|
shawnsmith
Czech Republic
2048 Posts |
 Posted - 10/15/2007 : 14:08:31
|
Q and A - From Sarno's MindBody Prescription
Questions
Because the concepts underlying both the cause and cure for TMS are unfamiliar to most people, it takes time to integrate them. Moreover, to anticipate all the questions that may arise in someone’s mind is impossible. Here are some of the questions most commonly asked by patients.
Q: “May I continue to do the exercises and stretches that I’ve been doing to ward off a new attack?”
A: Many years ago I stopped prescribing physical therapy as part of the treatment program for TMS. Although the physical therapists were wonderful about emphasizing the psychological basis for the pain, each treatment session focused the patient’s attention on his or her body, which was incompatible with my primary therapeutic goal of ignoring the physical and concentrating solely on the psychological. The same idea applies to any exercise routine designed to treat the back, whether it is in the form of stretching, strengthening or mobilizing. So I advise my patients to discontinue exercises designed to protect or otherwise help the back. The back needs no protection. Warm-up exercises prior to athletic activity are appropriate for better performance but specific exercises are otherwise unnecessary.
Physical activity of all kinds is highly recommended for its psychological and and general health values.
Q: “I was in psychotherapy for over a year. Why was I still having pain if it was psychologically induced? In fact, my therapist thinks the pain is somehow psychological but she’s never heard of TMS.”
A: You were still having pain because the brain would not relinquish its strategy. The pain will continue if you have not established the connection between the physical and psychologic events. Your psychotherapist, regardless of professional discipline, is not trained to make physical diagnoses and, therefore, cannot help you make that crucial link-up. You may be in psychotherapy but if you continue to take anti-inflammatory medications, undergo physical treatment for structural abnormalities and fail to acknowledge that your pain is caused by a harmless circulatory alteration induced by the brain, the pain will continue. In short, the brain will not give up the distraction unless it is forced to.
Q: “I know I’m angry. I can feel it. In fact, I often show it. Why do I still have pain?”
A: Because the anger you know about and express is not the anger causing your pain. TMS is a response to anger-rage generated in the unconscious (in which case you are not aware of it), or conscious anger suppressed. TMS is not a response to conscious anger felt or expressed.
This is a subtle but important distinction. In fact, it is at the heart of the divergent approach to mindbody research. The psychologists interested in such conditions as fibromyalgia and chronic pain focus on perceived emotions like anxiety, depression and hostility. TMS theory considers these and physical disorders like TMS to be the outward manifestations of a more fundamental process that takes place in the unconscious. Bear in mind, we repress anger that violates our image of ourselves. For example, if I have a strong need to seek approval from everyone in my environment and someone does something that angers me, I will automatically repress that anger because it destroys my image of myself as a as a “nice guy.” Repression is a consistent unconscious reaction that never fails. We get angry inside and do not allow it out.
Finally, anger you are aware of may be what is known as displaced anger. That is, you become overtly angry at something relatively unimportant, like a traffic tie-up or poor service in a restaurant, instead of at your spouse or a parent, because the latter is simply not allowed by your psyche. This is very common among my patients.
Q: “Everybody knows that I’m a calm, controlled person; that I handle everything very well and am never anxious. Why in the world should I have back pain?”
A: Because all the personality traits that make you calm are stimulating a great deal of rage internally. The child in you says, “You’re putting an enormous amount of pressure on me and that makes me furious. I want to be left alone; I want to be taken care of and you are forcing me to take care of others. I really only care about myself.”
Q: “I am the world’s best coper. Why should I have back pain?”
A: Because copers put great pressure on themselves, and the self doesn’t like it at all.
Q: “I think I know what I’m angry about inside; in fact, I’m sure it has to do with the fact that my mother constantly put me down as I was growing up. Why doesn’t the pain go away?” A: Questions like this are common. There are three possible reasons for the persistence of symptoms. One, patients don’t know how angry they are inside. People often find this insight very helpful and will see a reduction in pain when they realize that they are in a blind rage inside. In addition to acknowledging the anger, some people need to feel it directly. Then, if their symptomatology does not improve, they may want to consider psychotherapy. For some people, something other than what they think is stimulating the rage may be the culprit. They, too, will probably need to work with a psychotherapist.
Q: “How can I tell the difference between ordinary muscle soreness and the pain of TMS?”
A: The muscle soreness that comes on after unaccustomed physical activity tends to go away in a day or two. TMS goes on for days, weeks or months.
*******
Sarno-ize it!
Read chapter 4 of Dr. Sarno's "The Divided Mind." Also chapers 3, 4 and 5 in Dr. Scott Brady's "Pain Free For Life" are very important. |
|
Q and A - From Sarno's MindBody Prescription
