Clicking / Popping Neck after Atlas Adjustment

Hi Matt:

Here's my Atlas-Occipital story. Before I discovered Dr. Sarno I was seeing a cranio-sacral MD who asked me to stop seeing my chiropractor, cold turkey. I had been getting A-O adjustments for over 15 years, because the joint would go off to the right of my cervical spine and cause horrendous headaches as well as neck pain. My husband could easily feel the lump whenever this happened (he said it grossed him out). Getting an adjustment worked, temporarily.

This MD said that I could talk to my A-O, and get it to move back on its own. Now, this wasn't as far out to me as it might be for others, because I'd had plenty of indicators all my life that I could exert a certain amount of control over my body - but I didn't know why, and when it came to pain, it was very difficult not to give in and just do what worked. Knowing this was why I was trying cranio-sacral treatment. So the next time the joint went out, I lay down, and very gently massaged it in the direction of my cervical spine - actually, I didn't even use any pressure, it was more like stroking it in the direction I wanted it to move. As I did this, I visualized the muscles around my vertebrae holding the joint in its proper place, and did some deep breathing and self-calming. I did this again when I went to bed, and in the morning, the damn thing was back in place. No lump, no pain, no headache, and no chiro adjustment needed, ever again.

A year later I discovered Dr. Sarno, everything made sense, and I said farewell to the expensive cranio-sacral doc because by knowing what was actually going on in my brain, I knew what I had to do. Which I have done, thanks to Dr. Sarno, Claire Weekes, Dr. Gabor Mate, numerous other authors and practitioners that I came to know on this forum and via the SEP, and, of course, this forum community.

Here's what I believe: our musculoskeletal systems can, under stress, whether it's the stress of daily life or the stress of emotional repression (usually both) become out of whack, out of joint, and misaligned. I also believe that our physiological systems (endocrine, neurological) can get out of balance from the same stresses, causing all kinds of problems, from digestion to skin to mental/emotional and everything in between. And I also believe that our immune systems can become compromised or inflamed by the same stresses, resulting in susceptibility to disease, or to auto-immune conditions.

BUT, I also truly believe that we have the personal power to reverse all of these conditions, first by doing the necessary emotional work, and second by making mindfulness, self-caring, and belief an automatic part of our daily lives.

This is easier said than done, and I don't know that anyone can actually achieve it 100%, 100% of the time - but for most of us, any success is better than life before TMS - and each one points the way to more success over time.

~Jan

 

Riverrat, the best advice I can give is, as always, is to learn to listen to the negative messages your brain is bombarding you with, day in and day out.

This is a actually a form of mindfulness, and even if you can only mange it for a minute or two, it's helpful. First I take a few deep breaths, then do a quick body scan in which I relax my muscles (especially my jaw, throat, abdomen, and toes!) then I examine the negative thought that is holding me back in the moment - and counteract it with a constructive thought or action.

Our brains really want us to stay negative, so that we remain constantly on the lookout for danger. Life stress certainly does not make this easy! This is why it's so hard to change - it can be a real battle of will to counteract the negative, and find something constructive and positive to take its place. Not "fake happy face" positive - but constructively positive. Remember, your brain will lie to you - so you have to be willing to find the truth ("there is nothing wrong with my... " and talk back to it, or else prove the lie by doing something that your brain thinks you can't do.

You've done it before, you can do it again - but I gotta say, life is a lot more complicated now, and I think it's harder these days!

 

I'm a tax accountant, Matt, not a health professional! All I'm saying is that in my experience, I've come to believe that anything is possible where mind-body manifestations are concerned.

Obviously, something like a broken bone or an illness is not TMS in origin (although some might argue that to some degree, and I would probably agree).
HOWEVER! - and this is no longer mere speculation on my part - you can heal from many things faster, and possibly with fewer meds (especially pain meds) if you apply mind-body techniques. Even the NIH supports this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3052954/ (The Impact of Psychological Stress on Wound Healing: Methods and Mechanisms)

We always advise being checked out for any condition that concerns you, to be sure that you don't have a condition which requires immediate medical attention. That being said, you'll find plenty of people on this forum who have ignored medical advice to subject themselves to various types of orthopedic surgery, and who ultimately found recovery by doing the work, and applying mind-body healing techniques to their symptoms.