in France.
Does anybody have any experiences with the timescales for healing tms. I have been in pain for almost 2 years but I read Dr Sarno's book about a month ago and within a week 60-70% of the pain literally dropped out of my body.
I had no trouble accepting the diagonosis. I got chronic fatigue syndrome about 6 months before I got the pain (which started during yoga). I came out of the chronic fatigue finally about xmas time. Although I had been getting better slowly, it wasn't till I really got to grips with my mental issues, and accepted that that was what was prolonging my illnes, that I fully recovered.
I am delighted to be able to function again and am confident I will continue to improve, but the last 20 - 30% is proving stubborn. Does anybody have any similar experiences and/or advice?
In good health
tim
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| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| n/a |
Posted - 06/09/2006 : 06:27:10
In my humble opinion journaling about pain is a bad idea. It is an emotional journal that you should concentrate on. How you are feeling or reacting to particular things or events in your life? But you must move way beyond what you consciously feel and try to get into what is under the surface as this is where the problems lie. Speculate as to what you think might be there if you have to. Your conscious feelings have little to do with your pain and you will see that once you understand what TMS is trying to do. Read the psychology sections in Dr. Sarno's books to get direction for your journaling. You should concentrate on three broad areas: 1) Childhood trauma, 2) Personality Characterisitcs, especially perfectionist, worrier, low self-esteem and goodist tendencies 3) Current stressors. All of this is discussed in Sarno's books in some detail. Dr. Sarno recommends you write as much as you can on each item. The more details the better.
Some do not find journaling to be helpful, so give it two weeks and see how it goes.
Peter
Yahya |
| n/a |
Posted - 06/09/2006 : 00:45:26
Hi Tim
Keeping a journal helped me - but it wasn't a journal that focussed on pain. I just wrote down everything that came into my head - no structure - just everything that occurred to me. The one rule I made for myself was that I made sure to note anything good that happened. I did write about how I felt physically, but more importantly, I wrote about emotions - good and bad.
I used to look back at what I'd written, once a week or so and because I didn't put any forethought into what I was going to write - I often surprised myself with what had come out.
Best wishes
Anne
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| fs1epop |
Posted - 06/08/2006 : 11:49:20
Thanks for the replies
What is journaing? Keeping a diary of the pain? I don't remember reading about that in the book. Is is a good idea, or is there a danger of becoming too obsessed and focussing too much on the pain?
tim |
| n/a |
Posted - 06/08/2006 : 07:42:46
Note that with TMS there is nothing to heal per se. Yes, Dr. Sarno titles his book "Healing Back Pain," but technically there is nothing injured to heal. As long as we think there is something to heal we pre-suppose a physical injury and when we pre-suppose a physical injury we resort to physical modalities to bring about a cure. We should monitor the language we use when describing TMS has it can re-enforce erroneous thinking which in turn slows our progress. |
| Plantweed |
Posted - 06/08/2006 : 05:58:30
I still have pain and stiffness in my lower back every day, but the big help with accepting the TMS self-diagnosis is that I'm fully aware that there's nothing physically wrong with me, and even though it hurts I plow through it and don't let it stop me. The past year we've been to Vegas, DC, and Florida on vacations, with a 3-4 day drive through the Finger Lakes next month, and that's a lot of driving and long plane flights (which I was terrified of). I had a couple of bad crying bouts and flirts with depression, right after I started reading HBP and then getting laid off. Now I know where it's coming from and I'm on the right track. The pain will hopefully go away someday, but at least my mind is at peace. |
| chicago |
Posted - 06/07/2006 : 17:18:59
I too have had a similar experience. In the last 6 months I have gotten 80 - 90% better. however the better I get the more anxious I get. Perhaps the need to be perfect. I want to be 100% better and never have to deal with the pain again. I think what needs to be done is to back off from the push to be 100% pain free and just continue to do the work. One person I read said that her improvement came a dribble at a time and then one day she realized she was pain free. |
| westcoastram |
Posted - 06/07/2006 : 15:08:16
I can tell you that I had very similar improvements and plateaued with about 20% pain remaining.
What I discovered was that I was so happy to have gotten so much better that I had backed off (almost unknowingly) from reading the books with frequency and journaling (just about every day).
Unknowingly, I had decided that I was happy with the pain as it was -- cause it was so much better and rehashing the reasons for it (repressed emotions) and rereading the books had become such a chore that I had decided I liked things the way they were.
Once I came to this realization, I rededicated myself to doing some work just about every day and now I'm at about 90-95% pain free. (It's been around two weeks since I've readedicated myself to my TMS exploration).
Perhaps this info will help you. |
