Dr. Hanscom's Blog Failing Well

Patients frequently come into my office excited about the early improvement in his or her pain. Some even go to pain free within a few weeks after suffering from years of misery. The pure positive energy emanating from them is palpable and inspiring. After enjoying them sharing his or her story some of my first words are, “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you are going to go back into the hole. These pain pathways are permanent.”

Why Me?

Many of us hold on to the idea that we can create a world for ourselves that has minimal pain and suffering. So when adversity hits we become even more upset because we feel it is unfair and it should not be happening. One of the ways we do this is to control and limit our stress. It is a viable strategy at some level and it makes more sense than seeking out or creating problems. However, your world will become progressively smaller over time.



It is more rational to accept that what we term adversity is simply life. We will all die and most of us will experience major illnesses. We will have close family members that will suffer the same way. I am not going to go into detail about all of the small and large wrongs that happen to us personally and globally. They are infinite. So why would we expect that we will not be exposed to all of this?

Firing up Your Nervous System

The problem from a physiological perspective is that when we become frustrated at having to endure our tribulations we have now fired up our nervous system even more with stress hormones, which magnifies the physical response. These symptoms may include insomnia, obsessive thought patterns, body image issues, ringing in the ears, burning sensations throughout your body amongst over 30 symptoms.

I have an additional problem is that I teach these principles of processing stress, including the stress of pain. When I get triggered and “fail”, I become incredibly upset that I am failing and I feel that I should be skilled enough that I should not be triggered. It is a double hit. As the pathways are deeply imbedded and severe I always have the same extreme bodily response, which includes a skin rash showing up on my wrists, I can’t sleep, my ears ring, and my feet start burning. Interestingly enough these symptoms often occur before I consciously feel stressed. I work backwards to figure out what the trigger might be and I often cannot solve it for a few weeks.

“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”​

To be successful at any endeavor requires taking risks and experiencing the attendant anxiety. If you are not willing to deal with it then it is probably not worth taking the risk. You have heard the overused saying, “If you can’t take the heat then get out of the kitchen.” It is actually incredibly accurate phrase.

So when you “fail” you are welcome to beat yourself up. It is critical not to suppress negative thoughts and emotions. But is important to recognize what you are doing to yourself. Then you have to forgive yourself, get back up and move on.

Resilience

One metaphor that hits me is that of a bamboo grove being buffeted by a storm with high winds. The grove bends and immediately stands back up when it is calm. What about if the wind blows over your garbage can? Are you going to go out and stand it back up while the wind is still at a high velocity? You will take care of it after the storm has passed. It is not helpful for you to fight a sustained battle against something or someone that you cannot solve. You will consume your life energies. When you are down you are down and I think it is important to be able to be OK with it rather than being hard on yourself. No one is asking you to be happy when your circumstances are bad. But you also do not have to pile on yourself and keep beating yourself up.



The essence of the DOC project is connected and engaged thinking through awareness. It is a process of learning how to fail and using your tools to get back up quickly. I am like everyone else in wishing that there was end to pain and stress. That is not life. Life keeps coming at you. Forgive yourself and move on.

 

I'm with Grateful. We CAN learn new responses to our triggers. Besides, even if you believed otherwise, why would rain on someone's parade like that, when they first experienced success?!?

 

After following Dr. Sarno's and Dr. Schubiner's program for recovery, I am little confused by Dr. Hanscom's statement of "After enjoying them sharing his or her story some of my first words are, “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you are going to go back into the hole. These pain pathways are permanent.”"

I do believe (and know that Sarno and Schubiner believe) that the pain pathways are permanent but "detour" pathways can/will be learned by the brain to permanently heal one from the feeling of a certain pain. In other words, the pathways will continue to be there "like an unused abandoned road" but the brain will use new "detour" pathways (road)...

Am I missing something here?

 

Jrid32,
From what I have learned, those pathways are NOT permanent. We can prune them away and Yes, like you mentioned, we can sprout new ones or even unmask others. This is how neuroplasticity works. Practicing True Indifference is an example of how we prune away those conditioned responses.

 

I'm confused by this post. It seems completely inappropriate. Why would it be rational to tell a person they are going back in the hole when they clearly climbed out of it. If they do go back in guess what, they have demonstrated the ability to climb out and will do so again. I get that we have adversity. I know sometimes working on acceptance of hardships can help. But suggesting our negative thought patterns or pathways are permanent? I do not appreciate this post.

 

If someone is suffer from sever cronic pain the last thing you should do is tell them sorry to reck your day but it's coming back. That's just mean even if it true which it may not be only time will tell. Something seam off about this article. I know a lot of people in sever cronic pain including myself and we don't expect to have a pain free life with no problems. After reading the succes stories people get better and stay better. Some have flare ups but get them under control. No one needs to tell anyone I know that life is a cruel place and can be unfair. The real stregth of a person is to rise above what their fate maybe and accomplish something that defies the norm.

It's natural to say why me when your life is nothing but pain day in and day out I don't care how strong you are your going to feel that way at some point. This doesn't mean you live there and most of the people I know when they get there will call them selfs out and make an effort to snap out of it. Sometimes all they need is a little encouragement including myself. Being mean helps no one.

 

Here is a short video of how you CAN prune away those neural pathways, and add new healthy ones...............( We do this with True Indifference, NLP, CBT, Tapping, etc, etc, etc,)

 

That's was cool thanks

 

I was very disturbed to find this information from Dr. Hanscom for a few reasons. One) there really is no way he can tell that the pain will come back for a particular person; Two) I spent quite a bit of time on his Internet site and watching his videos in other places and he said he has overcome his pain; yes, he may get some pain back or some new pain but he can then again get it to go away again using his methods (forgive me if I did not explain this exactly as he did); Three) It seems to me that his DOCC Program is designed to stop pain permanently. On top of these things, the way he presented the possibility of pain coming back for some patients was presented in a very unkindly manner. I'm hoping that this particular post of his was not well thought out and that he will be willing to back on and make this post clearer. I will contact him on his site and ask him if he will be willing to do this. He obviously has upset/confused some people on this site.

 

Jacqui,

You have a very important reaction, essentially "don't lead me on and then disappoint or confuse me!!" I hope that you do express this to Dr. Hanscom. I love some of his videos because of his honesty, and the personal perspectives he brings.

I would say to you, in a friendly supportive way, I hope: When we're suffering, we want relief, we want support, and we want some good solid ground, finally, to stand on. And when some of that ground seems to shift, or drop away this is upsetting. I know the feeling.

I also urge you to not believe a damn thing the man is saying, if it undermines your personal process. Dispense as best you can information that is not supportive, even from experts. As Forest said, it is an individual, personal experience.

Andy B

 

Andy,

Thanks once again for your kind and thoughtful advice and for your support.

And yes I feel he did shift the ground from me at first (and also I think for others based on some of the other posts here) but luckily I caught it in time and did not spend too much time on it.

I don't believe that portion of the Blog (last two sentences of the first paragraph since I didn't make it clear in my first post) based on what many practitioners and others have said in other TMS Forum posts and based on what Dr. Hanscom himself has said elsewhere, and what I am learning myself.

Thanks again Andy.

Jacqui

 

Andy,

Just wanted to mention also that I found some very useful information on Dr. Hanscom's site so was even more surprised when I read the sentences mentioned above.

Jacqui