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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
 Posted - 01/25/2010 : 10:28:22
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I read all of Sarno's books and sent away for the others yesterday. What I don't understand is, once we recognize that it is anger or whatever emotion causing the pain, what do we do with the anger or frustration, depression, etc.?
It still festers and sometimes there is no way to resolve it. The person you're angry at may be dead or not in your life anymore. Or the person may be someone who isn't willing to talk and work on having an amiable relationship, like a boss. I don't repress my anger necessarily, I walk around stewing half the time. I know this is TMS because the second I feel this, I get a pain. This has been my pattern for years. I would appreciate it if someone answers my question. Do we really have to go to therapy to resolve this? I have had so much already and it never helped. I just don't understand "feel the anger". I already do.
I also don't understand how we can transfer the conscious thoughts to the unconscious, which I read is the solution. Thank you. |
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catspine
USA
239 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2010 : 12:45:35
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Hi Susan,
How could I say that in a way that you haven't read already? well I'm going to try anyway.
Understanding only helps to accepting the TMS theory at first. It is the accepting part that gets most of the job done and that can take some time because the unconscious is stubborn and certainly not as fast as the conscious mind wants it to be... not to mention that it is even resistant to change (sometimes for our own good too maybe that's why it is so slow... a wise decision is never made in a hurry) so things start to get better and pain will disappear when there is much more harmony and respect for one another in the system. it's like a negotiations process somehow.
My understanding is that the repressing of the emotions is what fails to work well at some point or that the volume of repressed undesirable stuff grows so big there is an overflow leading to TMS symptoms until the level is more acceptable to the unconscious.
The difference with TMS is that it is the patient that has to do the work it takes to overcome it instead of the doctors doing things for you. So you have to learn how to access certain things.
If there' s no way to resolve the conflict then that 's what forgiveness is for. That will take time too sometimes. it is also a matter of accepting something the way it is and it isn't always easy.
You may not have to go through analytical therapy for that but if you had a lot of it already and it did not work for you then it simply means that the therapist wasn't good enough. The therapist is supposed to know what you don't which is what you need to learn and that's his job to get it through to you and it's what you pay for.
The rage is the sum of accumulated anger and the nature of the rage in the unconscious is not known according to Dr Sarno this is why you can not work on it directly but you can acknowledge this fact and your mind will do the rest of the job at it's own pace which is different for everyone.
If this is not enough after this concept thinks in then you may need therapy.
I hope this answers your questions and that it will help you get your life back like it did for me and many other people. Please let us know how you're doing. Thanks. |
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2010 : 13:46:22
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Thanks so much, catspine. I am rereading Mindbody and will get to the third book afterwards. I want to really take my time with each chapter. Sometimes I have to reread a sentence because it does get complex at times. Can you tell me which book (if you have the other by the various authors like Sopher and Amir) helped you the most?
Your thoughts on forgiveness are right but it is so hard when people have been abusive. I work on it all the time but there are people coming into our lives every day that cause us anguish. It's not easy.
As far as therapists, I have had many and they weren't good. I think I have gained more insight by my own reading. I don't have the money to go that route again and would like to just try with the books and hopefully by reading this board. What a wealth of information here. I am new but am sure I'll have lots of questions along the way. |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2010 : 14:37:06
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It is important to understand TMS symptoms stem from unconscious emotions, and not concious feelings like anger that you are aware of. You can never truly recognize, with certainty, what specific emotions might be contributing to the pain. The symptoms stem from an overflow of what Dr. Sarno calls the "pool of rage" that by definition cannot be felt. The brain induces TMS symtpoms to distract us and prevent those feelings from becoming conscious.
You said: "I don't repress my anger necessarily" but this misses the point. We all repress emotions, and we are not aware of what we are actually repressing. Conscious feelings like anger might actually be a smokescreen for deeper feelings. Part of the recovery process is to explore what those repressed feelings might be. We cannot know for sure, but we can try to find out. It is the act of trying to find out that is important in recovery, because it reconditions us to think psychologically instead of physically when we are aware of the pain.
There is no need to "resolve" anything to get relief from TMS. We simply need to recondition ourselves to think about and react differently to the pain.
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catspine
USA
239 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2010 : 17:36:44
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You're welcome Susan I was mostly echoing Mr Sarno's voice through my own experiences.
As far as books go my first introduction to TMS by Dr Sarno was the one that got me out of trouble and I completed the reading by a Hawaiian healing technique called Lomi Ha . Sometimes simplicity works best. I also find relief from uplifting quotes or words from wise people when the going gets tough.
One way to avoid focusing on the pain or the symptoms is to realize how much worse some people really are around us because it stops blowing the pain out of proportion which of course is the game of the brain to get your attention.
With forgiveness it's pretty straight forward: either you forgive or you don't it's more a question of when you are ready to let go otherwise you will have to repress in the meantime. Sometimes with consequences. Nothing of great value really comes easy.
Helen Keller said something like "we focus so much on the closed doors that we don't see the open ones" there are so many of them just ask for what you need and you'll get it if it's meant to be we are never given a thought without the power to make it come true.
About anguish you can always tell these people you are off duty until you're ready to operate normally. First thing first. |
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heart a tact
USA
21 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2010 : 18:19:24
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i'm also new, but i have similar questions. i've found that certain things help me however.
i imagine a 4-year old version of myself living in my brain, who I have no choice but to ignore sometimes-- because he throws tantrums, needs to be coddled, etc. I can't act like that all the time, because I'm 'an adult'.
lately, however, I ask myself, how would illogical, selfish child-james feel right now? and when i am somewhere that seems 'safe' i try to let it out the best i can-- i write about it and throw tantrums when nobody else is around, for example.
good luck-- we can all relate to your uncertainty. we repress these emotions for a reason-- to prevent violent outbursts, injury, social alienation, termination of our jobs. the idea, i think, is to find clever ways that they might escape, just a little bit. |
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patils
72 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2010 : 22:15:23
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quote:
Originally posted by susan828
I read all of Sarno's books and sent away for the others yesterday. What I don't understand is, once we recognize that it is anger or whatever emotion causing the pain, what do we do with the anger or frustration, depression, etc.?
It still festers and sometimes there is no way to resolve it. The person you're angry at may be dead or not in your life anymore. Or the person may be someone who isn't willing to talk and work on having an amiable relationship, like a boss. I don't repress my anger necessarily, I walk around stewing half the time. I know this is TMS because the second I feel this, I get a pain. This has been my pattern for years. I would appreciate it if someone answers my question. Do we really have to go to therapy to resolve this? I have had so much already and it never helped. I just don't understand "feel the anger". I already do.
I also don't understand how we can transfer the conscious thoughts to the unconscious, which I read is the solution. Thank you.
All medical science is failing because they treat symptoms and not cause. A man is to be treated as a whole and not part by part. We have to find out roots which has caused this diseases.
As a personal experience, it is very difficult to remove hatred, prejudice unless we make hard and sincere effort and came out of this illusion, we call this world.
Spirituality is the only way which can reverse all this illusion and give us reality.
Regarding your symptoms, please ignore them and read " Hope and help for your Nerves" by Clarie Weeks.
I am 95 % pain free but working very hard to remove this remaining 5 % and soon post good success story.
I am experiencing such a bliss in life. This TMS has made my Spiritual process very fast that I am almost in edge of loosing body consciniousness.
Without suffering humans have no destiny. Humans have become angles only when they have been touched at soul by this deadely disease and later on become wise.
To all those people who have recovered, Please note we have great opportunity to become divine ( other than all healthy people around ) as we know in depth what suffering is. If you are ignoring this call, then our normal death will be as similar as suscide.
Sachin
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Edited by - patils on 01/25/2010 22:18:59 |
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skizzik
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2010 : 07:51:01
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave
There is no need to "resolve" anything to get relief from TMS.
let the arguments begin!!!!!
Schubiner's program is 90% resolvement imo. And Sarno states tms treatment is based on 2 pillars not one. Reconditioning and exploring the psychological. He put Dave Campobello's letter in MBP as typical treatment for a TMS'r. Dave's treatment was to fix what you can and accept what you can't fix. Hence, resolvement.
quote:
Originally posted by Dave
We simply need to recondition ourselves to think about and react differently to the pain.
oh, it's so so simple |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2010 : 11:40:03
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Don't get me wrong ... I am not suggesting we should simply ignore our psychological issues and do nothing about them. On the contrary, part of TMS treatment certainly involves exploring the ingredients that led to the development of personality traits such as perfectionism and goodism that are associated with TMS, and doing what we can to address it.
What I am saying is that to get some relief from TMS symptoms, it is not necessary to resolve all our emotional issues. At least some relief should come by learning about TMS, accepting the symptoms are psychogenic, stopping physical treatment, and resuming normal physical activity. |
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2010 : 12:58:50
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In looking at previous posts, I can see that some of the people who replied to me are well versed on this. I watched Dr. Schubiner's lectures about the part of the brain that has to be activated. That's the technical part that I imagine most people don't need to understand in the medical sense. Dr. Sarno puts in it layman's terms but I did pre-order Dr. Schubiner's book which should be out in February.
I still don't quite understand how we can make the crossover from conscious to subconscious to eradicate the pain. I know this takes time but for example this morning, I woke up and the jaw pain (my problem all centers around the jaw, teeth and temple) started. I don't know what to do when this happens. I think about my problems...but where do we begin? I can't know which stresses in my 60 years of life are causing the pain. I DO know that last week I had stress upon stress one day and had the worst temple pain I had ever had in my life.
So what do you do at the moment? I can think until I'm blue in the face about the cause but it doesn't make the pain go away. I wasn't worried that there's something physiologically wrong because I had a blood test last week to eliminate the worst case scenario that temple pain can be a symptom of. I knew it's stress. I had not read as much at that point and am still a newbie at this. I had to take Advil and lay down. I just don't understand this yet. I have a long standing history of health anxiety, which it seems is pretty common on here...anxiety, pain, more anxiety, etc.
Has anyone reading this post gotten over this without going through Schubiner's program or a similar one? With just the books and the help of this board? Thanks to all who reply. |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2010 : 21:27:28
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quote:
Has anyone reading this post gotten over this without going through Schubiner's program or a similar one?
Yes.
How aware of you of the tightening in your upper body (neck, shoulders and jaw) when you are under stress? Do you feel the pain in the midst of the tightening or after? Most likely after. Do you think you could try to smile and accept your feelings when you are harassed and frayed? If that's so, you can try the treatments dentists and orthodontists use or you can choose to watch how you react physically when threatened, worried, angered, and realize how silly and what a waste of time it is to try to tense against it. It doesn't do any good, doesn't keep the feelings from happening, doesn't change the outcome of a single thing outside your body or mind.
I bet a million bucks that if you were taught well (therapist or stress counselor) how to sit with your feelings and just let them go to hell and keep doing what you were doing without a thought for your body, you'd be cured by the time spring comes. But if you choose to languish in the unknown (as I did for nearly one full year AFTER reading Sarno and getting all jumbled and tangled and confused as to what was happening) you will not find relief nor an answer.
I wish you the best.
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2010 : 22:07:29
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Hillbilly, I react within seconds. I had a really irritating client who once called me when I was having a relaxing time with a friend. Just the sound of her voice set me off and within seconds, I had chin and jaw pain. I remember asking my friend for an ice pack.
Same this week, some problems and Friday I had the worst lower jaw pain. So that's my pattern, it's within seconds. As far as accepting my feelings when I am in distress, that doesn't seem like human nature...I mean, when people get upset, it's normal as a reaction to something terrible happening. And if TMS is attributed to past anger, how would controlling present anger help? I can't trace my past, what caused this as much as I can see the definite connection to my present stress followed by a pain. I am having trouble understanding how this works.
When you say "languish in the unknown"...could you explain that? Thanks for the reply and good wishes. |
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catspine
USA
239 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 01:09:35
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Hillbilly
quote:
I bet a million bucks that if you were taught well (therapist or stress counselor) how to sit with your feelings and just let them go to hell and keep doing what you were doing without a thought for your body, you'd be cured by the time spring comes.
Like many people I could use a million bucks so don't forget to tell Susan HOW to select a good therapist or stress counselor because there is a lot of thruth in what you say but I could bet that if the therapist is no good it will not work. It's just the same as reading the book that doesn't work for you. What works on the symptoms or the cause of TMS is different depending on what the person is sensitive to or responds to and that's why we have to spend some time suffering before we finally find it. It just takes time.
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 08:19:34
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quote:
Originally posted by susan828
...And if TMS is attributed to past anger, how would controlling present anger help? I can't trace my past, what caused this as much as I can see the definite connection to my present stress followed by a pain. I am having trouble understanding how this works.
Your current experience is common. You are clearly intelligent and attempting to satisfy the analytical side of your mind by comprehending the details of the TMS process. Unfortunately, this is not possible. This kind over over-analysis can be an impedement to recovery.
The reality is, we just don't know the details of how TMS works. Dr. Sarno has formulated a theory, but despite his vast knowledge and experience, I do not consider it a definitive scientific explanation of the TMS process. I prefer to view his explanation as a metaphor. I believe the true details of the process are unknown, beyond the current knowledge and capabilities of human understanding.
By looking at it this way, I free myself from the "need" to understand the details. The fact is, we don't need to. The treatment process is the same whether or not we understand TMS on an intellectual level.
You said that you experience chin and jaw pain when you hear a certain client's voice. The fact that this happens should be confirmation that your pain is TMS. You need to recondition your response here. Reaching for the ice pack is completely contradictory to TMS treatment. Instead, laugh about it. Say to yourself, "A ha! This is so obvious. This pain was clearly triggered by an emotional response. Of course it is not physical, it is TMS! Let me think now about what I might be repressing that is causing this pain."
It is important to realize that the conscious anger you feel at that moment towards the client is not the source of the pain. There is a child inside you that is in a blind rage because of the pressures that you are putting on yourself. This client triggered a TMS response because it is touching a nerve somewhere deep down inside you that you don't realize. The conscious anger you feel towards the client is a smokescreen for something that you are not feeling. Try to find out what that might be. Dig deep.
It is the act of digging for those feelings that is important. At that moment, you are "telling your brain" that when you are aware of the pain, you will not pay attention to it, and instead think about painful emotions -- the very feelings your unconscious mind is attempting to distract you from. Do this again and again, every time you are aware of the pain. Over time, the brain will realize its strategy is failing, and the pain will slowly fade. |
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 08:52:09
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Dave, that's about the clearest explanation and actual practical advice that I have read. I have to run to work so can't respond as well as I'd like to right now, except to say THANK YOU!!! I am just starting The Divided Mind and will be on this board as I go through it and hopefully during this whole journey. I so much appreciate the wise help I have received here so far.
To the poster who mentioned Claire Weeks, I have read her books many years ago, still have them and they did help me with anxiety many years ago. She was certainly a pioneer in that field and isn't given that much acknowledgement since people like Beck and Emory wrote the more clinical books. She was a gem in her time.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 10 years ago, just to give you a background and worked with my rheumatologist doing research. I have books from the 1700s and 1800s that describe fibro (called rheumatism then) and I have so much to share about the theories and treatments back then.
Two things I want to mention. I had severe neck pain about 20 years ago. I met a man I liked, had a relaxing evening and it went away like magic and didn't return. Then 10 years ago, after having fibro so bad that the simple act of crossing our arms, something we don't even think about when we take off a t shirt, hurt immensely. Well, love story #2...I broke up with this fellow who I had been with for 2 years and the day after, the pain was gone. The man was giving me a lot of grief, I never felt relaxed with him. So, I have my theories about fibromyalgia and there is a definite "fibro personality" which I have heard on one of the lectures on the net (Schubiner's I think). I knew this long ago, saw the similarities of certain traits in my support group members.
I am saying all of this to say that this, plus so much else has confirmed my belief of how stress precipitates the pain. |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 14:27:27
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Susan,
What I meant by "languish in the unknown" is that you can read far and wide on the subject of psychosomatic illnesses, anxiety disorders, and the like, and still have pain every minute of every day with no change whatsoever. You might get a better understanding than Sarno gives for certain, but you might not be able to break the pattern of emotional arousal/pain/more arousal/more pain.
But the reason the pain doesn't go away of its own accord is that you keep it going with your emotional attachment to it. Claire Weekes spells this out very clearly. Albeit heavily tilted toward panic attacks, the sections on chronic symptoms are just as useful. You have made a very valuable and perceptive observation about your pain and its relationship to a precursor stress. So, your body reacts to stress, as you say, immediately. You get pain, bad pain. But what is that pain telling you other than you are under stress? Nothing. But you don't think of it as nothing, instead you add stress to the cycle with gloomy thoughts about how it happens, how bad it is, how you must be a freak or something because no one should feel like this. So, to paraphrase Dr. Weekes, it is the second fear (your own emotional reaction to the initial stress) that keeps the cycle going, flooding your body with stress hormones, exhausting the nerves and wearing your patience thin.
This is the case with everyone I have ever known with this type of thing, and I had it in spades. I had to break the cycle by letting the body react to stress as it wished and not adding any fuel to the fire. This is difficult but very doable. The absolute worst thing you can do is to make it into more than it is. Just call it a stress reaction and blow it off. That's all it really is. It's your body's way of telling you to knock off the negativity.
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 15:23:05
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| Thanks, Hillbilly. I have almost every book of Weekes. Could you tell me which one is the best one to read pertaining to this? Her books helped me when I first had panic attacks (35 years ago!) because there wasn't much else out. I can see how the same technique would apply. I also have a collection of her cassette tapes. In a nutshell, she turned the what if's into so what if's. I managed to conquer the anxiety thing pretty well and haven't had a panic attack in years but I do panic with physical symptoms that scare me. It is just so hard living like this. |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 16:55:33
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I don't understand the difference. You say you don't suffer panic attacks anymore, but you still are fixated on your body. Why? The jaw pain is a panic attack minus the palpitations and sweats. It's an ulcer in the jaw. a clear reaction to your self-proclaimed "stewing half the time." Are you separating the two as though panic attacks are caused by one thing, next you have another inexplicable thing, followed by another and yet another? It's all stress. It means absolutely nothing, and you have known that for decades. Getting better involves removing fearful reaction to the initial bodily reaction to stress. This, in and of itself, can cure people. I have seen it many times.
I find it very interesting that so many of the people on this forum have read Dr. Claire Weekes' books at one time or another. Why do you think that is?
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 17:32:35
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Hillbilly, the reason so many people have read Weekes is that as you are pointing out in your posts in many ways, people who have anxiety disorder are prone to developing TMS. From what I have seen, most of the people I know with fibromyalgia had panic attacks as children and when they were old enough to choose books, at that time Weekes was one of the only authors around, geared to the layman. There were other cognitive based books but not on the average bookstore shelf.
If you look at the health anxiety message boards, almost everyone has the cycle of panic. Very few have not had a "free floating panic attack". When I mention that I haven't had a panic attack in years, I am referring to these, which I didn't understand and finally was able to get over. Yes, what's happening now is a form of it...definitely, but is manifesting itself in pain. I have had both types most of my life, even as a child. It isn't until recently that I am putting this all together and remembering incidents where I focused on my pain, my breathing and anything else bodily when I was under pressure...in class when I was asked to perform, so many times I recall and actually have documented in diaries over the years.
You're right about another, then another. I would like to share some of the research I did from my old medical books. They called rheumatism (fibromyalgia, same description), "the movable disease". This is from an early 1800s book. They describe how it moves from one part of the body to another. Now we know, or I and you believe, that folks didn't have something organic moving from part to part. I did experience this with fibro and I could not walk without pain or move my arms. It did start with a neck sprain and the drs. explained how everything is connected by the spine, so sometimes I wonder who is right here.
Like I mentioned in my previous post...if that was the case, why did it go away (almost) completely the day after I left my ex? I still have pains, that's why I am here posting but nothing of that magnitude. Took away the stress..took away the pain. BUT....it comes back, whether from past stuff or present stress. I have a lot to read and learn and thank you again for your wise input. |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2010 : 18:49:44
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Your mind is caught, as mine was, between what you have read from Dr. Sarno, versus what you have read elsewhere. This is a major criticism I have of his work. He has successfully placed back pain under the rubric of stress disorders, but his treatment plan is a Freudian retread, and I can't understand for the life of me why he holds on to his "distraction from what's bothering you in the unconscious."
Seems simpler just to see the jaw pain as heightened due to the frequency of stress responses, like Weekes' well-oiled trigger, and controlled ultimately by what happens in the conditioned nerve responses to thought. If you prefer digging through your childhood, have at it. But, as Weekes taught us, "It isn't enough to know that your mother didn't love you when you were young, and that is why you're anxious now. Whatever indeed may be the cause, fear is the habit now. This must be cured."
Be well, Susan.
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
Edited by - Hillbilly on 01/27/2010 21:35:58 |
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winnieboo
USA
269 Posts |
Posted - 01/30/2010 : 08:18:04
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quote:
The reality is, we just don't know the details of how TMS works. Dr. Sarno has formulated a theory, but despite his vast knowledge and experience, I do not consider it a definitive scientific explanation of the TMS process. I prefer to view his explanation as a metaphor. I believe the true details of the process are unknown, beyond the current knowledge and capabilities of human understanding.
By looking at it this way, I free myself from the "need" to understand the details. The fact is, we don't need to. The treatment process is the same whether or not we understand TMS on an intellectual level.
This is a serious problem. Most of us were gifted with overly analytical minds and are very intelligent. Instead of rejecting Sarno's theories outright because they don't work for us right away, we continue to knock our heads against the wall to understand Sarno's ideas, because in a word, we're desperate. We've lived with pain too long, or it's too unbearable. We hang on because for many, it's a last hope before surgery, or more tests, or meds, and after all, Sarno builds all those overnight recovery stories into his books. It makes you think, what's wrong with me?
quote:
Instead, laugh about it. Say to yourself, "A ha! This is so obvious. This pain was clearly triggered by an emotional response. Of course it is not physical, it is TMS! Let me think now about what I might be repressing that is causing this pain."
Laughing is not an easy thing to swallow if you're still in pain and Sarno isn't commmunicating the message for you. Honestly, none of us are close to "laughing about pain." It's just not realistic, not in the beginning, nor during the budding stages of relapse. It's way more complicated than that. Who's laughing when searing jaw pain comes on during a social encounter, when a migraine lasts for a week and you end up in the emergency room, when fibromyalgia causes you to feel like you can't get out of bed in the morning? "Letting go" like this is a goal, for sure, but truly, laughing feels like phony baloney. I remember telling my Sarnoesque psychodynamic therapist that I could control my migraines until I couldn't control them any more. She didn't really get it. And I no longer see her.
I don't think these pain syndromes come out of thin air. A physical injury or trauma is the trigger. It's our response to the injury that prolongs it. Fear, tense muscles, inactivity and and general worry impede healing. That's all in Sarno's work but (I think) it's convoluted. Clearly his message is that if you don't recover, pronto, you have to dig deeper with the help of a psychotherapist.
My current theory on therapy is to find a therapist who will help focus on changing behavior and one who will be supportive. Psychodynamic theory focuses on "understanding yourself."--and feeling past grief and anger, etc. Can I tell you something? I'm 50, have lived a great life, have a successful marriage, raised great kids, had fun and interesting jobs, and have also had lots of sadness, failures. setbacks, and stress. When all the negatives converged and my pain syndromes began (about three years ago), I read Sarno and then went to a Sarno psychotherapist (psychodynamic therapy) It did not help to trudge through the mud of my distant or recent past. Some of that pain was so deep that it certainly took my mind off my aching neck (Not a desirable method of physical pain relief in my opinion...) What did help was venting on a regular basis. What would help me more is continuing to change my stress response. Bracing oneself is a really stubborn habit. Changing responses is the uphill battle.
Chronic pain is complicated and can be multi-layered. It's not all about ANGER! Dealing with the emotional component, reducing fear of the symptoms, staying as active as you can, talking through or journaling about your personal stress and learning to tolerate uncertainty and strong emotions without internalizing so much, this is the tall order. This is road to better physical and mental health. I think this is the "metaphor" that Dave refers to.
In closing, can I just add that when you live in chronic pain for awhile, that adds another burden of stress to your load. Go easy on yourself if and when you can. I find that I'm constantly beating myself up for everything, including for "bringing on my own pain," which is something I unfortunately learned to say to myself, because my Sarno therapist said it to me frequently. Please don't insult or blame yourself but instead, work kindly with yourself and your stress. |
Edited by - winnieboo on 01/30/2010 13:39:47 |
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Please help me understand how this works
