Completely cured from 6 years of chronic pelvic and chronic back pain - starting at age 21

My Success Story!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my story in the hope that it will inspire others .

My journey began with two minor muscular injuries at the gym, one in my upper back and the other in my groin/high hamstring.

Looking back, I understand that whilst these injuries would have structurally healed in a matter of weeks, my fear and catastrophising that my body was seriously damaged kept the pain switched on for six years. This was both due to my prior lack of injury history making me more reactive, as well as the injuries being in areas where I had never experienced pain before.

In addition to this body-based fear, the injuries ruined my lofty fitness aspirations at the time. As I had made these goals a huge part of my identity and was living out of balance as a result, this disruption was very psychologically threatening and produced a lot of fear and related emotions.

My body had good reasons to sound the alarm and the danger signal that is pain!

For some more information on my symptoms, I had really bad 24/7 pelvic and lower back pain, especially in the area on the inside of my right sit bone. It was especially bad when sitting and bending. This was to the point that I couldn't even put my shoes on without getting on the floor. I was only 21 when this started.

I spent the next four years seeing countless professionals, including physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors, in an unsuccessful attempt to treat my pain as a structural issue. I even sought out an expert tendon physiotherapist half way across the world in the Netherlands whilst studying there, yet nothing worked and the pain persisted.

No one knew what was wrong, medical imaging was clear or inconclusive and I was unresponsive to physical therapy.

It was only in the last couple of years, through the pioneering work of Dr John Sarno and later Dr Howard Schubiner (amongst others), that I learnt of TMS, which as we know explains most chronic pain and other chronic symptoms as having an emotional and psychological root.

It is exclusively through this mindbody approach and trial and error of the various techniques that I began to see progress, and am now pain-free!

To begin, I dived right into the brain science and idea that suppressed emotions and nervous system dysregulation (from anxiety driven patterns such as people pleasing and perfectionism) could be driving my pain. I used this theory as well as journalling and began to understand that my triggers were actually emotional (the fear of physical activity and anticipation around the pain), rather than the physical acts themselves (such as sitting).

I managed to strip the fear away from exercise and slowly but surely was able to exercise without pain. This was a key breakthrough in convincing myself that my pain was not structurally caused. It took me about 6-12 months of emotional work (focusing on repressed emotions and really feeling comfortable with feeling all my emotions, even the "ugly" ones), but I am now chronic pain free and completely uninhibited physically (I have the pleasure of helping others now).

If you have any questions please let me know, and I wish you all the best in your recovery There are so many success stories like mine and it absolutely can work for you.

 

I'm so happy for you. Congratulations. How did you work on your repressed emotions?
How did you relieve the pain while sitting? Was it a conditioned response?

 

Hi!!! That is so exciting!!
Thank
You for sharing)
Did you notice in those 6-12 months that your pain got worse or shifted!?!
I’m at about the 6 month marker and am absolutely miserable! My pain has shifted from low back discomfort to whole body nerve pain . Altered sense of feeling, along with nerve shocks at random. I was thinking I was on my way, then BAM this has come on in about the last month. It’s so much scarier than my original pain.
Thanks for the insight))

 

Thank you so much!

In terms of repressed emotions, journalling was my biggest tool. It was unfiltered journalling (as per Nicole Sachs and her JournalSpeak method), so I would pick a topic and/or person and just let it all out. No filter and no care as to whether I was rude or unfair or otherwise awful. This shows you which emotions you repress as part of you feels shame for having them in the first place (for me it was mainly anger). By allowing those feelings through journalling, they came up and I am now a lot more compassionate with myself. Having the emotion and acting on it are entirely different things, we judge the former when it is really the latter that is worth having any scrutiny over. We are all human and all emotions are welcome Emotions are no longer dangerous, so the brain doesn't respond to them with pain .

Yes it was a conditioned response! I found that it was driven mainly by two things. Firstly, the idea that the pain was structurally caused and that I was broken. This resulted in a fear of re-injury too, so every time I got a flare I thought I had pushed back my recovery. This overall belief caused so much fear and attention on the pain, which fuelled the pain cycle. To address this, I created an evidence list with all the reasons as to why it was TMS. I used this evidence (and kept building it over time with new experiences and insights) to win the argument with my brain - "we aren't really broken or damaged so no need to protect the area with pain!".

The second thing I realised was how I moved in general (in addition to avoiding physical activity) was sending mixed messages to my brain. I was trying to tell my brain nothing was wrong structurally, yet I was moving around like a 100 year old (mainly to protect the pain points). I challenged myself to move more naturally, your actions and behaviours need to (as much as possible, the pain will restrict you somewhat and you can slowly get back to full exercise) align with your chosen belief in TMS, otherwise your brain won't believe you. The brain is protective and if in doubt, it will always keep the pain. We need to avoid those contradictions as much as possible.

This is at least my method and how I coach others now, any questions please let me know .

 

Hi Jennifer!

Thank you and you're welcome It didn't really shift for me it actually stayed in the same spot, having said that I take it shifting as a good sign as it is great evidence of TMS! I really like to look at progress over as large a timeline as possible, because I understand how you feel in that I thought I was out of the woods so many times (probably 20 to 30 times) and then BAM like you said welcome back there it is! This is way easier said than done especially in massive flares, but it wasn't until I became more indifferent to symptoms that I stopped being on that sort of yo-yo of elation and misery at symptoms improving then getting worse again.

Part of me looks at it (even though it is so very challenging) like all of this is coming up for you and expressing itself. It is like you are getting to the root cause and the brain/mind is fighting you even more as it is scared of you reaching that point. The brain/mind are basically saying Jennifer is really trying to get to the root and that last symptom the effect of it (to distract you from the root cause) isn't working, let's send something even scarier! It seems like your brain is just horrible and hates you, but it is just doing it out of protection. Keep going you're doing great (even though it may not feel like it)!

 

Oh my gosh! Thank you)) this is literally EXACTLY what I needed to hear!
When symptoms get loud, it’s REALLY easy to sink
Into the hole of panic and doubt. Like well, great, that didn’t work
And, yes, the indifference/outcome independence/ embracing portion is still NOT in my actual wheelhouse of emotions. I’m still really hell bent on getting my body back! lol

the movement piece you speak of is my greatest fear. I do move, I walk my dog, ride my bike, blah blah, but I only stick to the things that feel safe. I desperately want to run and lift again.
I should just do it!!!!!

 

Cycling doesn't seem easy at all to me. I, who observe you from the outside and don't have your anxiety, think cycling is stressful.

 

Absolutely you should if you believe it is TMS! I would create an evidence list if you haven't already and really drill down to yourself that you are okay physically. Then, it may hurt initially but those supposed scary things (like running and lifting) won't hurt you physically as you aren't broken! I built up a little bit but my big breakthrough came when I ripped the band-aid off - I got to the point where I thought I know it is TMS and I have enough evidence that I am fine physically, so what am I waiting for?