| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| neilo |
Posted - 08/14/2006 : 08:10:22
Hi all
Ive had forearm,wrist and hand pain for 6 years.
Im new to the sarno TMS idea having just read the "mindbody
prescription". I plan to carry on re reading it.
Im excited by this and hope its the breakthrough ive been longing for.I have some questions though.I guess like most people new
to this im not sure if i have a "real" injury or not.
If i don't play guitar, no pain. Why doesn't my brain try to
distract me when i don't play ?
The pain comes not when i play but about 20 minutes afterwards
why ?
The "pain" is often in the form of tightness, as if my tendons and muscles have been overstretched.
My other concern is that, when i first started my rsi journey i had been manically overworking and playing many hours of guitar .
Sounds consistant with an initial physical injury to me???
My thoughts are that maybe TMS latches on to a real injury to make it
last 6 years ?
nm |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| HilaryN |
Posted - 01/11/2007 : 12:55:18
Great! Thanks for telling us and tagging your story for searches.
Hilary N |
| neilo |
Posted - 01/11/2007 : 04:54:56
Thought id give an update on my original post last august.
I didn't mention on my post that i'd had knee pains for 18 months wich stopped my other hobby, karate. I had been forced to give this
up for 18 months.
I had read the MBP prior to my post in august.
I didn't notice any improvement until i read the devided mind book a month later.
My knee ws the first to lose its pain ( in October/November ). I had been hill walking up very steep climbs for a day with no pain, this confinced me my knee was ok. My knee hurt after and during karate but i started training anyway. The pain receded.
My hands were more stubborn but
I can now play guitar for about 50 mins at one go.
Pretty spectacular successstory really.
However, my knee is starting to playup again since i started up karate . I do feel the "strange" rsi type feeling in my left hand occaisionally. I guess that i need to keep up with my emotions
and anger etc. I had hoped that all this was all behind me now.
However, like i said above, my progress has been fantastic.
Neil
nm |
| HilaryN |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 17:08:26
It sounds like you're on the road to recovery, neilo. Good luck!
Hilary N |
| almost there |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 05:48:57
neilo,
Dr. Sarno says the body heals itself from injury within a time frame.....if the symptoms persist longer and tests are negative you can assume it's TMS.....the brain does indeed attach itself to something painful and keeps the symptoms going.....very clever these brains of ours!
I too am a long time "cure" from reading HBP and then MBP....several times each....I am presently reading "The Divided Mind"....slowly....because I don't want it to finish too quickly! |
| neilo |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 04:00:21
Thanks all for your excellent posts.
I think that the thought that i MIGHT have TMS is enough for me to
give it a go.
Ive found that ive been feeling a bit down and tense as i list
everything that bothers and saddens me. At the same time
im starting to feel that i have a little control over the discomfort for the first time.
that feels fantastic !
I played guitar yesterday for 10 minutes. When i finished, i did a tai chi form ( gentle stretching and improved blood flow hopefully )
hardly any discomfort for the rest of the evening !
perhaps a warm up before activity then a warm down afterwards is good
for the brain as well as body ?
Thanks again all
nm |
| carbar |
Posted - 08/14/2006 : 13:38:02
quote:
My thoughts are that maybe TMS latches on to a real injury to make it last 6 years ?
That's how I felt when I suffered from RSI (about 6 years as well). Reading Mindbody Perscription filled in that missing piece for me. I always felt like there might have been an emotional link to WHEN I developed the pain, but I figured that regardless of that, because the pain became chronic, I would have to deal with it for the rest of my life because irreversible structural damage had been done.
In fact, this was a great thing to beat myself up over, as my perfectionist/goodist tendencies oft required... :)
Well I was WRONG! Sarno is right. Knowledge is power. The brain is so powerful that it can have us believe all kinds of things about our bodies that are not true, just to avoid dealing with the internal conflicts and repressions that fuel TMS!
I'm glad to hear you have discovered Sarno's approach, I hope it can bring you towards healing. As reading all the posts here shows, it's not an overnight thing necessarily, but it's happening to all of us here. That's so encouraging to me!
I read the book in November and have seen all my symptoms lessen by 90-100% since December. It's really amazing that reading a book could do that. I was really ready to latch onto this, too. Another book I found very helpful to structure the work of truly feeling and reflecting was Full Catastrophe Living by Kabat-Zinn. I actually started this one before MBP, and I refer to it more.
Be well!
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| armchairlinguist |
Posted - 08/14/2006 : 13:25:52
If not being able to play is a big enough distraction to keep your mind off your emotional pain, then your mind needs no other distraction. So you don't have pain with other activity.
Pain coming after the activity can be even scarier because you never know how bad it will be, thus a very effective distraction. (This has not happened to me but it has happened to others on the board.)
Very likely your overplaying at the beginning of the pain also coincided with high stress. This was the case for me, where a lot of typing to finish finals also involved the stress of the finals and upcoming graduation and beginning grad school. The "overplaying" was a plausible trigger that your mind seized on.
There are a lot of successful RSI cures on the board, including me. I think it's unlikely that RSI is ever a real injury, especially when it's become long-term chronic. At any rate, you have little to lose from trying the approach. This is contrary to Sarno, but I would not recommend seeing another doctor, unless you haven't been in care for a long time. When I started I had seen 7 or more treatment professionals in 2 years, so I knew none of them could see anything wrong aside from the pain and tightness. I saw no point in seeing yet another.
--
Wherever you go, there you are. |
| shari |
Posted - 08/14/2006 : 09:58:11
Don't rule out injury before you see a doctor. If your pain is really physical, then your injury should be treated adequately. If your doctor can't find anything wrong with arm, or X-Ray or MRI show no abnormality, then you will better accept the idea of TMS and shift your attention away from your arm to focus on the psychological. |
| h2oskier25 |
Posted - 08/14/2006 : 08:38:17
Well, right up my alley.
Hello nm and welcome to a great forum.
Just as Sarno says, the mind is clever enough to know that you will think you initially "overused" you hands, or tendons or bones or muscles or nerves or whatever.
TMS can only "latch on" to a real injury in your MIND. Not at all in your body.
You sound like you have TMS, big time.
Especially the "hurts 20 minutes later" stuff. A real injury usually hurts while your active.
Congrats on being on the right path. Don't forget to do a search for 'SuccessStory:' and see the others who recovered from supposed "RSI", a term I don't give much credence to anymore.
Regards,
Beth |
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