| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| swmr1 |
Posted - 02/26/2008 : 12:46:05
I was thinking about my friend with Fibromyalgia this morning and I found myself wishing that she'd try something like training for a marathon or triathlon. Why? I have a theory that there are people who have never pushed themselves very far physically. I don't think these people have any idea what the human body can take. As a result, I see some people expect very little of themselves physically. They are easy to assume every little pain means something is really wrong. I know this doesn't describe everyone, but I swear my friend would benefit from doing something that is actually taxing to her system. She'd be amazed at what the human body can handle and accomplish.
I have dealt with TMS. I can be one of those who fears I've done major damage when I get an injury. Fortunately, I find great inspiration and the ability to push through things as a result of my past athletic experiences. In high-school I got up every weekday at 4:20am and swam 6000+ yards (that's roughly 4 miles). I went to school until I went back to practice again and lifted weights for 45 minutes before hitting the pool again for another 6-7000 yard practice. I would then go home and do whatever homework I had and try to be asleep by 10:00pm. We would also swim 9-10,000 yards on Saturdays.
I worked my body like this through high-school and college. So, for 8 years I regularly pushed my body to its physical limits. And I saw that it can take a hell of a lot! And then come back with a good performance at a meet.
Now I'm 40+ and I couldn't take that kind of schedule without some injury I'm sure. But I swear the fact that I pushed myself that hard has made it so very much easier for me to believe in the power of my body and its incredible ability to heal and strengthen itself. I think that's one reason I'm reluctant to let what should be a relatively minor setback (illness, fatigue, injury) keep me sidelined on a permanent basis. I really believe Sarno's ideas about the body's amazing ability to heal and that chronic injury or illness has to be related to emotions or stress.
Think of the Navy Seal training. Think of the Marines or any elite athletic team. Those people are daily putting their bodies through more than most of us will in our lifetimes. How can going for a short walk really be so debilitating to the human body?
There is a scene in "Cinderella Man" where Russell Crowe's character breaks his hand boxing. He has to go work at the docks to provide for his family. He has to work with the injured right hand. He learns to use his left hand better but eventually his right hand heals. I remember watching that and thinking that most people in history have had to just gut-out injuries. When providing for family required so much more physical work than it does now there was no way for workers to take tons of time to rest and heal. The body healed itself anyway. I like it that modern medicine can make the healing process better and more effective. But I think it may have made us more afraid of injury than our ancestors. And less trusting of our bodies. |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Littlebird |
Posted - 03/06/2008 : 14:25:04
My experience with the pain is that it's very much like the body aches when you have the flu and it can also be like the soreness of really overdoing some kind of exercise when you're out of shape. (In fact, when I first developed the pain and fatigue, I thought I had come down with the flu, but it never went away.)
I definitely believe that CFS and Fibro are purely psychological. Everyone whom I personally know who's been given either diagnosis (or both) has come from a significantly dysfunctional background and has been through intense stress as an adult. That includes my friend who appears to "milk" her symptoms and manages to do the fun stuff but doesn't feel well enough for the responsibilities of life. The severity of the symptoms seems to vary from one person to another, and it appears that this one friend doesn't have such severe symptoms, because she can do certain fun activities that the rest of my friends and I haven't been able to do, so it's frustrating to see her suddenly claim to feel worse when there's work to be done.
It's true that going for a short walk is not physically damaging the body; the severe pain and fatigue that can be triggered is totally psychological, in my opinion, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less debilitating in the moment. We don't really have a way to judge how someone else's pain feels, so a pain that we might be able to push through fairly well may be much more difficult to push through for someone else. The personalities of people who develop TMS in the form of CFS/Fibro fall along a spectrum (there's a spectrum for everything related to humans, I think), with some people at one end who would push till they literally dropped and some people at the other end who give in at that first sign of pain or fatigue. I happen to know more who qualify as extreme pushers, but that's just my little circle of friends.
The frustrating thing about this type of TMS, as opposed to a sports-injury-type of pain, is that it has such an impact on a person's entire life. If you have pain that prevents you from doing a sport, you probably can still function fairly well in the other areas of your life, whereas when you feel as if you have the flu every day, it's really hard to do even the basics and you learn to pace yourself carefully in order to make sure you'll be able to get the absolute necessities done. So overcoming the fear of pushing too hard can be quite a challenge.
But if the fear of pushing comes from never having tested one's limits rather than from pushing one's limits to the point of total collapse, then maybe testing the limits would be very helpful to that person.
I have had some success with pushing the limits in one area. Not too long before I learned about Dr. Sarno and TMS I had developed "stiffness" in my feet, ankles and legs which seemed to be preventing me from rotating my ankles and moving my toes, leading to balance problems. (There were some neuro symptoms too.) But when my doc sent me to be checked out by a PT, the PT took my foot in his hands and rotated it with no problem. It was just that my brain was telling me it wouldn't move. That led to a bunch of testing for Multiple Sclerosis, and when that didn't show anything, I got sent to a Rheumatologist who did a very thorough physical exam and was able to get my feet and legs to go through a normal range of motion. At that point the light bulb went off, and I decided that if my body could move that way, I was going to insist that it do so. I just happened to come across Sarno's "The Divided Mind" at the same time, so I made up my mind that there was no reason that I couldn't do these motions and the stiffness just went away, along with the strange neuro sensations that had accompanied it. But that hasn't worked yet for my other symptoms. |
| swmr1 |
Posted - 03/06/2008 : 13:01:03
quote:
Sarno believes fms is tms, and no one has found a definitive cause or cure for fms, so I assume it is tms. The weird thing is that you can feel absolutely great during exercise, just like anyone else, and you feel great for about three hours afterwards. But then later that night and then the next day the pain starts building until your muscles are spasming and pulsing in pain. And that can last for three days or more. Its different than muscle soreness, its more like how your gums feel after you've had your teeth pulled out. But its in your entire upper body. I believe its tms, but not sure why your subconscious would be fine with the exercise during the exercise, but then cause terrible pain afterwards. Do other people with tms experience this?
That sounds like my back and my shoulder pain. Never hurt while I was exercising. Always started hurting hours later. They really only caused me unbearable pain a few times. When I started to notice the pain I think I both feared it and dreaded the idea that it meant I would not be able to do the things I love to do (exercise). That contributed to both the severity of my pain and the duration. Once I realized that my fear and anxiety about my pain were actually part of the problem things got much better. It got to where I'd have aches and pains but I've learned to ignore them. With those things I've found that the more I ignore and go about my business (being careful NOT to baby any area) the less pain I feel. For me it's really been all about taking charge of fear and anxiety and believing in the health of my body.
I don't know what the mechanics of FMS or CFS are. But somehow it sounds more complicated. I never really understand what my friend is talking about when she talks about her "pain" because she's never really specific. I'm guessing it must be like when you have body aches with the flu or something. |
| Pd245 |
Posted - 03/06/2008 : 11:28:33
Sarno believes fms is tms, and no one has found a definitive cause or cure for fms, so I assume it is tms. The weird thing is that you can feel absolutely great during exercise, just like anyone else, and you feel great for about three hours afterwards. But then later that night and then the next day the pain starts building until your muscles are spasming and pulsing in pain. And that can last for three days or more. Its different than muscle soreness, its more like how your gums feel after you've had your teeth pulled out. But its in your entire upper body. I believe its tms, but not sure why your subconscious would be fine with the exercise during the exercise, but then cause terrible pain afterwards. Do other people with tms experience this? |
| swmr1 |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 18:14:20
I should probably amend this post after chatting with a CFS sufferer on another thread. From what I understand now, there are lots of CFS and Fibro sufferers who have been "push-through-it" types. And, perhaps formerly athletic as well.
My post was based on one friend I have now who has Fibro but is anything but a "push-through-it" type. I really DO think something like training for a demanding athletic event would do wonders for her. She lets the tiniest things intimidate her. She did this before her problems with Fibro. I know she has absolutely no confidence in the strength of her own body.
If CFS and Fibro are TMS (I don't know if either of them are but assume that some of you sufferers on this site think so) then does that mean your pain and fatigue are psychologically induced rather than purely physically induced? Should physical activity really cause an increase in your suffering unless it somehow first triggers a psychological (emotional) response that triggers TMS? Not sure, maybe there is not a consensus that either of those conditions are TMS. |
| Pd245 |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 14:58:09
Be careful with this.
Being a former soccer player and track runner, I have years of experience pushing my body to the limit. I know the benefits and glorious feeling of the runner's high. Since my symptoms began, I have repeatedly pushed by body and paid for it with weeks of intolerable burning upper body pain and headaches so bad that I'm nauseated and simply I'll. I've had convenient stretches of amnesia about this pain, and pushed myself, only to realize that the same thing happens ( and I'm not expecting it). I did the whole Tms push through the pain thing just last Thursday, and I'm still recovering. Do I think I'm injured? No! Am I afraid of injuring myself? Absolutely not. Am I dumbfounded about my body's reaction to lifting a few weights and walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes at a slow rate? Yes! Your ideas may work for some, I agree ( which is what you said) but for others it sets you up for more pain, frustration, shame, rage about the ridiculousness of it all. Thank you for your post, just talking for the people who have been trying and repeatedly told to $&@! off by our own bodies ( or mind-body, whatever you want to call it). |
| playsinpain |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 14:32:16
You are exactly right. Whenever you get TMS you ought to get in the pool w/ the express purpose of pushing yourself to the limit...maybe not 6000 meters, but maybe 3000 at a good clip. When you get out of the pool the anger-fear cycle will be broken because someone with a REAL serious physical ailment could not possibly do what you just did. I think Sarno makes a mistake by not stressing physical activity-fitness more, particularly for patients with very active backgrounds. Sitting on the couch doesn't help anybody's health, let alone people who are in a pain-fear cycle. |
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