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iyusaf
USA
57 Posts |
 Posted - 08/09/2004 : 11:06:12
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Hello, everyone.
I am new to the board but not new to TMS (I saw Sarno in the mid-90's). Has anyone here has used hypnosis for pain management? Would love to hear about your experiences. |
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n/a
374 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2004 : 11:37:50
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Hi iyusaf
I haven't tried hypnosis, but I thought that you might be interested in this - widely reported in the British media today.
http://sky.com/skynews/article/0,,31500-13184343,00.html
If anything comes of this study, it may be that hypnosis will be used as a method of pain control. |
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n/a
374 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2004 : 11:42:10
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Hi iyusaf
I haven't tried hypnosis, but I thought that you might be interested in this - widely reported in the British media today.
http://sky.com/skynews/article/0,,31500-13184343,00.html
If anything comes of this study, it may be that hypnosis will be used as a method of pain control. |
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n/a
32 Posts |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2004 : 15:02:26
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Just another in a long list of articles that mentions brain-induced pain as if it was a new concept, not something that Dr. Sarno has known for 30 years 
As for hypnosis, who knows, maybe it can treat pain. But it can't treat TMS, unless perhaps used as a tool to aid in psychoanalysis. I'm not aware of any research done in this area. |
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n/a
374 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2004 : 11:23:48
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I don't think that this, and other reports of studies that have been posted here should be dismissed out of hand. Yes, of course Dr Sarno has known about the brain-body link for many years, but as is often discussed here - his methods are sometimes dismissed and/or ignored for the medical establishment because of the lack of objective studies.
Surely it is in all of our interests that studies like this one - done at the University of Pittsburg and University College London - both respected and mainstream establishments are being reported widely.
Admittedly, yesterday was a slow news day here in Britain, but most of the main television channels and newspapers appear to have picked up on it. To my mind that can only be good news for TMS sufferers. Nothing will happen overnight - but the mind-body connection for pain conditions is definitely gaining ground over here. I think that a 'drip-drip' effect is beginning to take place.
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Sarah Jacoba
USA
81 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 02:08:56
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I've posted off and on with my experiences with hypnosis over the past year or so, so if they're still on this and the old site, you might want to read them. I have come to believe strongly, after off and on shifting-symptom TMS for ten years, which has disappeared for years at a time, and also stayed for years at a time despite my work with Sarno's approach, that TMS is not by any means all about the emotions or repression; as with many things in the mind, its *persistence* specifically (as opposed to its genesis) is partially a matter of conditioning. As the classic experiments on rats and conditioning depict, it is hard to extinguish a conditioned fear response and even after long extinction, very easy to reawaken one. This fits my experience of TMS to a T. From February through July of this year I had the first essentially pain free time in my life since early 2000. I began working with a hypnotherapist last September. Though many things have come together to help create my recent success, I feel strongly that the hypnosis has a lot to do with it; my sense is it that it helps with reprogramming, and breaking through the stubborn habitual mental patterns that reinforce TMS. But I can't prove it, obviously, since I simultaneously worked on a couple other strategies. But it's an interesting co-incidence, at least.
--Sarah
"When dream and day unite" |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 06:31:55
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Dear Sarah Jacoba,
I am totally ignorant of hypnosis. Therefore I fear it. My image of it is that populariazed by nighclub acts where people's minds are stolen from them and they are forced to act like chickens and make fools of themselves. If you have the time could you please describe how I could alleviate my fear of hypnosis and my image of it as some form of alien mind control?
Thanks,
tt |
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iyusaf
USA
57 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 22:53:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Sarah Jacoba
I've posted off and on with my experiences with hypnosis over the past year or so, so if they're still on this and the old site, you might want to read them.
Would love to. Are archived posts available? I have not found them. |
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JoeW
United Kingdom
61 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2004 : 06:43:33
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The old forum is here
http://tmshelp.com/bin/tmsboard.pl (Dave - don't delete it yet! Maybe the posts there could be imported to the new forum, so they are searchable??)
I too have become intersted in Hypnosis since reading Sarno (and related literature), though I've yet to experience it 1st hand.
An excellent introduction to the subject that I've just read is "Instant Self Hypnosis" by Forbes Robbins Blair. I'm not convinced by the self-hypnosis aspect (which requires you to be in a private enough environment that you can read highly detailed and personal affirmations out loud), but the introduction with a potted history of hypnosis is very good. The basic idea is that when your conscious mind and body are in a state of total relaxation, the stubborn beliefs of your sub/unconscious mind are more open to suggestion of being changed.
As I understand it, there is no loss of control except in a small minority of people who are highly susceptible. Most of the people who you see being theatrically hypnotised are absolutely aware of what they are doing, but have been convinced that it is OK to be doing it, and that they are somehow part of the act with the hypnotist (Blair explains in detail).
I see the relevance of this to TMS in overcoming conditioning. To me, this seems as important as "thinking psychologically". If you read Fred Amir's ("Rapid Recovery From Back Pain") story of overcoming TMS, there is hardly any mention of investigating repressed rage, but much about visualisation (of not being in pain) and positive affirmations. This is where hypnosis can help. Of course you can combine the two. Under hypnosis you are told (or tell yourself) "whenever I feel pain in my X, there is no need to be worried, it is a message that I have unresolved emotional issues, which I should address immediately, instead of thinking about the pain".
Tennis Tom, re: "how I could alleviate my fear of hypnosis?" - using hypnosis!
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iyusaf
USA
57 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2004 : 08:40:18
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Thank you for the forum link and book reference. Hypnosis may very well be effective in managing TMS if it genuinely aids in deconditioning.
"People who get better by studying my books on TMS are deconditioned by the knowledge acquired from the books."
Sarno, The Mindbody Prescription, p.66 |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2004 : 09:34:25
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| Thanks JoeW, for that info. I will look into the book, it sounds like a good intro. to hypnosis. I wonder if there would be any correlation between the small minority who are highly subceptible to hypnosis and TMS. For instance, if they would be more likely to have more severe cases of TMS like fibromyalgia. Or would they be able to get deconditioned faster? |
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menvert
Australia
133 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2004 : 18:27:28
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Well-being someone diagnosed with fibromyalgia and having many TMS symptoms. I would say I am in the very low susceptibility range for hypnotism... (although my opinion is based on nothing in reality) . I am in my opinion way to intellectual and reserved/controlling of myself.. I know my father who has a very similar intellect... was not able to be hypnotised by the entertainment hypnotist. But he did give up smoking by seeing a clinical hypnotist.
But I too have been wondering specifically whether hypnotism will help simply with affirming that when I feel pain I will not dwell on it and I will think psychologically. As well as helping to alleviate fear of physical activity. |
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mala
Hong Kong
774 Posts |
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Hypnosis and Pain Management
