Day 8

I've finished a week of this program now. Yesterday, Day 7, was the self care day, and I really appreciated the program including this because it reminded me that this program and journey I'm on is hard work and I need to reward myself and acknowledge this.

Before I started the SEP, I read Dr.Sarno's Healing Back Pain, and I can honestly say that immediately after reading it I felt relief of pain in my back, which is where the strongest of my pain is held. After that initial feeling of relief, I thought the pain would be gone forever since I understood what was going on, but it has come and gone this week during my first week of SEP. Yesterday was probably at it's worst during this week - I went for a short walk and my butt muscle became very sore, and I then went home and sat down for a bit and my middle back became really sore. I tried to tell myself and my brain that I knew what was going on and my brain didn't have to distract me like this anymore, but the pain wouldn't go away. I then sat and journaled out some things that I thought had maybe come up in my thoughts that held repressed emotions, but still this gave no relief. I went to bed accepting that I have a lot of this program still to go and a lot of myself and my emotions still to uncover. I've read stories from others that said during their healing process the pain will come and go for the first while during this journey, so I'm just trying to keep this in mind and not get discouraged.

On my Day 1 post, someone replied with a note on the importance of patience. I reread it this morning, my pain still lingering a bit, and feel a bit better about falling into a slump yesterday.

I also remind myself often that my brain has been conditioned in this state of pain for almost 25 years now, so it would only make sense for the healing process to require time.

Still staying positive eager to continue this journey

 

Howdy, "Extinction bursts" when your brain tries to amp up the pain to make you afraid again are really common. Lots of people get them when going through TMS treatment, often within the first 10 days. Alan Gordon has a good post on it here if you haven't read much on them yet. 25 years is a long time, so indeed it may take a while to convince your brain to change. If so, that's annoying, but it doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. Keep up the good work!
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/day-19-extinction-bursts.16651/ (New Program - Day 19: Extinction Bursts)