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JSH
USA
8 Posts |
 Posted - 09/30/2004 : 20:54:51
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In reading many of this site's posts before posting myself, I noticed that Dr Sarno's book / approach is central focus of many of you.
I am a 42 yr old male who has recently been diagnosed w/TMS (& accepted diagnosis) by....Finally....an intuitive & progressive Doc. I have suffered from symptoms for over 10 yrs. Like most, had spent yrs & mucho $ on seeking a "cure".
My question....My Doc had me read 2 books. The first was "Back Sense" by Ronald Siegel, which I read in June. For those who have not read "Back Sense", there are many parallel's to Sarno's philosophy. Namely, that most people w/chronic back pain do not actually have anything seriously wrong w/their back. As I read the book, identified w/the personality traits Siegel described, and accpeted that I could see myself all over these pages, I could feel my perpetually tight & sore back muscles soften. Over the course of 24 hrs,I ended up peaking out at feeling 80-90% better. If someone told me "that's as good a recovery as you're going to get", I would have signed on the dotted line right then & there. The improvement lasted about 10 days before I felt a sharp pain during the follow through of my golf swing. Muscles tightened back up & I have not come close to feeling this good since then.
Second book Doc had me read was "Mindbody Presecription" by Sarno. I found that as I tried to apply Sarno principles, that it was mentally exhausting & not as effective. Sarno mentions on pg 145 that "you must regard the process (of trying to undo the brain's strategy by focusing on unpleasant thoughts) as a contest in which your conscious will is pitted against the unconscious, automatic reactions of the brain".
All this ended up doing for me was to create a sense of inner turmoil & an adversarial sense of "me vs my unconscious". I did not get what I had hoped to out of the approach, another episode of softening muscles.
I am encouraged by having the 10 days I had, in which I felt better than I had in 10 years.....but discouraged because a return to that peak level of feeling better has been so elusive.
Any feedback? |
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tennis tom
USA
4746 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2004 : 23:43:16
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Welcome to the board JSH. Sorry to here about your relapse but the good news is that you came to the right place. It's late so I'm not awake enough to reply in detail. Being a TMS-goodist, I am compelled to give you some reply so that you do not feel lonely and ignored.
The short and quick answer is to keep reading your Sarno. If you get bored reading MBP try reading his two other books, HEALING BACK PAIN and his first book, MIND OVER BACKPAIN. I read all three books, twice each, word for word slowly. I'm overdue for a re-reading. It's like the Bible, (although I'm not religious), with the changes in the season and changes in one's life, you see new things.
Be patient, it took perhaps a lifetime to develop the psychological bad habits that created your TMS psychogenic pain and it may take some time to learn new thinking patterns to banish the pain. |
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Fox
USA
496 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2004 : 08:49:12
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| JSH -- Like Tennis Tom said, read and reread the Sarno books. Also get the audio CDs/tapes and the video tape. Get so immersed in Sarno that, when you hear a line off Sarno's audio CD, you can quote the next line before he says it....Admittedly, it is quite a strain at first to assimilate the material, understand it, and put it into practice. But after a while, it becomes so easy. You just simply live and breathe Sarno. It becomes second nature.... For example, say that I feel my sciatic pain coming back strong -- I automatically tell myself that - dang it, I'm not going to fall for this B.S., that I know the purpose that my brain has in turning on the pain (distraction/repression), that it's not structural, that it's not due to whatever physical activity that I just did - and that I will keep on doing that physical activity if it's a significant part of my life. Also, I ponder what I'm angry about right now, and I turn on a few mental images of past traumatic events to let the brain know that it's not going to be effective in distracting me from the emotional....I know that this all sounds terribly complicated and exhausting to someone new to Sarno, but at this point in my anti-TMS development, it really isn't -- it just comes second nature -- and it turns off the pain totally or at least turns down the pain several notches so it's easier to ignore....As for Siegel, I tried that and it made me worse. In my humble opinion, he focuses too much on the physical with all the stretching and the weight lifting.....Don't get me wrong--general exercise (not focusing on the TMS affected parts of the body) is great!!! |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2004 : 09:05:59
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quote:
All this ended up doing for me was to create a sense of inner turmoil & an adversarial sense of "me vs my unconscious".
This is not what Sarno has in mind.
The most important concept to understand is conditioning. You are conditioned to feel pain when you do. You must undo the conditioning by thinking about unpleasant emotions whenever you are aware of the pain. This is what the pain is designed to distract you from.
It is not necessary to delve deeply into your unconscious and find out all the dark secrets that might be hidden there. That is a futile exercise. It is most important to recognize the pain for what it is and what it is not: it is an unconscious process designed to distract you from feeling the rage that is inside you but of which you are totally unaware. It is not a symptom of a structural problem that needs to be "fixed."
Regard the battle as a long-term reconditioning process. You are breaking very tough habits. It will take time. What you experienced is common. You cannot expect overnight results. It will take weeks or months to get lasting relief. |
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JSH
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2004 : 19:31:52
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| Thsnks both of you for the input. |
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