Day 01 - Any success stories due to SEP?

Hello, TMS wiki. I am so happy that I found this forum. It feels so relieved to know that there are others with similar issues. And it can be healed.
My back pain issue started when I was in college but during that time it came and went. Then when I got married about 5 years back, it slowly crept in on a regular basis. I did everything... I must say.. we did everything. My family and husband supported me in every step. From X-rays to MRI to sonography to physiotherapy to yoga and the list goes on. You know, even before I read about dr. Sarno, I guessed that the problem was psychological. My experiences made me think so. Many times when I was on vacation or on some serious work duty my back pain stopped irrespective of the long drives, bumpy roads, long walks and physical activities.
When I started reading Dr.sarnos book, I realised that it's true. I totally believe that our mind plays a vital role in our physical health.
I have almost completed reading the book. And I am relieved of 75% of my pain. When I came to know about this forum... I started reading a few threads and I don't know because of that or not but the pain shifted to my lower stomach but then stopped eventually. I really want to continue on the SEP but I am a little sceptical about it. Right, now I am not suffering from chronic pain...but the pain is mildly present and it comes and goes every now and then. What if it doesn't help or lead to another set of pains.

I want to do SEP but I am little doubtful whether it will help.
Few success stories about the SEP would surely help!

 

Howdy...new pains can happen regardless of how you choose to treat TMS. Once you accept that your most prominent symptom is TMS, your brain may very well look to scare you with something new. This is common and actually a good sign. While it's not fun to deal with, it is part of the recovery. The thing to keep in mind if and when that happens is that if you can beat your original, nasty symptom (back pain), then there's no reason you can't beat a new symptom that is without a doubt purely psychological. In my experience, beating these "extinction bursts" are significantly easier than beating your initial symptoms.

I believe the SEP is beneficial in building healthy habits that will help keep you feeling healthy long-term. In my case, my most prominent symptom almost disappeared overnight when I learned about TMS. But I had several other symptoms that I had been dealing with for a long time. They took months to heal from, and the SEP helped me get there. And now, after spending nearly a year following a TMS treatment routine, which the SEP helped make a habit for me, I feel no fear of new symptoms that may pop up in the future when facing bad stress and difficult emotions.

If you feel 75% healed, I would recommend that you don't stop. It's great to get that relief, but there is no reason you should not feel even better. And remember, the whole point of TMS treatment is to 1) learn to accept your stress/difficult emotions; 2) lose your fear of your symptoms. So, if you are hesitating on further treatment because of fear of possible pain, then you are not "cured" by Dr. Sarno's definition. Your goal is outcome independence, when you can go about your life while being able to honestly say you don't care about any symptoms that come and go. You must let go of any fear to get to that point. It takes time, but it's worth the work. However, you move forward, good luck!

 

True. So true.
The concept of TMS is so simple that many times it becomes difficult to remember it. What an irony!
In my case and maybe many others would agree, that it's not the 'fear' of having the symptoms again, but the feeling of failing to stop them. It's the frustration which I undergo due to the failure in stopping the pain. Maybe I am impatient or expecting too much too fast. Either way, I totally get your point. I think as a starter, one needs to relax, not to be hard on oneself and then work on it....like a hobby, not to bother about the end product but just enjoy the process confidently.
Thanks for the inputs!

 

i am on day 4. i walked for an hour last night and did an "activity " with my partner that would have caused me severe pain in the past. I fully believe in TMS. You can do this.

 

Thank you so much zenyatta20. And congrats for your success.

 

It seemed to help me. I had pain in my hands from computer use, and nothing I did seemed to help for a year basically. I thought nothing would ever fix it. But writing here seemed to genuinely help. I was cured after a few weeks. Like clockwork, I started to have kind of serious hand pain when I started graduate school from using a pencil. But both of my hands hurt even though I only write with one. I journaled here a couple more days and the pain was gone again. I had a fear of not being able to complete school because my hands hurt.

Right now I am dealing with back pain for about a month. I am a mid-twenties guy so it doesn't seem to make sense. It hurt after weightlifting, which I have never really done before but have always wanted to do, and I had been doing it just fine for months. Perhaps I had improper form, but I do not believe the weight was too excessive and a month seems like too long for it to hurt still. So I am back to see if journaling will help my back.

I will say that I read Sarno's book, and it didn't help at all, except that I learned what TMS was so in that way it did help. But I felt no relief after reading it. Serious relief came when I started following this program and journaling and posting on here.

 

Thanks rsiman for your inputs!