Hopefully this is the last you will hear me

Hi guys,

I have probably annoyed you all over the last month or 2 with lots of questions, and you have supported me on this journey from suicidal to recovery, so I just want to say thank you to everyone, although a special thank you to Walt, who seemed to always comment on my posts where I was asking about the validity of TMS and all he kept saying is believe in TMS 100% and you will be cured, and it is thanks to him I am where I am today.

About 10 days ago I went to the doctor as I had a 'flare up' and I wanted a 2nd opinion. I told the orthopedist I believed the pain was psychosomatic and he transferred me to a neurologist who gave me some meds to change how my neurotransmitters work (I believe this repressed TMS symptoms and made me worry about the side-effects of the meds). Anyway, I went back to see him and he gave me about a million meds, I decided that the fact my pain 100% subsided due to this was enough for me to believe in TMS 100%. I have been off meds for 4 days now and not one ounce of pain has come back and even the symptom imperatives that I was experiencing has gone.

For anyone who was in a similar position to me, where you got better from reading the books but never got full recovery, I urge you to believe in it 100%, even go get some hypnotherapy and tell them you want the belief of TMS drummed into you haha. All I can say is I used to pretend I believed 100% but deep-down I never, but now I do and I feel like I am born again. Believe in it 100% and I promise you that your pain will subside. I read someone else say that they believed that everyone seems to get about 75% better rapidly but the rest takes a while; I totally agree with whoever that was. It is a bumpy ride, you will have bad days along with the good days, but please believe me there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I could honestly write about a million words about how I feel, but with the reader in mind I will keep it short. Believe. Believe. Believe. If you believe 100% you will be 100% better. I promise you. TMS is the real deal, and I hope this message reaches someone who is in the same position I was and helps them. One thing I will say, which may be general or may be just specific to me, I believe I had a lot of repressed anger (Sarno focusses on this the most I feel) but I believe that anxiety was the root cause of my pain. Do the SEP and find out about yourself and you will get better.

Thanks for taking the time to read, I already made a success story post but that was premature as I wasn't 100% better, but I will make a new one in the next few weeks as I want to make sure this time, plus I'm a little busy with work.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you - Matthew 7:7

God bless you all,
Scott x

 

Awesome. I love these posts. Its so hard to believe 100 percent. I made a lot of progress to start, but within the last few weeks 100% belief has really started to sink in. This has led to more noticeable progress and I know soon I will be 100% cured. Its such a good feeling to be happy again!

 

Yes, Scottyboy. Your news is wonderful and an inspiration to everyone who still has a little pain.
I really love your Biblical reference. I am a strong believer that faith helps in TMS healing,
and I write in my book with Herbie (Eric Watson): God Does Not Want You to Be In Pain.
It's available at amazon.com books in paperback and Kindle. Pardon the plug.

Keep feeling great. Consider yourself hugged.

 

Happy happy joy joy!!! What a wonderful post Scott, I am so glad for you.

As a man thinks, so he is. Proverbs 23:7. This verse jumps off the page and speaks volumes that I would never have guessed. It is an awesome thing to be witness to people getting well.

 

Scottyboy. What wonderful news and I hope this is not the last that we hear from you. Your journey is an inspiration. You hung in there despite what TMS was trying to trick you into believing. I always find it amazing how hard TMS works to keep us stuck. It seems to be so simple, just believe, but how do you describe that to someone? So thank you for sharing your path to recovery with us and I hope to see you on the forum more.

 

Sounds exactly like me, except I am a few weeks ahead of you. You will get there, I promise you!

 

Walt, I will buy the book the next time I home in Scotland as Amazon have difficulties delivering to Thailand. Walt, I am a massive football (soccer) fan and here is an article about a player from Trinidad and Tobago who played professionally in Scotland. I am sure you will enjoy reading this http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/16/the-knowledge-marvin-andrews

 

You can't describe it to someone, my mother has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which is now the 2nd most common rheumatological disorder behind arthritis. I believe that this disorder is 100% TMS. I explained to my mother about this but she was ignorant towards it, as will almost everyone you try to tell. They want doctors to cure them, they are too lazy to do it themselves.

 

Scottyboy, thanks for the soccer link. I'll look at it in a bit.
I hate American football (too violent) but like rugby and soccer very much.

Your mother is like most people. It's easier for them to have a doctor give them pills
than to confront their TMS repressed emotions. You've been doing it and are feeling the health benefits.
You're close to being completely pain free. Maybe most of us never achieve 100 percent pain free,
but come close to it.

My book is about my TMS and healing and those chapters are easy to follow,
but my coauthor's chapters about his contain his healing suggestions which can be hard to grasp.
Just take what you want reading the book.

Doctors today seem to be content to tell patients their pain is from arthritis or fibromyalgia
because they can prescribe pills. I think Dr. Sarno is right in saying those ailments do not cause pain.
The pain comes from repressed emotions. Maybe some day your mother will look into hers.

Meanwhile, enjoy every day. Is Scotland your home, and you are just visiting or working in Thailand?

 

Scotty, I just read the article and it's wonderful. The soccer player healed because of his faith in God.
If I revise my book, I will add his inspirational story. Thanks for posting it.

 

Hi Walt, I am glad you enjoyed that article as much as I did. The guy is an inspiration to many and shows that the power of belief can help you heal. I believe this to be as strong as the likes of a discectomy providing a placebo effect on someone who has back pain etc. I work in Thailand as a soccer coach and a physical education teacher at an international school; this provided extra anxiety on me as I had to be physically fit to do my job.

I just want to clarify, when I say 100% better, I mean I am 100% pain free. I am not 100% in terms of my walking gait is still a little off as I have been compensating for the pain for over 2 years and I am a far cry away from being in the mindset to play competitive sports any time soon. However, I am 100% sure I will get there eventually. As my job is coaching soccer, I feel there is an onus on me to play soccer to a good standard, which is perhaps why I am lacking the confidence to return as I know I will not be the standard I was 2 years ago. This however has nothing to do with TMS and is a different psychological issue. I will be interested if anyone has similar stories on post-TMS recovery...

 

Hi Scotty boy
a fellow brit in US land of the TMS forum but living in Spain !!

I loved reading your post and it has inpsired me : Iam only on day 3 of SEP and am struggling with pain in my long distance walking ( medicla disgnosis 2 slipped disc plus ssciatica . I accept it as TMS but cant stop the brain transmitting TMS. Your story has helped . Are you 100 per cent belief and not haiving to identify stresses etc to cure you . I wish I coudl achieve that with just the 100 % belief

GOOD LUCK and well done

 

Patrick, I hypothesise it is bigger in the USA than the UK because the UK have the NHS and have self-entitlement to free healthcare and will happily take on a free discectomy and take free meds from their ill-informed physicians (sorry for bashing on physicians as they do mean the best, they are just taught wrong in medical school as they learn from a Descartes philosophy that the mind and body are separate entities) than actually take it upon themselves than look for answers themselves.

The SEP I believe to be helpful, but it is worth bearing in mind that knowing what your repressed emotions are won't help relieve TMS pain, it is the belief that the pain comes from repressed emotions that will cure you (I am still searching for my true repressed emotions to be honest, I feel that anxiety is the root cause of my pain). I believe that this is a misconception on this forum. I recommend you continue the SEP, but I urge you take a few minutes from your day to sit with only your thoughts and tell yourself that the cause of the pain is from TMS and you will get better. Towards the end I could say to myself that the pain was from TMS and I could literally feel the blood flowing and the pain disappearing (this was times when I was lying on my sore side and I would remember "oh this is my sore side" then go to move, then realise that I would be helping the TMS win by doing this, so would stay lying on my sore side and would do the self-talk. The pain would go away and I would remain on the 'sore side'.

Regarding the medical diagnosis of slipped discs, pay it never mind. This is the most irrelevant information you will ever get. The following information from scientific journals helped me through the stage where I thought "but what if a herniated disc is the cause of my pain":

In a study done in 2012, 1,211 asymptomatic subjects were recruited. They found that 5.3% of them had compression of their spinal cord on an MRI. Their conclusion? “The relatively high prevalence of abnormal MRI findings of the cervical spine in asymptomatic individuals emphasises the dangers of predicating operative decisions on diagnostic tests without precisely correlating these findings with clinical signs and symptoms.”

In 2007, the British Journal of Sports Medicine studied the MRI’s of 33 elite adolescent tennis players. Surely these 13-18 year olds would have perfect spines, right? Wrong! Despite having no symptoms, most (85%) of them had abnormalities. For example:

• 9 of the players showed pars (a part of the vertebrae) lesions, 3 of which were complete fractures
• 3 of them showed spondylolisthesis, a slippage of one vertebrae on top of another, of L5 with narrowing of the L5 exit foramen
• 23 showed early signs of facet arthropathy at L4-5 and L5-S1
• 13 players showed disc dessication and disc bulging, 13 were mild, 2 were moderate bulges

All this junk going on and NO SYMPTOMS!

A study done in 1995 looked at the thoracic spine (mid back) of 60 people with no history of mid or lower back pain, and 30 people with a history of low back pain. Findings were similar to the above two studies:

• 73% had abnormal thoracic spine MRI findings
• 37% had a disc herniation
• 53% had a disc bluge
• 58% had an annular tear (the annulus fibrosis is the “wall” of the disc like the outer wall of a tire, or the outside of a jelly donut. Yum.
• 29% had spinal cord deformity

I think he’s trying to tell us something. But wait, there’s more:

Perhaps you’ve heard of the New England Journal of Medicine? Yes, it is a highly regarded journal and your research must be top notch to get published here. A study completed in 1994 looked at MRI’s of 98 asymptomatic people. What did they see on these $1,500 images?

• 52% had a bulge in at least one level
• 27% had a disc protrusion
• 1% had a disc extrusion
• 19 % had Schmorl’s nodes (disc bulges pressing on the vertebral end plate)
• 14% had annular defects
• 8% had facet arthropathy (degeneration of a portion of the vertebrae)

A disc extrusion! That means a little piece of their disc actually broke off and was floating around somewhere next to their spinal cord. That HAS TO hurt….well, maybe not. The authors conclusion after poring through the data? “Given the high prevalence of these findings and of back pain, the discovery by MRI of bulges or protrusions in people with low back pain may frequently be coincidental.” New England Journal of Medicine, folks! Let’s continue hammering the point home…

In the journal Spine (wonder what their area of study is?!), researchers looked at MRI’s of patients that had herniated discs and were treated three different ways, including by a surgery called a laminectomy. Then they questioned them and gave them a new MRI 10 years later. From the authors themselves, these were their conclusions: “The presence or absence of herniation at 10 years had no significant bearing on a successful outcome.” Also, “The findings of this study indicate that long-term improvement of a patient’s symptoms after treatment of disc herniation may occur with or without resolution of the hernia.” So there.


This study in the journal Radiology looked at the MRI’s of 60 people with an average age of 35 and no pain. Surprising findings? Not to me!

• 14% had a disc bulge
• 16% had a disc protrusion
• 18% had a disc extrusion

I hope these help you Patrick, and help you realise that the doctor telling you that you had a herniated disc, was as good as him telling you that you have a disc. Remember the words of Dr. Sarno; normal abnormality.

 

Awesome story and awesome post about the medical journal reports. Thanks so much for sharing Scotty. And I hope you don't go running off for too long without popping back in to say hello. You're presence here has been so enjoyable.

Blessings from across the pond!

 

North Star I can't take credit for compiling these journals, I got them from a website. However, I believe everyone should see them as it just goes to show how benign a herniated disc truly is. My favourite is 85% of a group of elite athletes have 'structural abnormalities' yet experience no pain. It is amazing AND frightening to see the malpractice of orthopedic surgeons when we have the knowledge of TMS!

 

Scottyboy8, it's great to hear that you are healed. Your last sentence sounds very haughty! People in chronic PAIN ESPECIALLY FIBROMYALGIA are not lazy,they are depressed,hopeless, etc. Your Mom may be interested if you gently,humbly lead her along.
Mark.

 

Markus, I agree that it may come across as haughty and for that I apologise. I totally agree with you, however I think if my mother knew that all it took was to read a book and a bit of self-searching to heal her, I genuinely think she wouldn't do so. As for everyone else, I am obviously in no position to comment on them, but obviously there are people who will be hopeless (especially after trying lots of physical therapy to no avail, it must be hard to believe that you can be healed by reading a book).