Alex B. Three questions

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Question

Hi my name Stephen Homewood, I totally believe I have TMS I have had cronic upper and lower back pain since falling out with my father 6 months ago, I also get knee pain, heart palpitations and migraines. All the tests have shown structurally I am fine and I have spent almost £1000 on chiropractors, massage and creams. After reading John Sarno book Healing Back Pain I have totally worked out I have emotional issues that's causing the pain. My pain moves around all over the place which has convinced me. I have resumed physical activity and stopped the chiropractors and massage. My questions are "can I stretch my back as part of my usual physical training?", "how long does it normally take to see results?" and " do you have any tips to help me". I have also been referred to a councillor by my Dr to talk through the issues.

This forum is great

Stephen

 

Answer

Hi Stephen,

I'm glad to hear you're feeling confident in your diagnosis as this is a crucial component to overcoming you pain. Let me begin by addressing your stretching question. This is something I run into a lot and many people ask a variation of this question, basically "even if I know it's not physical, can I partake in physical activities that can let me feel better?" People have different approaches to this issue and I don't want to claim that I have the ultimate answer, but my sense is that if you coming from the right place, you can stretch etc., if it makes you feel good. By the "right place" I mean that you truly understand that your symptoms are not structural, that you aren't basing your recovery on the "physical solutions" (stretching) or becoming dependent on them, and that you aren't punishing yourself by withholding something you want to do. In other words. If you start feeling like stretching is the only thing that will make you feel better, then it's time to evaluate your relationship to the structural component. If you're stretching as part of an overall physical fitness regimen that lets you feel good, go for it.

The timeline question of "how long will this take" is a very tough one. Honestly, it's different for everyone and depends on their process. What I will say is that you are in a good position to begin to see shifts in your symptoms based on your opening up to the TMS concepts and engaging with your symptoms from a non-structural perspective. Furthermore, working with a councilor or coach can be a really effective step to take. I would recommend working with someone who is familiar with TMS and the recovery process so that the emotional work you engage in can be done in the context of working through your physical symptoms.

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The general advice and information provided in this format is for informational purposes only and cannot serve as a way to screen for, identify, or diagnose depression, anxiety, or other psychological conditions. If you feel you may be suffering from any of these conditions please contact a licensed mental health practitioner for an in-person consultation.

Questions may be edited for brevity and/or readability.

 

Hi, Stephen. Alex Bloom has given you excellent advice and I echo it.

To help in TMS healing, besides reading Dr. Sarno and others' books, I encourage you to start (if you haven't already the
Structured Educational Program, free in the subforum of this web site. It has helped me and thousands of others to discover our
repressed emotions and that leads to healing (mine was severe back pain).

Also, Mindfulness Meditation is becoming known as a very important tool in TMS healing. Online sessions began here Oct. 1 and you may
still be able to see them. If not, there are wonderful videos on Youtube that explain MM (living in the present moment) and show how to do MM.
It's mainly deep breathing and focusing the mind on the breathing. I'm not even sure I'm doing it right, but when I watch the Youtube videos and do as the host does, I feel very calm. I think this will help you.

Dr. Sarno suggests in HEALING BACK PAIN that we practice his 12 Daily Reminders. A fellow TMSer, Herbie, posted his extended version of them which also could help you:

Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but its caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does cause real pain too.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or in anxiety then the the blood is restricted from going to your lower back for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain - remember, where theirs no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, The pain stays because of fear and focus to physical organic symptoms and repressions.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from tms healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. Tmsers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits,traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks its helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you wont have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed cause you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear then I feed the pain, If I fear Its impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless.If I want to work against the pain I could but its better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I=t have to be in pain trying to heal cause facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my bodies ability to heal now. I can move how I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- it's illusion, It's fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face everyone of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present, in flow.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling. The science behind mind-body/tms healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of tms. Tms will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off psychical symptoms and on emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore thus making the TMS of no effect. This will in return, give us the cure.

 

Hi Stephen,

Welcome to the TMS world.

If I were you I would avoid any type of stretching for back muscles as this might trigger a conditioned response.

Take care,

 

Thanks Alex, Fred and Walt that's great advice

Stephen