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| KathCA |
Posted - 07/08/2011 : 16:05:44
I am so excited to find this forum! My daughter's main symptoms set in 16 months ago, when she was 15. She woke up one day with a severe headache, neck pain and nausea. Since then, she has never had relief from the headache. There is no medication or holistic therapy that has helped. (She and I have known from the beginning that the pain originated from emotional causes, but we were hoping that something would at least help her with the pain while she worked through the underlying emotional issues.) She has also experienced debilitating pelvic pain, leg pain, back pain, dizziness, tinnitus, and vertigo, as well as progressive weakness to the point that she required a wheelchair to go outside on a walk. No physical cause has ever shown up on any scan or blood test that she has had. (I'm sure you all can tell from that list why the discovery of Dr. Sarno's work is so exciting to us. She definitely recognizes herself in his books.)
The holistic practitioner who has been helping her for the last six months handed her "Healing Back Pain" about a month ago. She knew immediately that finally she had found the key. So many doctors, practitioners and counselors have told her the cause of the the pain is stress, but no one had been able to explain to her what to *do* about it. She had done tremendous emotional work. I would say she had gone deeper than most adults are willing to, and still the pain persisted. She missed her entire sophomore year of high school, as well as the pre-professional dance program that used to be "her life".
She read HBP, and now she has been reading from MBP daily. We just ordered The Divided Mind for her, along with Unlearn Your Pain. The improvements she has experienced in the last few weeks are astounding. Even though the headache hasn't budged, she is regaining her strength and resiliency. She has gone into a store with me three times in just the last week. Previously it had been a year since she had been in a store. She also went to a restaurant last week (we found a small, quiet one!). She is now able to go on her morning walks without the hiking sticks that she was previously dependent on. And she's walking further each day. She even helped me paint her room last week. All of these achievements seem truly miraculous to us. She had spent the last year as practially an invalid. It is such a thrill to see her coming back to life. When her headache intensifies, or any of the other pains flare up, she is learning how to talk herself through them.
I am also noticing that many symptoms I have that fit the TMS profile, and so I have ordered copies of The Divided Mind and Unlearn Your Pain for myself. :)
I look forward to reading here. If anyone can direct me to posts from people who had particularly persistent chronic pain, we would appreciate it. Also, are there any teenagers, or parent of teens-in-pain, here?. The stories that we've already read here have been so encouraging.
Thanks,
Katherine
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| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| KathCA |
Posted - 07/18/2011 : 00:02:14
Thanks, yogaluz, for your heartfelt concern, and for sharing your daughter's story. Maybe it will help her to hear what happened to my daughter. She had been getting daily headaches for several months before they became constant. Perhaps your daughter has avoided a similar situation by choosing to make the changes she did. If my daughter is able to return to dance, it would have to be with a very different approach. We'll see, she's nowhere near that point yet. We'll just continue with baby steps, celebrating each new milestone.
I hear what you're saying about certain personality types. There are three girls I know of who share my daughter's symptoms, and each of their mothers has told me of their perfectionistic tendencies in school and sports. When my daughter hears another teen described as an over-achiever, she'll joke to me, "They'd better be careful, they might get this headache!"
Thanks again,
Katherine
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| yogaluz |
Posted - 07/09/2011 : 17:28:03
Hi KathCA,
Your story brings tears to my eyes. As a mother myself, I can imagine how worried and sick you've been over your daughter's condition and now.... progress. You must be feeling such relief and hope. May she continue to improve!
I wanted to reply to your post because your story resonated with me and my daughter's situation. I believe my daughter was headed down the road your daughter found herself on. She is a dancer, and a very good one as it sounds yours is. She would dance at school an hour a day and then go to the ballet studio ofter school and dance 1.5 hours most days. And then there were performances (rehearsals, the actual performance, etc.). She is very driven and a perfectionist (gee, wonder where she got that from :-)) and while she seemed to be holding up fairly well, she started getting headaches.
After one performance when she'd been at the venue for roughly 10 hours for rehearsals and the performance, she got in the car and immediately started crying claiming she was starving (she hadn't been allowed to eat much because she was in costume). The next morning she had a headache so severe I had to take her to the ER. It was diagnosed as a stress induced migraine. Sadly, it didn't completely go away for many days despite medication and massage therapy (her shoulder muscles were like rocks).
Having had TMS myself, I instantly knew what was going on. That week I let her dance director know my daughter wouldn't be coming back to ballet and that she would be out of the upcoming spring performance (major deal!). After a few weeks my daughter finally started relaxing. She still gets uptight about performances at school (she attends an arts middle school) but with the massive pressure of pre-professional dance gone, she seems able to cope. BUT, she's sad about losing what was once "her life" as you put it and is very slowly learning to redefine who she is. A lot of weight for these young women to carry!
So.. long story short, I believe a certain personality type is drawn to professional dancing and it's the same personality type that can be susceptible to TMS. I was a dancer when I was younger and have been a TMS sufferer for 20 years. When it first hit me, I too was basically immobilized and I didn't improve until I read HBP.
The fact that your daughter 'got it' right away and that she's making such huge strides should give you every reason to be hopeful that she'll recover. With all the emotional work she's done, hopefully she's prepared to deal with the issues surrounding dance which she may or may not decide to return to. In any case.. thanks for posting this as it's a reminder to all of us that even children and teens can experience TMS. Keep us posted on how she's doing!
pain is inevitable, suffering optional |
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