Dr. Alexander Chiropractor

Forest, do you get chiropractic adjustments? If so, how often?

 

Thanks Jan. The reason I am asking is because my chiro has told me that one should be adjusted once a month.

 

If chiropractic is a form of placebo cure, all you're doing by returning for further "adjustments" is keeping your TMS pain pathways programmed. Why do you think, most (but not all chiros) want to set up you up for a regular sequence of visits? You're just reinforcing your programmed pain responses each time you come back. Not to say this doesn't work the same way with deep tissue massage, rolfing, acupuncture/acupressure and physical therapy, each of which are physical modalities that make you focus on a structural cause for your pain and likewise distract you from unpleasant emotional content repressed into your unconscious mind to protect you from facing feelings you'd rather not deal with. If, after a series of 10 visits, you keep going back to get "adjusted", what the heck good is it doing anyway except paying for your chiro's mortgage, kids in a private school, alimony payments etc etc etc? In 2002-04, following a herniated disk, I went to PT religiously and improved. However, I think I would have improved anyway as my psychological condition ameliorated following the death of my mother. My mistake was thinking that my improvement was due to physical therapy and not psychological improvement as I moved away from a traumatic event and period in my life. My less than flattering take on the whole matter is that chiropractic is an addictive process based on the placebo response.

 

before i became TMS savvy, I experienced several weeks of extreme back pain, which saw me seeking the services of a chiro. Having only consulted with a couple of chiro's in my life, i dont know if this bloke was typical or not, but my experience with him says a lot. Despite having a bachelor's degree in chiropractic, he insisted on calling himself 'doctor'. He insisted that i have a back Xray at his clinic ($$). Despite conceding that my back actually looked pretty good in the Xray, he insisted that i needed 3 adjustments per week ($$). His clinic had a reward system for people who were regular attendees- there was a 'patient of the week' poster on the reception wall with the photo of a poor suffering woman who had been successfully convinced to part with her hard earned 3 times a week for several months- in fact, i think she had busted through the 12 month barrier (and still needed treatment!). He taught me that i would also need months of treatment (perhaps years) to become pain free ($$). It was only my natural stingeiness that saw me balking at this treatment suggestions and containing him to one session per week. He ignored the fact that I was going through a rough patch in my relationship at the time, and had no interest at all in what was going on in my life (other than my ability to keep paying him $$). After a few weeks, it occurred to me that each time i went to see him, he did the same re-adjustments, ie. the same vertebrae were 'out of place' and continually needed to be put back in place. Ultimately, it occurred to me that my vertebrae are attached to muscles, and muscular tension is highly related to emotional tension; and as long as the emotional tension remains, bones will continue to be pulled out of their ideal location by muscular tension. And emotional tension (at some level, in varying degrees) will remain for as long as we are alive. So, what he was treating was a natural function of being alive, and not a disorder at all. But his profession had conceived vertebrae (when out of their proper location, according to some esoteric ideal) as being the source of the problem (requiring therapy- $$), rather than being an outcome of what was actually going on in people's lives. The same chiro advertised his services in the local paper as a viable treatment for pretty well every ailment known to man/woman, e.g learning difficulties, sleep problems, sexual disorders, depression, anxiety, digestive problems, etc, etc.. After a few weeks i considered that he had missed his true calling as a used car salesman (apologies to any of these- i have befriended some pretty honest used car salesmen in the past). I recently had a burst of similar back pain when moving a heavy pot plant (not a weight that i would usually have any problems with). Was it merely a random fluke that this followed the day of me scattering my recently deceased father's ashes? Rather than experience confusion and panic because of the pain (as i would have prior to being TMS savvy), i could simply see it for what it was. The pain was gone within a couple of days. No doubt, i still need chiropractic adjustment!

 

I saw a chiro when I had back pain. He cracked me on my side somehow and the pain got less for about 20 minutes. I knew it was not an answer for me.

I don't see why we need to be adjusted monthly. Millions and millions of people (like me) do not get adjusted at all and are just fine.

 

The article about Mrs. Sarno makes me wonder, Forest, whether aphasia is associated with PTSD (i.e. what they called 'combat fatigue' back in WWII) since she initially set up her clinic to deal with returning servicemen? If so, it sounds as if she may have contributed to her husband's body-mind theory. Nice to marry someone like that!

As far as chiropractic medicine is concerned, read Dr Barrett's Quackwatch articles.

 

Forest, it does sound like the triggering event for spastic dysphonia could be a traumatic experience in combat, which would in turn cause a WWII vet to stutter. Of course, the combat event would stir up old emotions from some prior difficult experience in childhood. And, no, I hadn't read Howard Schubiner before now. Seems like that two-trauma pattern is behind a lot of MB disorders, including "aphasia", which could also be caused by brain damage too. But stuttering sounds quite TMS. I think I knew a guy like that years ago in Colorado who stuttered until he cleaned up his life, got married and settled down. Interestingly enough, he used to sleep walk too, sometimes at awkward times. Wonder if his nocturnal wandering ceased at the same time as his stutter? Dunno.