| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 07:54:56
The following quote is from Chapter 7 pages 251-252 of Dr. Sarno's "The Divided Mind," and was written by Rheumatologist Andrea Leronard-Segal, M.D. I have capitalized the last sentence as it is so important in highlighting the role of obesssion with physical symptoms and the role it plays in distracting one from unconscious emotions:
"Even though there is no life-threatening problem or objective measure of illness, people think of themselves as fragile or unwell. They are obsessed with their symptoms, often aware of their pain or their body at some level 100 percent of the day. They are terribly ferarful. They are very very fearful of "injury" and that they will be permanently disabled. They are afraid to engage in many normal physical activities, even during periods when the pain may have abated. They often think that they are easily injured. Fear drives the way they do or do not engage in physical activities. Some patients are so afraid that they essentially stop doing everything physical and are consciously aware of virtually every physical motion they make and how their body parts are aligned with respect to one another. They feel out of control because they expect the pain to occur as a consequence of what they do or do not do. BY CONTRAST, THIS DEGREE OF FEAR AND OBSESSION WITH PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS IS NOT TYPICAL, IN MY EXPERIENCE, EVEN AMONG PATIENTS WITH SERIOUS, DEFORMING ARTHRITIC CONDITIONS LIKE GOUT OR RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS."
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 11:37:31
Hi Wavy,
Yours is a successstory. Your exercise program appears fully in keeping with what Dr. Sarno prescibes: "return to normal activity". This is different for each person depending on which square of the TMS dynamic they are starting from. Dr. Sarno recommends starting slowly and not over-doing it, which could lead to a "new injury" and an emotional setback.
Walt Stack, founder of the Dolphin Club Runners had a similar mantra before starting his Sunday morning races through the streets of SF: "Start slowly and then taper-off" and also "Remember it's us turkeys at the back of the pack that make you fast guys look good".
For those with little physical stamina and little emotional confidence, gentle exerciseing such as walking, bicycling or a warm pool are a good start. In two weeks the body (and mind) quickly strenghthen and become re-conditioned to movement and the mind becomes less "noisey".
With all the resources that are available today for exercise, there's no good reason not to. Getting back out their and exerciseing was the first step in my breaking the circle of the significant depression I was in a while back. You have to start with that first baby-step.
Good job Wavy, watch out Arnold!
Aloha,
tt |
| Wavy Soul |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 10:54:43
When I was in full TMS mode, I found that the only way I could feel like a normal human was in a warmish pool. At the time I had one built in the backyard of my home. For a while I felt as though I was recovering. Then it exploded or something - the septic tank did, anyway - and I was pool-less for a year or more. I found I had completely given my power of getting better to the pool. I felt like a victim, with no pool.
In the last 3 years, in an apartment where there is a fab warm pool, I started getting stronger just from that. I also got some gentle workout devices for my home.
But as my TMS realizations started to kick in I have found the pool workouts (which I still do because I meet friends there) to be relatively cissy. Now it's Gold's Gym almost every day, at least for yoga classes and 3 times a week with a torturous personal trainer. All the money I used to spend on massages and chiropractors etc. now goes to my trainer who is instructed to make me work even harder on the side where my back has allegedly "gone out."
For about 30 years I was the fragile, frail one, completely identified with being sick, a lot of the time, always pursuing the elusive "cure" or "healer."
HA!!
See my muscles now!! I'm converting a reservoir of rage into mountains of muscles!
Wavy Gym Babe
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 06:32:48
That vitaman C thing, in my opinion, was not what cured him. Yes, he took vitaman C, but his overwhelming empahsis was that the body estentially cures itself.
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| art |
Posted - 02/22/2007 : 05:55:28
The other part of his self-treatment was massive doses of vitamin "c"... |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 15:11:37
If you read the late Norman Cousin's "Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient" you will find out how, with the use of only his mind and a lot of laughter, he cured himself 100% of a form of arthritis then called Marie-Strumpell's disease (Ankylosing Spondylitis--although this diagnosis is currently in doubt and it has been suggested that Cosuins may actually have had Reactive arthritis). It is a fascinating reading and Dr. Sarno highly admires him.
You can read about Mr. Cousins at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins
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| armchairlinguist |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 14:27:16
I read recently that some types of therapy for depression recommend that the depressed person arrange to do things that they think might be fun or interesting, and do the thing even if they don't feel like it. After a while all the doing seems to contribute to enhanced well-being. I wish I could remember where I read this. It's based on a theory similar to what TT and art said, that we need a kind of feedback from the envirovment, to be active and engaged, and this helps us feel good.
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Wherever you go, there you are. |
| art |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 14:03:05
Regarding TT's hymn to the healing powers of water, there are some other gentle ways to work out, or relatively gentle anyway, that one can do on dry land...
Two options: kickbike and Trikke....The first is simply a scooter supported by an actual bicycle frame, the other is harder to describe so I suggest just sticking it in a google box...This is not a 3-wheeled bike, but something entirely differnt...
The Trikke especially is quite gentle, and the kickbike is also easy on the joints, and has the added benefit of providing a superb workout...
I know these things are a bit beside the point, that the goal here is to lose ones fear of injury in whatever environment, but there's nothing wrong with going at things sensibly....
I'd be dead without exercise, no question...No matter how sick I might feel on any given day, it's virtually never too sick to have a workout of some kind...
As to self-esteem, that's a tricky one. There's the kind TT discusses, which is all well and good, except that it is by definition fleeting..One is forever trying to "prove" ones worth, and that's dicey...
That said, it's the rare person who can feel genuinely great without creating some sort of feedback loop from the self to the environment and back.. |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 13:51:18
Genuine self-esteem and self-confidence comes from accomplishment. Success breeds success. Find something you like doing, show up everyday and do it to the best of YOUR ability and within two weeks your TMS will melt away, you will sleep well at night and be a happy TMS camper.
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| armchairlinguist |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 13:04:01
I can attest, having had a long friendship with someone with rheumatoid arthritis, that she did (and presumably still does) her best to forget about it and do as much and have as much fun as she could, including sports, music, and typing. I always admired her attitude even though I did (being a TMS-type worrier) worry that she was hurting herself with her insistence on activity. Now I am guessing not as much as she would have if she had worried herself!
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Wherever you go, there you are. |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 12:09:06
Purusant to the quotes cited above, I have found that the purpose of the pain is a strategy of my brain to enduce me into seeing myself in a particular way, ie, weak, fragile and suffering from a physical ailment. What I have to do, in order to thwart this strategy, is to seem myself as being strong, healthy with no physical problems. As long as I see myself as having a physical problem the TMS wins and the pain will continue.
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| tennis tom |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 10:39:02
quote:
Originally posted by shawnsmith
Tom, I noticed some minor typing errors in in the quote I used. Hands working faster than my brain. (grrrrr) I made the changes. Can you cut and past the quote you used to reflect the changes I made?
Merci
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No worries Shawn, I'll do it when I figure it out in a while--but first gotta' jump in the pool. Don't get too "grrrrr" about typos. When the fingers are ahead of the conscious mind, that's the creativie abndonment going--a good thing for TMS'ers. As long as the meaning is not aprrecialbly altered, it's of no import. Every good writer has editor's and proof-readers who take care of that mundane stuff for them. It's the thought that counts.
I reall studying the American Indians, in the third grade. They always left an error in their rugs for the evil-spitits to escape. Don't worry about being "TMS-perfect"--in fact, make deliberate misteakes. That last two percent is the killer-98% is good enough in my book. |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 09:47:17
Tom, I noticed some minor typing errors in in the quote I used. Hands working faster than my brain. (grrrrr) I made the changes. Can you cut and past the quote you used to reflect the changes I made?
Merci
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| tennis tom |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 09:42:11
"They are very very fearful of "injury" and that they will be permanently disabled. They are afraid to angage in many normal physical activities, even during periods when the pain may have abated. They often think that they are easily injured. Fear drives the way they do or do not engage in physical activities. Some patients are so afraid thtntye essentially stop doing everything physical and are consciously aware of virtually every physical motion they make and how their body part are aligned with respect to one another."
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Good choice of a quote Shawn. For anyone in this state I highly recommend finding a swimming pool and returning to the water where life on this planet origninated from. I know of people who can barely move on the land, but in a the water they resemble fish. I know of one gentlemen in a wheel-chair, paralyezed for life from an auto accident, who swims daily. He drives to the pool, gets his wheelchair out of his car, and swims vigorously with a float between his legs. He is always in a good frame of mind and jovial.
We are lucky in the US that there are so many public, private and home pools, mostly going unsused. There's almost no way you can injure yourself in the water. Even competitve swimmers rarely get any injuries. The water is a very forgiving medium. It will gently massage your skin, the largest organ of the body as it aids your circulation. A half hour a day will invigorate the body enough to strengthen it to deal with the rigors of TMS on then mind. Two weeks of a half hour a day, would help balance one measureably.
You can do laps, walk, or float using a flotation device like a "pool-noodle" or Aqua-Jogger belt.
Good Luck, Just Do It!
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| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 09:39:20
She also writes on page 250-251 of the same book:
"Thus, even though patients look very healthy from the view of the physician, they feel frail and vulnerable. I often tell my patients that they need to come to view themselves as I see them, healthy and strong, rather than as they have been seeing themselves. Patients are often suprised to hear this comment from me. Generally, I am the last in a long line of doctors they have see and none has said anything like this to them before."
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| art |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 08:01:20
that's very interesting, and sad. I've tended in that direction myself, which I think is fairly typcial of tms'ers, though I've improved a lot...thankfully. I know there are plenty of people on this forum living in that kind of fear, to one degree or another...
In my opinion, one has to make some progress with that stuff if there's to be any rel progress re tms. |
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