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All1Spirit
USA
149 Posts |
 Posted - 03/11/2013 : 09:25:08
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The conclusion that you only have to connect with the repressed emotions and process them to cure stress disorders is what I believe is a very faulty premise. Humans are extremely complex systems and anything that is out of harmony can have consequences throughout the entire body.
Let me give an example that is not about connecting with old repressed emotions that can have a major effect on body tension.
When children grow up in a family that fails them in critical developmental stages they come to believe that they have little worth and that who they are at their core is of no value. As they mature that awareness of being worthless is so painful they, we, began to construct an artificial self. This becomes a personal lie they tell themselves to shield against the pain of worthlessness, and as they construct this false self they use use what they believe the outside world will value.
I like to use the analogy of a hermit crab, the little crab has no shell of its own and his body is very soft and vulnerable to all sorts of predators. As it grows it has to leave the old adopted shell and with great haste find new one. Once he finds a shell of a dead creature he moves in. It is not his shell so he sets about to make a shell look like what he thinks it should look like. With a little crab spit and things he finds on the ocean floor he attaches them to his shell until he is satisfied that he has created a new identity.
The problem is our inner core knows the truth. It knows that we're not all the things we purport to be and this sets up a condition called cognitive dissonance. This can best be described as a inner personality earthquake..... Two warring sides unable to align themselves into a congruent whole.
If this were not enough to cause anxiety and extreme inner tension there's a second factor at play. No matter how much denial you evoke and how much you attempt to repress the truth of who you are, a part of you knows the artificial self is a fraud. When we have a part of our personality that is fraudulent we are forever at risk of being found out, and an even greater risk that we will find yourself out and will be worthless.
A common path for wounded adult children is over compensation. Doing too much, trying to become too much, climbing the next ladder or head down, blinders on rushing towards the next goal at all costs. So much better if you are perfect and your ducks are all in a row.
This false self tends to cause behaviors that perpetuate the cycle of true self-denial, false self-expression and ways of being in the world that used to be termed neurotic. The core fear is if you should be found out to be truly worthless annihilation will follow.
If you have any question that this creates anxiety, tension or a myriad of body mind disorders and diseases consider what it would feel like to be circling the cosmic drain headed toward certain annihilation with nothing to save you. This is what the child personality has come to believe that grows up in a family that does not allow a true self to form.
"Around and Around the Circle We Go....
The Answer Sits In The Middle and Knows..." |
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Birdie78
Germany
145 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 09:59:58
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Oh I really like this post. And yes, that really creates lot of tension.
And I know exactly what you mean, this "false" self and the fear of annihilation. Lot's of symptoms can be produced around this fear and, as you said, even the need to overdo everything.
I often feel like there's no real "self" in me, just an empty shell. And the shell's not mine.
What helped me a lot was: stop the overdoing, see that this overdoing and the symptoms are a way to protect you from this annihilation-fear. Trying to accept this feeling of annihilation and emptiness as a part of me and not to fight against it.
Unfortunately these feelings are linked, as you described, to experiences of early rejection, neglect, abandonnment in very sensitive states where normally a kind of safe attatchment occurs or should occure.
And, although there are many people with this sort of experiences in their past, I guess Sarno adressed the more "normal range" of supressed feelings with his approach. People are different and what's good for the one may not help the other.
Sarno wasn't a psychologist but therefore his theory and his approach was really brilliant. What I take from him is what a huge influence the mind/unconscious has on the body and - adressing psychological mechanisms (whatever approach it takes) - healing can occur.
It helped me to understand that I don't suffer from a mysterious all over tendinitis or something else like that.
Kind regards from Germany sends Birdie |
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shawnsmith
Czech Republic
2048 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 10:10:02
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This is a very fascinating topic. I often think about those individuals who are very thin or very physically beautiful yet they see themselves as being obese or ugly. This too is a construction of an artificial self because how they see themselves and how others see them simply does not correspond.
It is also the case that many people who are outwardly successful in life, such as attaining lots of material wealth, a solid career or high educational status etc, many times look at themselves in the mirror and tell themselves that they are a complete failure or a loser. They have incredible amounts of low self-esteem even though objectively there is no outward evidence of it.
Such thinking about oneself most certainly generates a lot of inner tension and even anger which in turn leads to physical symptoms.
This is one reason why I believe that people have to change the way they see themselves if they wish to fully recover. It does not mean they have to have a over-estimation of who or what they are, but to have a balanced and realistic view. This takes effort and sometimes professional intervention may be necessary.
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“Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that
other people have of you is inauthentic living – another unconscious role theego plays.” -- Ekhart Tolle |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 11:38:09
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quote:
Originally posted by All1Spirit
The conclusion that you only have to connect with the repressed emotions and process them to cure stress disorders is what I believe is a very faulty premise. Humans are extremely complex systems and anything that is out of harmony can have consequences throughout the entire body.
This is where Dr. Sarno's TMS MINDBODY theory disagrees. He has found through his vast, lifetime of real world clinical experience, specializing in rehabilitative medicine at NYU Rusk, treating thousands of patients, that the BODY IS STRONG--it is the mind that is weak. The weak mind is susceptible to all kinds of nocebos, urban myths, old wive's tales, voodoo, and bad and quack science. The back is strong as well as the rest of the body.
Humans are complex but they are not delicate, and it takes a lot to screw them up, creating TMS psychosomatic symptoms. About 80% of what ails man is created from within by way of emotional/psychological causes and the rest from without by bad luck, inattention or breathing someone else's bad air.
If you truly believe, that the cause of your TMS condition is "medically" due to some microbe or structural defect, which can only be seen by an electron microscope or sophisticated imaging devices, there is no end to the dead-ends you'll be futilely trying, attempting to find a solution to your TMS caused distractive symptoms. |
Edited by - tennis tom on 03/12/2013 12:20:48 |
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pspa123
672 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 12:04:57
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Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind thats weak and a back thats strong
Name that tune. |
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susan828
USA
291 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 15:19:19
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Sixteen Tons! And I didn't google it...I seriously could have won on Name That Tune. I am a walking jukebox and nobody can stump me when it comes to music, LOL. And I'm old enough to remember that song  |
Edited by - susan828 on 03/11/2013 15:21:44 |
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pspa123
672 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 15:37:03
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quote:
Originally posted by susan828
Sixteen Tons! And I didn't google it...I seriously could have won on Name That Tune. I am a walking jukebox and nobody can stump me when it comes to music, LOL. And I'm old enough to remember that song
Yeah I have about a million tunes and lyrics in my head, it seems. Hahaha. |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 10:23:33
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quote:
Originally posted by All1Spirit
The conclusion that you only have to connect with the repressed emotions and process them to cure stress disorders is what I believe is a very faulty premise.
If you believe this is the crux of Dr. Sarno's theory, I suggest you re-read his books. It is way off base. |
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Sam908
70 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 14:18:23
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| Intellectualizing these concepts to a fare-thee-well will only delay the healing process; Tennis Tom nails it in his post above. In fact, over-analyzing Sarno's ideas and their many derivative combinations and permutations can be, in itself, a distractive device. |
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Beyond Sarno !!
