| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Jim1999 |
Posted - 08/19/2006 : 22:49:07
This is the story of my fibromyalgia recovery.
After years of minor back pain, my problem became severe in 1991. The pain and stiffness soon spread to other parts of my body, which led to a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Something I had never heard of before become a "life sentence"; there wasn't really any hope of recovery in traditional medicine.
Sitting was what really seemed to aggravate my pain. I viewed sitting as a form of torture that was almost as bad as a medieval rack. When I had to sit, I tried to always sit up straight. I lived in fear that I might accidentally sit leaning forward for a while. "What if that caused permanent 'damage'?", I thought.
In the late 90s, my conditioned worsened. My lifestyle had already been very restricted, but I had to cut back even more. I hardly did anything outside of work, except lying down and stretching. I was in danger of losing the ability to work full-time and perhaps losing the ability to walk.
Then I heard that 20/20 was doing a story on a doctor who had a cure for back pain. I thought to myself, "There is no cure for back pain!" When I saw the program, I was shocked. Dr. Sarno's ideas were so unusual and seemed far-fetched. Yet, the patients seemed to do so well, which was in such contrast to what happens with traditional treatments. By the end of the story, I even felt a little bit better physically! I was convinced that I had to try Sarno's treatment.
I bought a copy of "Healing Back Pain" and "Mindbody Prescription". I read both books repeatedly. As the books say, reading a Sarno book once is not enough. His ideas are so different from traditional medicine that it really takes a while for things to sink in.
I "talked to my brain", telling it to stop the pain. This had some benefit, but I am convinced that this would not have been enough for me. If my brain stopped one symptom, it would need to find some other symptom.
The most significant part of my treatment was journaling. I ended up writing about a lot of little issues, which led to gradual improvement. There were times when I could actually feel a drop in my pain after journaling, although that didn’t happen most times. There’s a lot more I could say, but rather than repeat my previous comments in this posting, I'll just provide the link to my main posting about this: http://tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1135&whichpage=1
As my pain began to decrease, I phased out physical treatments and began returning to normal activities. I had been stretching up to two hours a day. One day, I just stopped all stretching. This seemed amazing, since I had been conditioned to think that these stretches were absolutely necessary. I haven't done the back stretches since.
My symptoms gradually got better. There were also times when the pain would get worse before getting better again. After 5-6 weeks, I was fully recovered. I rarely am in pain anymore. If my fibromyalgia starts to come back, I can usually get it under control pretty quickly. I have no restrictions on my activity. In fact, I now do things that I was afraid of long before I had fibromyalgia!
Jim
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| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Suz |
Posted - 08/22/2006 : 09:47:12
Thanks Jim - maybe we always end up getting equivalents for the rest of our lives. I certainly prefer my strict diet and mild skin problems to the excruciating sciatica. It is quite interesting that since tackling the food allergies, the sciatica came back with a vengence. |
| Jim1999 |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 22:56:40
Suz,
Yes, I do get TMS equivalents, although they're much less serious than the fibromyalgia. One example is sinus infections. I never used to get them, but have been getting at least one a year now. I strongly suspect that these are a TMS equivalent.
Miehnesor,
You are correct that sadness was the most significant emotion for me. You are also correct that feeling the emotions can be liberating, which seems paradoxical. Well said!
Jim |
| mhr74 |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 14:15:00
What is rage but a function of sadness? |
| miehnesor |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 12:37:52
quote:
Originally posted by Jim1999
I did and still do feel intense emotions while journaling. From what I've heard, this is unusual. Most patients using Dr. Sarno's treatment do not actually get to the point of feeling the repressed emotions.
Jim
Jim- Thx for the clarification.
As I recall from your previous posts, if i'm remembering this right, you also said that sadness, not rage, was the predominant emotion causing your symptoms. This is also a bit unusual as rage seems to be the main event for most folks myself included.
Feeling repressed emotion is a liberating experience and actually feels quite good even though the feelings themselves are anything but happy. Paradoxical really.
Congradulations on your quick recovery. |
| Suz |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 08:51:39
JIm,
I am in a flare up of pain, after a year of nothing. I decided to tackle my food allergies and ignore all symptoms after eating them - my symptoms went away, but the back pain returned.
My question is - have you experienced any equivalents since getting rid of your fibromyalgia pain? |
| Jim1999 |
Posted - 08/20/2006 : 23:09:47
quote:
Originally posted by miehnesor
I was just curious from your post when you say you had to "deal with the emotions" whether that means you actually experienced the emotion or whether you were like an outside observer looking down at the scene seeing yourself with the emotion.
Your post underlines the power of journaling. Thx for posting.
You're welcome, Miehnesor.
I did and still do feel intense emotions while journaling. From what I've heard, this is unusual. Most patients using Dr. Sarno's treatment do not actually get to the point of feeling the repressed emotions.
Jim
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| Jim1999 |
Posted - 08/20/2006 : 22:58:33
quote:
Originally posted by FlyByNight
Wow, Congratulations Jim. It is very amazing. Thanx for sharing it with us.
Jim. did you have motion restriction due to your pain or your muscle spasms ? did you have the impression your spine was a little 'twisted' sometimes because of the stiffness ? did the range of motion came back as the pain vanished ?
I have also been diagnosed with fibro before going into Sarno and the main obstacle I am still facing in my TMS recovery is the fear that once the pain will vanish I will never get back my full range of motion in the neck (I fear that spine arthrosis will have installed because of the constant spasms I experience since a year now), despite some improvements in pain since I sarted my TMS work .....
P,
You're welcome!
My motion was restricted due to both pain and stiffness. My muscles were very stiff, although I'm not sure that "spasm" is the right word. Some of the worst stiffness was in my spine between the shoulder blades. It was often stuck in an over-curved position.
I got quite a bit of range of motion back, although I'm still a bit on the stiff side. Neck stiffness is something I've struggled with on and off, even this long after my recovery. Since the stiffness comes and goes, I really doubt that there's significant physical damage to my neck.
Jim
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| miehnesor |
Posted - 08/20/2006 : 10:41:30
Jim- Your story is in many ways like mine except your recovery was weeks and mine is still ongoing and in the years catagory.
I was just curious from your post when you say you had to "deal with the emotions" whether that means you actually experienced the emotion or whether you were like an outside observer looking down at the scene seeing yourself with the emotion.
Your post underlines the power of journaling. Thx for posting. |
| FlyByNight |
Posted - 08/20/2006 : 09:19:25
Wow, Congratulations Jim. It is very amazing. Thanx for sharing it with us.
Jim. did you have motion restriction due to your pain or your muscle spasms ? did you have the impression your spine was a little 'twisted' sometimes because of the stiffness ? did the range of motion came back as the pain vanished ?
I have also been diagnosed with fibro before going into Sarno and the main obstacle I am still facing in my TMS recovery is the fear that once the pain will vanish I will never get back my full range of motion in the neck (I fear that spine arthrosis will have installed because of the constant spasms I experience since a year now), despite some improvements in pain since I sarted my TMS work .....
thanx a lot .
P. |
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