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tcherie
72 Posts |
 Posted - 10/29/2012 : 10:07:16
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I have become more knowledgeable of TMS over a course of 5 years. I have read and am reading books on the subject. Maybe I have overlooked or just have not fully gotten the magnitude of the concept, but there is one question that still evades me that I think will help me take a giant leap forward now and in the future.
Is chronic pain a manifestation of the mind? Meaning, is what I am to understand is that the body is generally able to heal from injury, surgery, and is not meant to be in pain indefinitely, and if it is, and their is no disease involved (i.e., cancer, sickness, etc.) the pain is coming from repressed rage?
So no matter what trauma the body experiences, given the right amount of healing time, a person should be able to reach a pain-free state if they understand that lingering symptons are a result of TMS?
I ask because I have read alot of posts on this site, and the symptoms that people have gotten over are amazing, but you still may think to yourself...that worked in their situation, but this happened to me. Also, in just talking to friends and family who don't know TMS, I will hear them say..."I had this surgery, and my knee, hip, wrist, etc. will never be as it was or pain-free." So am I to understand that if they knew about TMS, their pain would go away also, if they understood how the mind uses the body to distract itself?
Please help me to clarify this point. |
Edited by - tcherie on 10/29/2012 10:08:47 |
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eric watson
USA
601 Posts |
Posted - 10/29/2012 : 20:50:28
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tcherie for me i really believe there was that time in my life that all the things i didnt want to think about or that i repressed or eventually forgot about had to be exploited-this was around the time that i had been through a lot of very stressful stuff and i was wondering how long i could go without haveing a nervous breakdoun-i have always thought of exercise as a cure all so i resumed to go back to my workout program after a two yr lay-off and boom it hit me-i thought it was just a muscle pull but it wouldnt go away and about a yr later i was worse than ever-then i found sarnos book and it made sense to me-i have always studied pshycology as it is one of my hobbies but i never heard of sarnos theory in my studies-so it was like wow could this be true -could i really be thinking about the pain so much that im making it stay-this is revolutionary-i literally put his method to the test-i worked out with the no fear attitude and something happened -for the first time in a yr i didnt hurt-so i went into it full throttle with everything else added to the equation and now about 11 weeks in im more than healed -im at the prime of my life-i have learned so much in so short a time that it is fasinating-its hard to believe -nothing short of a miracle-all this time and all these yrs and i really believe i was helping to put myself in a situation like this-all those repressed emotions-all the anxiety fed-all the times i really would work for days without taking a break for my mind-i believe we can overload ourselves so much that in effect our brain has no choice but to put pain on us to slow us doun-as i heard steveo say-saving us from a heart attack or something worse-i dont think chronic pain is a myth-its something we have to go through to realize we have to think about our brain too-just too much mental pain and so forth and then we start to hurt in our bodies-without sarnos theory i dont believe i would have come through this time-hitting the gym just didnt do it anymore-now i work out and have a good time-now when i start to stress i use affirmations-now when the past starts to haunt ill think about it-and accept instead of putting it on the backburner-as you know tcherie there is so much more-hope this helps somewhat-godbless
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Edited by - eric watson on 11/01/2012 11:46:05 |
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balto
839 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2012 : 09:04:11
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I often wonder the same thing.
I saw people got shot at, stepped on land mines, got hit by a car and lost limps and parts of their body. They were in pain for a few months but once their injured body parts are healed their pain stop and they move on with life. Then I heard of people go to the dentist, got some dental work done then got chronic pain that they blame on some nerve damage due to dental work. Don't make sense isn't it?
My friend work as a machinist for 40 plus years often in a very very noisy environment without any ear protection, he has good hearing. While I was suffered for years with tinnitus that my doctor blamed on my little Sony walkman. don't make sense isn't it?
I've seen farmers worked their whole life on the farm doing manual labor works and live well and healthy into their 80+, then I've seen office workers suffered from chronic back and shoulder pain due to their "wrong postures". Don't make sense isn't it?
I've seen people walking all days long around the landfill in Cambodia salvaging anything of value that they can recycle. They walked days in and days out for years and years with no problem. Then I've seen people in the west suffered from chronic foot pain, they suffered from gout, bunions, bone spurs, .... because of what they eat or how they walked or one of their legs is longer than the other... Don't make sense isn't it?
I am no doctor but I do think chronic pain is all man made.
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No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
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tcherie
72 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2012 : 18:36:38
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Thank you both for your responses.
As I have Sarno's books, Fred Amir (I think that is right), SteveO's, and I have observed what you have Balto, it makes me wonder...
Is the body constantly seeking a pain-free state, barring any sickness or disease being in your system?
I believe I recall reading in one of Sarno's books that everyone is susceptible to TMS or has it in one way or the other (I can be corrected if I am wrong).
I just ask the question, because one of the reasons alot of people don't heal or heal slowly is because they still believe the pain is physical or that the body is injured in some way. But if chronic pain develops in the mind by conditioning or repressed rage, primarily, then there is really nothing to fear or limit us once we realize this no matter what happens to us as we age.
I don't know if anyone else who has cured long-term health issues by understanding TMS has started to feel this way. It just reminds me of an older lady I met in her 80's who had just lost her husband. She was talking my head off, but in the conversation she said that she was fortunate that she did not have any health concerns. The one thing that stood out to me about her was how bubbly, full of energy, and pleasant she was. I thought to myself...what do I have to do to make the same statment when I reach her age. Alot of my aunts between the age of 60 to 80 have some type of chronic pain issue. So, you expect that comes as you age, but does it...Maybe being pain-free in life has to do with how we view things and how we have conditioned our mind.
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Birdie78
Germany
145 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2012 : 01:43:25
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To know about TMS and the myth of chronic pain is so facilitative of me. I went through lots of pain centres and was always told: you have get pain medication and see that you get rit of a "new pain" as far as possible, because if the pain lasts longer that a few months the brain will learn it ("pain memory") and when your pain once is chronic you probably will never get rid of it because the brain can hardly unlearn the pain.
For people like me (catastrophik thinking, pessimistic and so on) that was really fatal, they really drove me crazy. You can imagine the kind of thoughts that came into my mind? "Oh no, I must gt rid of that new pain as soon as possible, because if not this pain will stay with me for the rest of my life!". And guess what: most of my pain became chronic and never went away!
I am sure not all people working in pain centres are all that "bad" only wanting to earn money...most of them belief what they teach and really want to help pain sufferers. But in the case of TMS and many other conditions they really create worst case scenarios. I was in 3 pain centres for weeks and months and my pain did not even decrease a little bit although they tried nearly everything the modern pain medicine can offer.
That chronic pain is "mind (and man) made" sounds very logical to me. From a evolutionary perspective it wouldn't make sense that the brain, once the body was injured, learns the pain and probably never unlearns it. The mankind would have died out a long time ago (imagine a Stone Age Men who injured his foot and now suffering for many years of plantar fascitis: "well I really can't take my heels when a sabor toothed tiger wants to eat me, so I have to die!"
But I have lived this myth so long that I really have incorporated it...it's still in my mind and when I am in pain for longer than a few months (what is usually the case) I think of what the pain doctors told me...
I really want to unlearn this thinking pattern...
Hope you understood what I wanted to say in spite of my poor English
Kind regards from Germay sends Birdie |
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tcherie
72 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2012 : 08:08:58
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Yes Birdie 78. I understood, and I am really beginning to believe also that chronic pain in its various forms is man-made.
This knowledge is really freeing to me, and helps me to feel more in control. I don't have to fear that the body is weak, and given normal measures a person can get rid of their chronic pain.
While I think many on this forum have already accepted that they fit a person who would have TMS, I think letting go and just living their life without focusing on the area that is causing distress, and knowing that they will get better is the hard part. |
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tennis tom
USA
4746 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2012 : 10:10:53
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quote:
Originally posted by tcherie
...a person should be able to reach a pain-free state if they understand that lingering symptons are a result of TMS?
Please help me to clarify this point.
Yes and no. You may lessen your fear that there is something wrong with you structurally that needs "fixing" through some external remedy like surgery. But, if you accept Dr. Sarno's theory that TMS/psychosomatic pain is a PROTECTOR, from feeling even greater emotional pain, then the TMS pain(s) may remain, until you resolve your life situations, that fill and maintain your rage/soothe reservoir, to overflowing, necessitating the symptoms as a defense mechanism. Acceptance is good but resolution of the issues is better.
Hope that helps, |
Edited by - tennis tom on 11/01/2012 11:06:23 |
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tennis tom
USA
4746 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2012 : 16:11:33
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Is anyone an editor?--this must be the longest run on sentence I've ever done here. I'll trade editing for In-N-Out, and Pete's Coffee gift cards.
"But, if you accept Dr. Sarno's theory that TMS/psychosomatic pain is a PROTECTOR, from feeling even greater emotional pain, then the TMS pain(s) may remain, until you resolve your life situations, that fill and maintain your rage/soothe reservoir, to overflowing, necessitating the symptoms as a defense mechanism."
Good luck wrapping your TMS head around that one. |
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SteveO
USA
272 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2012 : 10:54:43
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This is a GREAT question TCherie, it needs some time to reflect on.
Steve |
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Is chronic pain a myth?
