Day 1 - had some success in the past, new symptoms

This post is actually a copy-paste of the thread I posted in the Support Subforum. I'm only beginning the SEP today but it is a pretty accurate description of my current situation.


Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I'm a 27-year-old woman and I've discovered Dr. Sarno's work almost a year ago, but didn't really get into it until last February. At the time I had been struggling with sciatica in my right leg for 4 months. In one week of reading, the pain disappeared, and I was ecstatic.

Now, I've been dealing with a lot of chronic pain since I was 20, which was attributed to malocclusion (been operated for prognathia at 20), scoliosis, etc. I've spent thousands of euros in doctor visits, scans, acupuncture, osteopathy, naturopathy, physical therapy, supplements... over the years (I also have PCOS, which, of course, ups the costs). I had some minor improvements, but it wouldn't last - you know the drill. Here is the list of all the problems I have outside of PCOS :
- (mild) lumbagos 3 to 4 times a year ;
- low back pain ;
- weird tendinitis in the arms, wrists, legs, feet ;
- IBS ;
- knee pain when running or doing tai chi ;
- (mild) acne on my face and my back ;
- tinnitus (to be fair, I wear ear plugs every night because my neighbour is really noisy and I'm really sensitive to noise, and I have to go the doctor 1 or 2 times a year to extract ceramen blocks causes by this) ;
- tooth sensibility ;
- dust allergy ;
- headaches ;
- lot of fatigue ;
- eczema (didn't have any for some years now) ;
- heartburn-type pain for some months now ;
- on the psychological level : OCD, anxiety, was really depressed a few years ago but way better now, hypersensitivity.

Yeah, I'm like the poster child for TMS, and I may be forgetting some other things. After getting rid of sciatica, I went running a few times and I've been able to make the knee pain go away by the good ol' shouting-at-your-brain-method. I thought, Great, now I'm gonna apply this to my other issues, especially IBS which is a pain in the ass (and I mean it both metaphorically and literaly ).

It seemed to work at first, but then I developed heartburn. Forward to July this year, and with the holidays some of my back and sciatica issues came back, although less than it was before, and now I have IBS AND heartburn.

I totally believe in the TMS theory but I guess I'm slowly getting discouraged... I can't seem to get rid of the pain. Plus, I would like to go running and exercising, because it really helped me get past the fear, but I'm currently really anemic (heavy periods these last months) and too tired to do so. I've been seeing a psychologist and psychotherapist last year, but I feel like I've not a lot more to talk about. I'm a very introspective person, and I understand where all this unconscious fear and anxiety come from, but... well, I feel stuck.

Edit : since the beginning of September, I've had some new pain in the side of my right thigh/buttock, and it's more painful that what I had before. Some strange pains/tingling in my legs too. It actually woke me up last night - I was dreaming I was in pain and woke up with actual pain. Not funny. I also seem to have strange immunity problems since summer (adenopathy, frequent colds, just had bloodwork done and there's nothing wrong).

I'm currently in a lot of stress, as I've just entered into a relationship, which never happened before, and always had trouble with letting go. I'm afraid of a lot of things, including that man and I spending the night together - I don't want him to hear me farting like crazy in the bathroom because of IBS, plus I'm still a virgin( which is another cause of stress for me, because I'm almost 28 and I always felt like I was not "normal" - I know it's stupid but I can't shake this feeling). We had dinner together at a restaurant the other night and I was so tense I couldn't finish my plate, and I ended up with heartburn.