Day 1

After reading all John Sarnos book and beginning the unlearn your pain work book I am completely overwhelmed. Each book has different suggestions on treatments and what to do every day and I was trying to do them all and I became so overwhelmed I stopped doing the work and the progress I was making was fading. I realized I need something less time consuming and something where I can vent or hear from other people. Trying to be my own therapist or figure it all out on my own was harder then I expected. I am such a worrier and I get anxious and overwhelmed and the pain creeps back into my neck and wants to take over. I am still a little nervous. I was told I had fibromyalgia, an unseen irritated nerve in my neck, slight scoliosis, tmd, interstitial cystitis, IBS, cervical arthritis, myofascial pain syndrome, hashimotos, gluten intolerance, and etc. all these crazy chronic diseasss with no cure or no real diagnostic tests. The more doctors I seen the more diagnosis I was given. None made since. None fit. I am to young to have all these problems. I also have anxiety disorder depression and ptsd. I am a frikkin poster child for mind body syndrome! I know that and it has helped much but I still have these nagging thoughts like what if I don't get better. What if this is another dead end. What is u have to many conditions and your to far gone. What if you never find the repressed emotion causing it?? There's so many bad memories I don't know where to begin really. I mean so many stress provoking situations what do I focus on? Think psychological when I feel physical pain but I always feel pain so what do I think about ? How do I think? If I think I start worrying or ruminating or my anxiety will pick up. I am trying to stay positive. I feel I need to get out of my head but that won't work right? This program wants u in ur head. Not running or repressing. I started out so excited two months ago and now I am back in panic mode that it is all to much for me and I won't have the time. I won't get better cuz I don't have the time to do it all if I do it to slow it won't work and etc. etc. my mind just goes n goes. Ugh. I am on a tangent. I need to find some good meditations. They help me. Anyone have any good ones that help put them to sleep at night and distract their mind from the pain or the symptoms??

 

Hi, Jrsymom. I'm sorry you are stressed and discouraged about getting well and happy again. You overdid the research so it's no wonder you feel overwhelmed. It's like playing Doctor Google to search for reasons why you are in pain. I suggest you now close all the books, stop finding other ways of healing, and just focus on the SEProgram. I found that journaling was the most helpful in discovering that I had repressing emotions of anger, abandonment, and insecurity since my parents divorced when I was seven. I am confident you will find the emotions causing your symptoms.

Here are my suggestions on how to get to sleep or get back to sleep if you wake up during the night. What works best for me:

Deep breathing: Inhale through the nose to the count of 4; hold the breath with the mouth open to the count of 7; exhale through the mouth to the count of 8 and make a "woosh" sound. Repeat 4 times and visualize yourself in a sunny, happy, relaxing place like a beach when on vacation. If this doesn't get you back to sleep, count backwards slowly from 100 to 1 while breathing gently and just focusing your mind on the breathing and counting. You may have to do this twice, but by the third time you will likely be asleep.

Keep your bedroom as dark as possible. If you have a clock or clock radio in the room, turn it to the wall so you do not see the blue light (this emits something that keeps us awake).

I also suggest drinking a cup of hot milk before going to bed. And do not watch television at least an hour before bedtime. Instead, listen to relaxing music. There are some good relaxation and bedtime music videos on YouTube. You also can tell yourself it's no big deal that you can't fall back to sleep right away. If you stress about it, it will keep you awake. Also remind yourself that you are not alone in being awake... your neighbors, family, friends also may be awake.

 

Thank you I am glad someone responded. I do that breathing exercise as well. I breath into five hold and breathe out to 8. It is the only thing I have held onto and done continuously since starting this process. I think you are right. I will just stop looking at all these other books right now. I like this program because it is not as time consuming as most. How often do you journal and do you journal about anything on your mind?

 

How do you know that you found the emotion causing the symptoms? A few times I thought I found something and felt a relief momentarily but my pain proceeded? I don't know what to expect or know I am on the right track?