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kstarnes
USA
21 Posts |
 Posted - 03/13/2012 : 11:01:14
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I am beginning to do more physical activities (yoga, jogging, stretching, and golf). The problem I keep having is the fear of a pain or spasm just before, and as, I am doing some of these activities. Does anyone have any mental exercises or strong words (s)he uses to overcome these fears?
kevin starnes |
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Bugbear
United Kingdom
152 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2012 : 11:13:33
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| I practice a fairly challenging form of Pilates. When I was at my worst with sciatic pain, as long as I could drive myself to the studio I would walk in (or limp in) with an air of great determination, even if it were forced. I knew I did this stuff before with no I'll effect. I would say to myself I was strong and could not damage my body by going through a tried and tested routine. Interestingly my pain would pretty much cease during my hour at the studio and yet I would often limp back out to the car. This was just one piece of evidence that my pain was not structural. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2012 : 09:32:54
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Continually remind yourself there is nothing structurally wrong and any pain you feel is due to psychological and not physical cause.
If you do get a twinge of pain just laugh it off, and "tell your brain" you are not going to let it get away with it, and continue.
While fighting lower back pain, I often felt pain while doing leg presses. I remember getting angry and saying to myeself, "oh yeah, take that!" as I pushed through and ignored the pain.
It is important to send a message to your brain that you will continue performing physical activity regardless of its attempts to make you believe it is the cause of pain. |
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2012 : 10:56:57
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| Are you completely free of pain now dave? |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 08:32:48
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quote:
Originally posted by Ace1
Are you completely free of pain now dave?
Depends on how you define "completely free."
As I said I do not believe it is a realistic goal to be 100% pain free for the rest of one's life.
I will get TMS pain from time to time but it is barely noticable. When I do notice, I take it as a signal to address my emotional health. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 09:20:49
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| As long as you are part of the human condition you will never be completely free of TMS pain. It is a defense mechanism to protect one from experiencing emotions viewed by the subconscious as "dangerous" in the present. The trick is what the conscious mind does with the signal. Does it grasp onto the pain and use it for a crutch or meditate on what it is trying to distract one from? |
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 10:58:54
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| Thanks for your response Dave, what I mean by completely cured, I mean like you were when you were a teenager, where pain although it may occur sometimes, it is of no significance in your life. Your response has answered my question. You told us how you over came your fear of your conditioned pain by pushing through the pain. How did you use the working on your emotions to help rid yourself of TMS? If you can give an example as well, that would be great. I have been usimg affirmations and to be honest I think they are critical to my recovery. If I remember right, I think you posted on affirmations in the past. If you could be so kind to also comment on how you think affirmations have helped you. Thanks again |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 11:47:41
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quote:
As long as you are part of the human condition you will never be completely free of TMS pain.
This statement is completely false. I know no less than 10 people personally who have enjoyed a complete recovery from chronic pain with no recurrence for years.
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Aided and abetted by corrupt analysts, patients who have nothing better to do with their lives often use the psychoanalytic situation to transform insignificant childhood hurts into private shrines at which they worship unceasingly the enormity of the offenses committed against them. This solution is immensely flattering to the patients—as are all forms of unmerited self-aggrandizement; it is immensely profitable for the analysts—as are all forms pandering to people's vanity; and it is often immensely unpleasant for nearly everyone else in the patient's life.
Dr. Thomas Szasz |
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 11:54:26
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Hillbilly,
I like your new signature post. I think its very true. CHildhood may affect the way you react to your environment as an adult, but I do not believe it is the reason per se for on-going tms. Thanks for all your help on this forum. |
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 13:10:53
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Hillbilly,
You have told us how you have overcome your TMS by not fearing the pain (or symptoms) and putting yourself in situations that normally result in pain - going through it to the point of torture until the pain left and your confidence went up. Could you also please comment on how you fit emotions and working on them in the course of your recovery? Like if something made you angry etc, did you try to let it go and forgive and calm down, or that was'nt important - it was more important to not let symptoms bother you etc...? Thanks again for your response as always. |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 14:05:18
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Ace,
I did not specifically work on emotions during my recovery. I tried that approach for eight months solid, thinking about what might be bothering me, returned to activity, journaling, all of that. I was probably worse off and more frustrated. Focusing on emotions is, to me, wholly futile. I know others have anecdotally said that helped them, but those with whom I work directly do not share this experience.
Experience had taught me after many months that nothing was going to happen if I didn't seek relief from the pain by lying or sitting or stretching, so it was safe to suffer, and I developed the willingness to suffer, which is a change of attitude toward your pain, not a change of thought about what is causing it. The knowledge that what my mind told me might happen if I didn't seek relief was not true, and I could indeed suffer away in a crowded party without a soul noticing, was huge.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Aided and abetted by corrupt analysts, patients who have nothing better to do with their lives often use the psychoanalytic situation to transform insignificant childhood hurts into private shrines at which they worship unceasingly the enormity of the offenses committed against them. This solution is immensely flattering to the patients—as are all forms of unmerited self-aggrandizement; it is immensely profitable for the analysts—as are all forms pandering to people's vanity; and it is often immensely unpleasant for nearly everyone else in the patient's life.
Dr. Thomas Szasz |
Edited by - Hillbilly on 03/21/2012 14:07:51 |
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 15:11:07
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| So to be absolutely clear there was no real attempt at peace or relaxation to what you mention above, correct? You post implies this, but bc this point is so confusing it is important to be certain. |
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balto
839 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 15:17:51
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quote:
Originally posted by Ace1
Like if something made you angry etc, did you try to let it go and forgive and calm down, or that was'nt important - it was more important to not let symptoms bother you etc...?
A short time after I "cured" myself, I was still more "sensitive" to negative events or negative emotions than I am now. Facing negative stuffs, my breathing would be at a faster pace and more intense and I would feel stressed out more than I should. I thought I should change my perception of life and everything in it. I read more books by Dale Carnegie and some other Zen books and try to easy with life as much as I can. I tried to look at the good side of things more. I tried to find the positive in people in my life more. I tried to think of why people behaved the way they do before I criticise them.
I use to get upset when people cut my off on the highway, but now I just tell myself that person probably have an emergency at home. I use to give people who cut in line at the market an unfriendly look, but now I just tell myself they are in a hurry because their young kids are hungry at home. The young neighborhood kids don't bother me anymore. I know their name, what school they go to, and what they want to be when they grow up. I used to get upset when they walked on my front lawn and drop their candies wrapper. People at work don't bother me anymore. They all have problems, some are much worse off than I am. I tried to be helpful and more understand with them now and we have a much better working relationships.
I just try not to judge people so quick and to forgive as much as I possibly can. It was hard at first trying to change who I was my whole life. But with practice it became easier and more pleasant to do. Well! I've do all this for one selfish reason, I just want a normal life free of tms/anxiety. I think it is a bargain, a small price to pay for peace of mind and good health. No confrontation, no stress, just a peaceful feeling. Even if my childhood is horrible, I don't think it could do any harm to me now. |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 15:31:45
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Ace,
I don't see how you can will yourself to peace or relaxation. I definitely took it easier as far as working and the like until I felt confident that I was improving. Out of it all, I suppose I did adopt a more neutral mindset toward most things, people, life in general. Abraham Low's writings are good for that, as are Szasz's. I don't believe we can change our personality much, even with willing ourselves to look differently at things, but we can save ourselves a lot of grief by not building shrines to our upsets and seeing them as average occurrences in daily life.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Aided and abetted by corrupt analysts, patients who have nothing better to do with their lives often use the psychoanalytic situation to transform insignificant childhood hurts into private shrines at which they worship unceasingly the enormity of the offenses committed against them. This solution is immensely flattering to the patients—as are all forms of unmerited self-aggrandizement; it is immensely profitable for the analysts—as are all forms pandering to people's vanity; and it is often immensely unpleasant for nearly everyone else in the patient's life.
Dr. Thomas Szasz |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 15:47:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Hillbilly
quote:
As long as you are part of the human condition you will never be completely free of TMS pain.
This statement is completely false. I know no less than 10 people personally who have enjoyed a complete recovery from chronic pain with no recurrence for years.
On page 87 of Dr. Sarno's THE DIVIDED MIND, there is a passage that simplified, clarified and summed up TMS for me:
"...Freud and his followers, considered psychosomatic manifestations as a form of illness representing defective personalities. I strongly disagree. Psychosomatic phenomena are not a form of illness. They must be seen as part of the human condition-to which everyone is susceptible. They include a wide range of disorders, some very serious and even life threatening, but our view is that they may all be traced back to the primeval conflict between our two minds, the uncoscious and the conscious, the id and the ego and supergo, the ancient "paleomammalian mind" and the modern "neomammalian mind," each mind reacting in the only way it knows to the pressures of daily life."
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 19:47:47
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| Thanks guys for your responses. Dear tt, just bc dr sarno says it doesn't mean it's right. Don't get me wrong it was because of him that I was sent on the right track. He is a genius to see beyond what almost every other physician didn't see. Hillbilly is telling us he has no more symptoms after a severe case of tms. Now I'm sure he is not beyond an occasional headache but it is a rarity just like when we were children and I think this is what is considered cured. If we have examples of people cured using different methods then something doesn't fully fit with doctor sarnos theory. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 20:02:12
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| How do you know what vicissitudes and calamities the future will place in your path that will not require the use of TMS psychogenic or affective symptoms as a protective defense mechanism so as not to be emotionaly overwhelmed? |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 21:45:37
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| Is Thomas Szasz still around? I remember his "Myth of Mental Illness" was big in the late 60's. The quotation about psychoanalysts seems outdated as there are very few left. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 22:24:17
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Ace1, and everyone else, you'll have to excuse me, it just occurred to me that you are looking for folks who are symptom free "cured". In that case I am CURED and have been for many years. I deflect TMS symptoms quite regularly, too many to list at the moment. I now understand that because I'm a "hippy", I don't qualify for the "cured" category. I wouldn't give up my hip--whatever it is from--for the world. It's been my best coach and showed me who my real friends are. I'm here not because I'm stuck looking for a "cure", I'm here because I'm a Sarno devotee and have always been interested in psychology--if anything I'm an incurable goodist--I'm waiting for a pill for that.
For all intents and purposes I'm TMS "cured", a functional business man employing a staff of 20, sleep well, have a good long term relationship with a lovely lady, could get in my Jeep and drive cross-country and back, ran in the pool for an hour yesterday, my only disfunction is being a step slow for national senior tournament tennis but play nearly everyday for two to four hours. So I'm declaring myself TMS "CURED"! |
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2012 : 23:01:53
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Tom,
If I should need "the use of TMS psychogenic or affective symptoms as a protective defense mechanism so as not to be emotionaly overwhelmed" I shall welcome them. I believe I would refer to them as stress symptoms, though, due to my affinity for the simple. I was born and raised in Kentucky, remember. I posted a rebuttal to your statement initially because a) it is false, and b) because it could lead people to believe that they are working very hard on changing their way of looking at their pain only to affect a decrease in its severity and chalk the rest up to being human. I have three humans who live in my house, and nary a one has TMS or any of its "equivalents."
I remember reading in Healing Back Pain that Dr. Sarno saw this as a cradle-to-grave syndrome. I take that to mean lifelong. When pain goes and switches to something else, it is the symptom imperative. But what about when the pain goes and nothing else is there? Where is my symptom imperative?
What the quotation you lifted from TDM says is that as long as we are human, we will be susceptible to these problems. I agree that anyone can be thrown a curveball by stress, misread it, worry it into staying around and wreck their lives. I did it. But if we are to help a higher percentage of people recover, I think it's necessary that we simply hold them accountable for the responsibilities of daily life even while they suffer and focus on their goals instead of their limitations. Relapses can and often do happen, but the same path must be followed out the second or third time as the first. Lose the fear of the symptoms and all that is left is facing life, viscissitudes, calamities, and all.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Aided and abetted by corrupt analysts, patients who have nothing better to do with their lives often use the psychoanalytic situation to transform insignificant childhood hurts into private shrines at which they worship unceasingly the enormity of the offenses committed against them. This solution is immensely flattering to the patients—as are all forms of unmerited self-aggrandizement; it is immensely profitable for the analysts—as are all forms pandering to people's vanity; and it is often immensely unpleasant for nearly everyone else in the patient's life.
Dr. Thomas Szasz |
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Fear of Pain
