It's been 4 weeks since I diagnosed myself with TMS. Even my orthopedic surgeon said there was nothing wrong with my back (which helped put me at ease since I am the constant TMS worry personality).
I feel better, and I'm not as scared of it anymore, but I still feel sore and my muscles feel very tight (and the pain is definitely moving around).
I'm looking into maybe hypnotherapy to help speed things along... Anyone ever looked into this? Thoughts? Pros? Cons?
When I first started with therapy I also chose a hypnotherapist. Looking back I think it would have been better to just stay with traditional psychotherapy but hopefully someone who either knows about Sarno's work or at least accepts his theory as valid. I would recomment you read the book "The Drama of the Gifted Child" by Alice Miller as this book will give you valuable knowledge of what to look for in a therapist.
You may want to do some extensive dialoging work before jumping into therapy as that often is enough to eliminate TMS for many folks. Even if it doesn't eliminate TMS completely it will help you focus your work in therapy. Four weeks of work is not a very long time to be working on this stuff.
Read what Dr. Sarno says about Hypnosis in Healing Back Pain. It may be a temporary measure to relieve pain, but it is not a long term solution and the pain will return either in its original location or in another location because the underlying issues causing the pain are not being addressed.
I beleive it can be a good part of a therapy program, especially if administered by a mind/body professional. I actually wrote about it on my site a short time ago, on the request of a few readers. Several psychotherapists use hypnosis in their practice and the very process of learning how to cure TMS while UNLEARNING everything you thought to be wrong with you is really a form of self-hypnotic suggestion.
hypnotherapy
Posted - 03/26/2007 : 13:40:37
