Getting beyond structure

Hi everyone, I appreciate what you all do here. I'm 32, living with worsening lower back pain and sciatica, and a few other TMS symptoms. I'm still trying to find my place in all this - I'm one of those people who thinks, "Yes it worked for you all, but surely it couldn't work for ME! My problem is definitely structural."
So, here's my question, where I get stuck: The pain I experience, especially bilateral sciatica in feet and lower legs, will often increase with very light exercise or stretching, such as rotating my hips or bending - generally things related to my lower back. When this happens I take it as clear evidence that there's an anatomical issue. It seems so clearly a case of cause and effect: movement -> structural irritation -> pain/flareup. How do you all work mentally with this kind of situation?

For reference, I've had MRIs (two small disc bulges) and met with two reputable surgeons who both said there was nothing obvious to operate on, but that I do have "degenerative disc disease" and apparently "very little space" for my nerves so they're being irritated with movement. So, when I do some movement that seems to irritate a nerve and cause LBP and sciatic pain in my feet, it just *feels* like what they said is true, that the two L4-S1 discs have collapsed and everything is just mashing my nerves.

Any thoughts you all have would be greatly appreciated. I love this site and am learning so much - it's helping me expand what I'd already learned from Moseley-Butler.

 

Have you read this book? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Control-Surgeons-Roadmap-Chronic/dp/0988272997/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534893820&sr=8-1&keywords=hanscom I think it might be a good place to start.

 

This is one of the more common hurdles and questions asked and the answer is always best said with Dr. Sarno's words, "as long as he is preoccupied with what his body is doing his symptoms will continue."

Since the pain is not coming from the physical body it's vital to stop thinking in those archaic terms and to join the modern world in its new understanding. Dr. Sarno forever shifted the world to the new paradigm but the doctors are holding much of the world back. There is no degenerative disc disease, etc., and the stenosis prevents pain it doesn't cause it.

Learn all you can, read read read, then throw it all away, you don't need it in the end. Healing is not something you do or get to.

Good luck!

Steve

 

Thank you for your replies. I am reading so much, trying to deprogram my mind. I've had it drilled into me that there's something wrong with my body.

Best

 

Something that helped convince me that my back pain is TMS is the aspect that the brain causing pain to the muscles and other tissues by means of mild oxygen deprivation (hypoxia). There are threads discussing oxygen deprivation on this forum and Dr James Alexander goes into some detail about it in his book 'The Hidden Psychology of Pain' https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-Psy...sr=8-1&keywords=the+hidden+psychology+of+pain to include that hypoxia can sometimes cause muscle tears if you overdo things. This explained to me why - if I overdid things in pushing through the pain, trying to ignore my symptoms - my pain only got worse and sometimes made me bedridden, often for months on end; the answer, so far, has been for me to pace myself to avoid such tears. Before I learned more about the hypoxia aspect I couldn't accept a TMS diagnosis as I was not one of those who got better simply by reading Sarno's books (in which I think he only briefly mentions about mild oxygen deprivation).

 

Backtobasics, you're focusing on the structural piece. I have had nerve pain in both legs. Unlike you, it affects me when sitting. Why would that be? You're conditioned to think physical activity is your problem while I been conditioned to think that sitting / standing / lying down is mine. We're both having nerve issues and they are going off in certain situations that are completely different. If you really had an issue, you'd feel all the time.

You need to read Doctor Sarno's books if you haven't all ready. You also need to re-read it and get the information absorbed in. If you don't believe it, the pain will stick around. You to have to realize you been conditioned.

When the pain comes, you can't fear it or overthink it. What helps me is hearing Doctor Sarno over and over again. When I start to have a worry about things, I turn on his audio or watch a video of him on YouTube.

 

If you try to deprogram your mind you will get where you are headed, the ones who programmed you were blind themselves and cannot see, the blind can only lead the blind into further darkness. There is nothing wrong with your physical body, if you believe there is....then there is. Your healing is up to you now.

 

This is so hard!

 

Thank you all. Sorry for replying a week later, I didn't have email notifications turned on.

This is all really helpful. I am getting there slowly, more and more accepting that there's nothing wrong with my body (unless there's some phantom pathology that no one can find or agree upon, and has some unpredictable pain pattern - "the mystery patient", as one physical therapist called me).

It's those moments of muscle spasm that still challenge me, but I'm more and more coming over to the idea that that can be part of TMS too, even if it feels so acute and pinch-y. And it sounds like the muscles *can* be weakened or changed by the brain, so it makes sense that they'd start functioning differently. My body might not be working at optimal level, but that's because of TMS, not a problem with the body itself.

Thank you all