Day 1 My pain story

I learned about Dr. Sarno through a recent New Yorker article about Fiona Apple. The article recounted an argument between Apple and her ex Jonathan Ames who was recommending Healing Back Pain to her. It sounded like something I wanted to check out, so I bought a copy. I 100% believe that my pain has a psychological cause. My doubts are that the knowledge itself will be enough for me to get rid of the pain.

My pain began when I was 18. (I'm now 36.) It started as a pain in my lower abdomen, that was not explained by multiple doctor visits and an ultrasound. I was told they couldn't find anything wrong and to just keep taking advil for it. My mom's chiropractor had told her that nerves from my back could be causing the stomach pain, so I started going to her for treatment. The pain in my stomach went away, but now I could feel the pain in my lower back. I've lived with it off an on ever since, most of the time while receiving regular chiropractic care. As time went on the issue became more in my neck and shoulders. It's now developed to almost daily tension headaches and frequent migraines. It's gotten worse since returning to the restaurant where I work after the Covid shutdown. It's to the point where it is disrupting my life. I hope this program can help me.

 

So in 2011 I was told by a dizziness and balance PT (one of many practitioners I'd seen) that I was a "migrainer" and that I needed to go on the migraine diet (although I didn't get migraines and my biggest issues were dizziness and GI but whatever) so I went home and looked at migraine diets on the web, and found a forum where everyone was discussing their diet and their migraines and it was utterly ridiculous - none of it made any consistent sense. Then one guy recommended The Divided Mind by Dr. Sarno - and OMG, he was thoroughly abused up and down and around by these people! But "it sounded like something I wanted to check out." Needless to say, I never looked back (and I stopped going to all the practitioners, too).

Keep your mind open, be brutally honest with yourself, don't let your negative brain sabotage you, and above all be kind and compassionate to yourself, and know that you deserve to heal. You'll get there.

~Jan

 

Instead of calling it a negative brain or fearful brain, I call it a bad habit or a false alarm. I think the brain is more sophisticated than it is reptilian vs intellect. It's just the stress response.

Migraines usually respond to relaxation, darkness, rest, and drinking water- meds and other stuff seems ok only for severe cases. Talk it down before it gets bad.

 

@denabari: Good luck. It does sound like you are in the right place or at least on the right track in terms of focusing on the mind-body connection. I feel kind of in the same boat as you: I'm sure my discomfort is largely if not completely caused by my nervous system in some kind of exaggerated flight-or-fight response, but it seems just knowing that is not a "fix" (although it's a start). There are a lot of resources on here but I also just got the "curable" app (can also do it on a laptop), which seems like it has a lot of potential too. It was $60 for one year access (I'm not a curable salesman ). Just pointing out it exists. Seems like they have it organized around four main themes: meditation, journaling, brain training, and education. They have a bunch of success stories too, including those of the 3 people who founded the company. (some of this you can access for free or just Google). Hopefully we will all get there, in that good place where the pain either doesn't exist or doesn't matter.

 

I got this from what was, for me, an incredibly valuable program: Meditations to Change Your Brain, by Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius, MD. They teach (in a combination of lecture and meditations) how our brains are wired to be negative and worried, always scanning the horizon for danger. Knowing this has helped me a LOT. It's a mechanism that is built in, and it was designed for our survival in a primitive and dangerous world. They also explain why it does NOT work well in the modern world for most of us who are lucky enough to lead very safe lives.

I purchased the audio program from SoundsTrue, but I later found I could have borrowed the CD from my library (admittedly a big city one).

 

This also seems to be available now for free on YouTube. There is a series of 20 some in a playlist. It has the same two guys talking and says "copyright belongs to Sound True", so presumably it's the same.

 

I heard the term "false alarm" by Michael Norman (in more of an anxiety context). I feel it's more of a habit/response and the brain isn't inherently positive or negative.

https://www.panicfree.tv/free-stop-panic-attacks-pftv-yt/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=indisplay&utm_term=channel+page&utm_content=header+art&utm_campaign=pftv (Panic Free TV | Free Help For Panic Attacks | Michael Norman)