Freaking relapse

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are doing well and on the verge of recovery.

Like most of you, I'm coming hear seaking help.

But before I ask for help let me tell you guys a little bit about my story (I already wrote it here years ago).

As far as I can remember, I've always had a little bit of back problem, even when I was a kid... But it always use to come and go and was not really holding me back from doing anything, it was just coming in a form of annoying incomfort. But when I was 24-25, I had a bad hockey check, I fell head first on the ramp and had a concussion. After this hit, my back pain never left me... Well, until 3-4 years ago, when I found dr. Sarno's work and this website.

Once I learned about TMS, it took me about a year to fully recover... I considered myself fully recovered because I was able to do almost everything and I had no more pain. I was playing golf again... Man... I thought I would never do that again, what a joy seriously... But for wathever reason, I never started running again...

And its not even because of my back, its because when I was running I felt dizzy for a couple of days after. I thought it was my old concussion history (I actually wrote a post on this here as well) but I realized that it was just TMS again, waiting for the next opportunity, so I actually never fully recovered...

Anyway, my last 3-4 years were really amazing, and I'll be forever gratefull to this website and Dr. Sarno for this...

But now... I'm having a really bad relapse, its actually spreading everywhere... It started with a soar throat that stayed for about 2-3 weeks, and after weird feelings started spreading over... Under my foot, my elbow, my back... Its kind of crazy, I know the symptom imperative is at work, but what concerns me is that its all these location at the same time...

Its definately one of the most stressfull period of my life, personaly and professionnaly, so I do understand why TMS is coming back... But the thing is, I can't change things.. Anyway... As Steve O'zanich says in his book, confidence runs away like crazy when pain comes back... And its weird, its like if TMS slowly raised back, I remember fearing the pain again in november, which hasn't been a problem for the past 3-4 years...

So... Although I healed once, I'm not able to get rid of it now, and its been lasting for almost two months...

Anybody here has the same type of story?

I scheduled a call with Steve O in two weeks. Hopefully that will help me.

Thanks,

 

Sorry to hear about your relapse. Though I am over 5 years since recovery from TMS, I still get a relapse a couple of times a year. So I know how frustrating it is. But it is telling you that you need to look at the psychological factors in play in your life right now.

You state above that this is one of the most stressful periods in your life. While it may be that you can't change the stressful situations, you can change your reaction to them. Being free of TMS doesn't mean being free of stress (which is not even possible for most of us).

When I have a relapse, I get out paper and pencil again and begin exploring what my internal conflicts may be. What emotions am I needing to distract myself from? I keep digging deep until I get that ah-ha moment when I'm able to connect to the underlying psychological issues. This is usually enough to bring almost immediate relief from the pain, but sometimes its takes a few days to get my nervous system back to a calm state.

You can recover from this relapse, just as you recovered from TMS in the first place. You know it's TMS, so that puts you far along on the path to recovery.

 

All of us who have been recovered have seemed to have had relapses. I have had a couple of peaches myself....and of course they were accompanied by the outrage of "Hey... I know this is TMS...go away... I already beat you"

As Ellen just pointed out, and Sarno said "If people had to change to recover, my cure rate would be zero". Intellectual understanding that this is a stressful period is often not enough. I ususally get names, numbers, nature of the offense, WHat it is in me that is making it stressful??? . Remember; if you didn't give a shit it wouldn't be stressful. So why do you give a shit? Ahhh that's were the RAGE and unsavory stuff is camping.

You'll get it. Time for more digging and inspecting.

 

Sorry to hear it. Check out this podcast interview, I talk a lot about what you're going through. Hope it helps!

https://audioboom.com/posts/7173184-057-kevin-martillo-viner-phd?fbclid=IwAR0vSXw6MfXJZx290rxvJTLrZiCdjTxsk-ItAbRQ9xOSNG68C_U-oCd5aHE (Audioboom / 057 - Kevin Martillo Viner, PhD)

 

Thank you so much All... this is why this website is so incredible, there’s always people lile to to help others...

I already feel a lot better, your podcast helped a ton Kevin, thank you so much.

Will be talking to SteveO tmw, can’t wait.

Thanks

 

Fantastic, so glad you’re feeling better. Good luck with Steve, I love that man. Tell him hi from Kevin out in Brooklyn! Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Relapsing myself to , so reading these posts very interested . Like your reply Baseball
but this my ‘stuck’ part a long time.
I know what things are giving me stress
I dig into the ‘why’s
And understand that they have to do
with fear: fear of loosing people, fear of getting back into the pain missery : which means: suffering and isolation
not being able to lead a normal life
(Meaning : job, socializing etc)
But : isn’t that totally normal ?
You asked: why do you give a shit ?
Now i guess because i do not want to go back into missery!
I can dig deeper ( can i ?) but found that fear pretty logical. So why should that give pain or other symtomps?