Day 1 DAY 1 (HELP)

My Story

My name is Richard im 34 from the UK. My pain started when I was hurt my lower back about five years ago while putting my socks on. I had a shooting pain go right into my back. My back tensed up but then the day after I was fine. a couple of days later I went for my usual jog and eveything was fine but then just as I was loading the washing machine my back hurt again even more so. I went to the doctors and was given painkillers etc etc. It was bad for about a week but settled down but it was always a nagging ache. Anyway I stopped jogging and carried on with life as usual. Then one morning I woke up to find my upper back acheing and knotty it felt awful. Ive never been the same since. I now have trigger points (muscle knots), tender point or whatever label you like to put on them.I have tried many things to solve the issues here is a some of them.Physical therapy, osteopath, chiropractor,acupuncture,craniosacral therapy, bowen technique, trigger point injections, trigger point therapy,backwards and forwards to the doctor. My mri shows nothing. I was told my lower back pain was coming from my right side si joint which made sense as it was exactly where the little dimple at the back is.As for my upper and middle back knots I spoke to an egoscue therapist who looked at my posture and poined out muscle imbalances I had particularly foward swaying hips and rounded shoulders, forward head and very tight pecs Causing my back to round. I have tried different exercises to no avail. Basically nothing has worked. I came across hanna somatics two year ago which helped to convince me that my pain was more linked to the brain and the brain body connection. Hanna somatics didnt work for me I felt there was something missing although I do rate somatics highly. (Look it up on Google). So here I am today just starting tms therapy and ive read nearly all healing back pain book and im quite impressed.

 

In terms of emotion and personality. I would say im impatient and I dont show my feelings and i dont like confrontation. I dont even moan about my pain as I just think nobody wants to hear about it.
About a year before and while symptons started I was going through a very stressful time. Sounds kind of silly but I was afraid of not sleeping. I was on an erractic shift pattern at work and my bodyclock was in bits. When I was it was getting later in the day and I knew bedtime was approaching my anxiety levels would sore as I was scared I wouldn't sleep enough for work. At present I have no sleep issue and on a regular sleep routine but I do have fears of having to go through it all again. I worry my shift pattern might change at work again or something.
This is the main link I can make to having tms symptoms
What do you think?

 

Welcome, Richsimm22! I'm a newbie, too (Day 10 today). You sound just like me, imagine that! I'm impatient, don't show my feelings and don't like confrontation either and typically don't complain about my pain. We suck it all up, don't we? I think we're going to learn that we need to stop doing that - we need to express ourselves, which I'm learning to do on paper (journaling).

Since I'm fairly new to this (although having TMS pain for quite some time, maybe even decades), I know all about the fear that is involved. With anxiety (I've been diagnosed with GAD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder), there is the "fear of the fear" (Claire Weekes). Anotherwards, you might initially experience something that causes you fear .... most people can let that go, but there are those, like us, that just "wait" for the next time something happens. That's where the anxiety comes in. I see that happening with TMS pain, too. To me, it's a given, because we have the personality for it.

 

Anxiety is a huge trigger for me and I didn't even know it until I started doing the homework for this program. I always saw myself as cool, calm and collected. It would be how my friends describe me. But underneath, I was crawling with anxiety. The more I brought it to the surface through journalling and becoming aware - the more the pain melted away. These days I spend more time managing 'anxiety' than I do pain. And that is a new form of progress for me. Keep on keeping on and you'll amazed at the changes that happen!

 

We all have muscle imbalance. You still need not hurt though cause your built a certain way. I do like correct posture but I was born with rounded shoulders and I am fine. I thought at one time that was a problem till I learned that inner tension derived from my current pressures and repressed emotions was the culprit. You should soon see a difference in your pain levels -- its been a while and you haven't posted much more about your journey. How are you coming along and are you building a protocol now?
Thanks

 

If your impatient and your not showing your feelings then your holding them in creating current pressures you don't need ok. Your journaling should let you express your pressures to yourself -- the person that matters most. The success you have had in your sleep patterns -- hold to that . The fear will give you what you don't want so don't fear that you might go back to this non- sleeping pattern. If you do use Claire Weekes float pattern that I have in my newest thread on her ok.

 

You do have Claire Weekes protocol on anxiety right nowtimecoach?

Claire Weekes:
Float Through Anxiety
What did Claire Weekes mean by that? Here's how I understand it.
How Do You Swim?
It's complicated. You have to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and head to propel yourself through the water. You also have to breathe without taking in large quantities of water. And you have to keep going in the right direction, even when water gets in your eyes.
If you're like most people, it took a lot of practice to learn to swim, because there are so many things you have to make happen, and so many techniques to master.
How Do You Float?
You don't really have to learn to float. A block of wood can float, and so can a person. What you might have to learn is how to not get in your own way, how to simply let floating happen.
The block of wood doesn't have to make it happen, it just floats, as long as it's in water. People will float too, if they just lay down on the water.
But people, unlike blocks of wood, often find it hard to let go and trust in their body's natural ability to float. Their mistrust and apprehension will lead them to "do things" to try and stay afloat.
That's not floating, that's sinking! To teach someone to float, you might have to give them a few instructions - lay back, lay your head on the water, lay your arms and legs out, lie still - but the most important part of the "technique" of floating is...do nothing, let go, and let time pass.
Float versus Swim
When anxious clients come to me for help in dealing with anxiety, they usually expect that I will offer them the swimming kind of help: lots of specific ways for coping with anxiety, and many techniques to keep them "afloat".
But what they really need is more the floating kind of help. They need to learn to let go, rather than to make something happen, or prevent something from happening. That's the surest path to anxiety relief.
What did Claire Weekes Mean by "Floating"?
First and foremost, she meant to convey the opposite of fighting. The way to regain a sense of calm is to go along with the sensations of anxiety and panic, rather than oppose them.
She described floating as "masterly inactivity", and said this meant:
to stop holding tensely onto yourself, trying to control your fear, trying 'to do something about it' while subjecting yourself to constant self-analysis.
That's a tough sell! Claire Weekes knew that, of course, and wrote:
The average person, tense with battling, has an innate aversion to ...letting go. He vaguely thinks that were he to do this, he would lose control over the last vestige of his will power and his house of cards would tumble.
Claire Weekes Knew it was a Trick
The aversion Claire Weekes referred to is the result of the Panic Trick. It's the idea that a person is just barely holding himself together, and that if he relaxes his grip even a little, he will fall apart. In fact, it's his struggling to keep a grip that maintains the anxiety!
What I like best about the notion of floating is that it avoids two common misunderstandings about overcoming anxiety. The first one is the idea that you have to struggle against anxiety, fight it, and overcome it. And the second, related to the first, is that you have to arm yourself with all kinds of techniques and objects in order to enter the fray and confront anxiety.
In reality, you'll make much better progress when you let yourself float through the anxiety, not striving to overcome anything, not struggling to employ techniques, but simply allowing the sensations to pass over time.
The best kind of help, in my opinion, is the floating kind. It's help that assists you to rediscover your own natural abilities to cope with whatever comes, rather than arming you against potential adversity.

 

Yeah your right herbie I haven't really posted anymore about my journey. Its probably because of my personality that makes me think nobody's bothered and im not worth it which is something ive been working on and need to work on more. One thing ive discovered is I have a tendency that want to get things out of the way so instead of embracing the things I need to do each day in the SEP I sometimes rush through a little to get it done but I tend to do that with everything in life so im on top of things. I know I need to slow down and think more and absorb the information im getting. Im not noticing any major improvements in my pain and discomfort yet but it does seem to be less bothersome. Im very well aware of the pain but its not bothering me so much basically.

 

Yes our personality traits can be renewed, its the traits the we renew -- not who we are but just the negative personality traits. Like no one want to listen to me -- Well that's a bad thought to keep and ponder so start telling yourself higher truths like you are meant to be heard and you are in control. You can accomplish anything you want to accomplish and so forth. Remember to keep your thoughts in line with harmony. See we go through the whole day mad and doubting and thinking were not good enough and then we ask what's the problem. Well when you think the way I just described, those thoughts are keeping you in pain as Good ol Dr. Abraham Low shows time and again in his books. AS long as you worry and doubt or even ponder thoughts like I'm not good enough then you will most defiantly never know that this is all repression work and pressure keeping the pain and anxiety alive. its when we face life without fear or anger in a spirit of harmony that we begin to heal. You don't have to be perfect but you need know these truths. It took me a long time to learn the truth I just told you.

No if your rushing then your creating pressure in your nervous system. Don't do that ok. Its not ok. Take your time and learn slowly and embrace the lessons. Your mind knows your rushing. Be content and patient.

See you know this. Now its very conscious to you -- don't hold back from correcting this issue ok.

Its good your getting your focus of the pain but if you want results you have to do the program in the way I described above ok. Thanks

PS - As long as you are in a hurry you'll always be ill. This is a secret that many never learn

 

Awesome advice Herbie. Thanks for that. So maybe it is more my personality traits that are keeping me in pain more than anything else. I know I tend to get pissed off very easily and im very easy to wind up and I go from totally calm one minute to my blood boiling the next over trivial things really and if I hear people talking garbage it winds me right up. Thats why I came off Facebook about a year ago as its unbelievable the amout of rubbish on it that people believe and I used to find myself going on a rant about it to my wife so I ended up deactivating it. I find I silly how things wind me up easily but I should just let it go. Its pent up anger I think but it working out the real cause of it really. Like when im raging at someone who cuts me off in the car am I really annoyed at them or something else in my unconcious?
Im wondering that when I explode in anger for something trivial is that a sign of my repressed anger trying to come out? I might sometimes argue with my wife over silly things then I get frustrated and I lash out but not at her usually a wall or I throw something or sometimes I even punch my own head. (I know sounds weird).

 

Which book would you recommend out of the two then?

Hope and help for your nerves

Pass through panic

I managed to get hold of pass through panic on audio. Is there much difference between the two?

 

Yes when you are getting upset that is signs of your repressed anger and the act of getting upset over trivial thoughts or things is only adding to your pain and you need to meditate more and start breathing exercises to control your autonomic nervous system more ok.

I really do apologize for the delay in answering your question. I just finished writing my first book rich and it took a lot of my time but now that's over I'm back here doing what I really love doing. And the book audios you got by Claire weekes is fine. Let me know how your coming along since you have started listening to her audios ok.

Bless you

 

Great advice herbie thanks for that

 

Ive listened to the four Claire Weekes segments you posted and found them really good and makes alot of sense. I can relate alot of anxiety stuff with pain, I think the two are very closely related. I feel aswell as floating through anxiety, we also need to float through pain and not try to fight it but accept its there for now but it will pass. Im gonna start the pass through anxiety shortly.

 

Yes rich now you get it, float through the pain and anxiety in a calm , confident manner.
Awesome. Thanks