Steven Ozanich HOW I BECAME PAIN FREE -- Steve Ozanich

Hi Steve,
Having given this statement some thought--are you suggesting that psychogenic physical pain is not a distraction from emotional pain, but rather a direct manifestation of emotional pain?

 

Steve,
That was so well said. You have to keep that belief right in front of you at all times that it is TMS, especially when the symptoms keep changing.

 

Hi, Alexandra. Reading your post is really warming my heart on another cold winter day in Chicago with maybe 8 more inches of snow forecast.

You are healing and showing compassion to others and yourself and your Mom and helping her with her aches and pains. Tell her I'm almost 84 and healed from severe back pain by discovering TMS and some repressed emotions involving my mom and not being able to devote more than two years to helping her when she lived nearly in an apartment. It left me with guilt. Do what you can for your mom, but don't do it at the sacrifice of your own health. Do your best and then forgive yourself and let go.

Tell your mom I said hi and for her to enjoy each day and live in the present, not the past or future.

 

Ellen, you're a learned, and scholarly lady, it's obvious. But that's one of the problems, intellect vs. feeling. Jung said the two hinder each other. We use intellect (rationalizing) as a means to cope, to not have to feel, as a protective mechanism. The brain protects the heart, it does not want to hurt the means by which it lives--unless.....

I wrote in my book, in several ways, that TMS is both a message and a distraction. Every action has two simultaneous effects. It's part of that yin chases yangy thing I kept repeating: the duality of humankind. The distraction in TMS stems from the conscious side. The pain, or unpleasant symptom, arises as a distraction to divert the mind's eye away from what it doesn't like what its sees emanating from the deeper unconscious. The message is coming from the deeper self, that it fears, is not happy, not whole, and in disharmony.

TMS is both a distraction and a message. A distraction IS a message; it's telling you that you can't face something. Dr. Sarno wrote with Rashbaum that TMS is not from reduction, so in your question "direct manifestation of emotional pain" I would have to say no, based on the good doctor's statement. But that's not the point. The point is in over-thinking the solution, and forgetting to simply live. I almost over-thought myself into the grave at one point. It's common for people to try to think their way into healing, a 'misrepresenting' of what Dr. Sarno called knowledge therapy.

Remember the 2 pillars of healing. First is acquisition of knowledge. Second is acting on that knowledge. Few people get to pillar #2, they get stuck in the pain loop on pillar #1; trying to think away imbalance. So remember, the body is also involved in life, it needs to get in on the game too. We cannot live only in our heads. Our hearts want to get up to bat too.

I hope you come by on March 25 to say hi, it's fun to meet people like myself. We are one and the same. God help us both.

Steve

 

Your explanation could take a whole book to explain, Steve! Oh, yeah, but you already did that, didn't you? Still, this is about the most condescended readable explain of what TMS is about and how it works that I've come across. Thanks for your distilled (obviously hard earned) wisdom.

 

Steve, May I ask how do we act on that knowledge? Can you please be specific?

Is this acting on the knowledge: trying to do as much as you can physically, be less obsessed about the symptoms because there is nothing structurally wrong????????????
Can you give some examples?

I am finding the symptoms keep changing and if that isn't a distraction. I think this is happening because I am facing my fears and anxieties.
Could that be?

 

P.S. Steve I love your book. Your story is so inspiring. I have read it over and over again.

 

Thank you, Steve, for your thoughtful reply. You are very generous with your time and your willingness to share your wisdom. It's much appreciated.

Your clarification is helpful. My interest in TMS theory, is just that--an interest. I don't seek to understand it better because I feel that better understanding is any way tied to my success at healing. I have the knowledge and tools I need to heal at this point, and I am using them daily and making progress, though at times the speed of progress seems glacial. I enjoy studying theory, and the more 'unknowable' the subject, the more interesting it is to me. I have an active, and yes, overly analytic brain, but I've found that I'm better off if I keep it occupied studying theoretical psychology or physics (or whatever) than using it to analyze myself or my personal relationships.

But, yes, I have a lifelong tendency to over-think and rationalize as a coping mechanism and way of avoiding emotion that I still have much work to undo. Therein lies my road to healing.

I hope soon to give your book the second read it deserves. And I will be listening to your interview on March 25, though I'm not sure if it will be live or by listening to the recording. I enjoyed the previous one you did very much.

Thanks for all you do to enlighten those with and without TMS about the issue.

 

If only I liked myself as much as my dog loves me!

 

Hello Alexandra

Not to worry I have all your aches in pain, nerve pain burning pain in arm and legs and butt, sometimes on my face, I suffer great anxiety and depression. At the moment I am on meds but doing the sep I am on day 26 and if anything I have a handle on my emotions but my pain as gotten worse. I think that's a goo sign.

 

I am late responding to this thread but I wanted to add that I think doctors have an awareness that many people suffer from phsycosomatic pain, they are not comfortable or allowed to mention it. Maybe i am wrong, However when I saw my neurologist about my symptoms he asked me if I felt "washed out" after he couldn't find anything structurally wrong with me. He then suggested I try to heal myself. Which is what I am doing. Other doctors give me a friendly smile when I suggested maybe my symptoms are emotional and they always reply that it's very much possible, I can see in their face that they agree with me. I hope in the future more doctors are trained and able to diagnose TMS it would break the cycle of pain. Educating young people about it would be great before symptoms start as a way of prevention...

 

Nice job Alexandra! Doctors often see mindbody effects, but as anyone that's ever tried to explain TMS to a family member or friend knows, people get offended if it's mentioned, so they avoid it. The last thing doctors want to do is offend their patients (ok, second to last, the last thing I suppose they want to do is kill the patient).

Even Ira Rashbaum, MD, the heir to the throne is reluctant to mention TMS. Those docs are looked down on by their peers.

However, if the doc does agree it is somaticizing he or she will still go on to perform a worthless procedure. Their momma's didn't raise no fools. They still want paid.

 

I see how difficult it can be. When my family (including my 2 uncles who are doctors) suggested to my mom that her fibromialgia was phsycosomatic she got defensive and for the next couple of month her symptoms got even worse and became depressed. It has taken many months of me continuing to talk about dr sarno to her, she has slowly opened up to the idea and finally agrees that her flare ups match stressful events in her life. I have seen her improve even though she doesn't accept the diagnosis 100 percent. I don't want to take credit, I credit (drSarno) but I know if it wasn't for my daily reminders to her I believe she would be more scared of her pain and continue to deteriorate, she used to take 4 heavy pain meds daily, and is down to 2 alternating daily. My mother in law has a severe case of fibro and rheumatoid arthritis plus many injuries from a car accident, they have healed but the pain remained. She is in agony and has morphine for bad days. She doesn't want to hear anything about Dr sarno and is very stuborn. She walks holding onto walls and counters and holds her breath from pain. I have secretly asked God to either heal her or take her to rest in peace because no one deserves to live that way. She has contemplated taking her life many times and it breaks my heart. I love her. I gave up suggesting Dr Sarno because she's old and she gets mad at me, I don't want to upset her even more...I also talk to my daughter about the power of the mind, not too much detail yet because she's only 6. With chronic pain in her family including myself and her dad's migraines, she's very much prone to TMS, I am happy to be able to prevent her a life of suffering, that is why TMS is my personal blessing...

 

Funny how resistance turns into persistence.

 

Bruce, I think it's funnier how grass turns into milk! What's up with that one?

Alexandra, it's the inner stubbornness that causes many health problems. Trying to force the world into our vision, defending our egos. Bruno Klopfer did a lot of work on ego and health. When we get tied up in defending our own position (ego driven) energy for healing gets diverted from where it's needed, to defending the person's own position. Klopfer noted that all the ego-defenders had faster growing tumors than the other people who were open to accepting new ideas (who had slower growth).

We truly do create our own hell, and our own suffering. The truth frees us but if we aren't willing to see it, then so be it. Suffering is sometimes a personal choice.

Steve

 

on chapter 6 in your book Steve, quite a story and finding it even more helpful than Sarnos books as it is told from perspective of someone who has been through the hell and despair of unrelenting pain with the thought it may never go away.
I had given up all hope until I read Sarnos books and can't remember a day without pain in the last 7 years. I just turned 26 and it feels like I have wasted the prime years of my life.
thanks to this Wiki and all the books I've come across I'm getting more positive by the day.
I laughed when I read you ordered Fred Amir's books as I did the same a few days previously. I haven't got a proper structure together for journalling yet as I want to make sure I'm doing it right!(perfectionism)

 

also has anyone experienced throbbing sensations? my lower back sometimes does this. I ask because I found the description Steve used of his hands swelling up to be far fetched, I believe him but it sounds zany!

 

My hands swelled huge and I couldn't bend my fingers. Soon after my heart began deep pain cycles so I knew it was angina, maybe a heart attack. My wife was amazed at how my hands were gorged with blood. It's common in TMS to have erratic swelling. People will have sudden swelling in their feet, or knee, or ankles, etc. But to your credit, you describe yourself as a sceptic.

 

I'm 85% there now in terms of belief > trying to unwind the stuff I've been conditioned to think is tough.
didn't think I was exactly the TMS type but conceding I am now as I bottle everything up. I don't have a confidante at all as I'm very guarded and private > a recipe for disaster

 

also does anyone think the term ''pain in the neck'' may have been meant in a literal sense given it originated in the 1900s?