Daniel L. Help with sciatic pain!

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Question

I have had sciatica pain for the past 2 weeks . I spent 5 days in the hospital and presently I'm in bed and can't move without pain.

The pain has shifted from my back and outer leg to the front part of my thigh. The pain is enough to keep me in bed all day. The only time I'm up is to go to the bathroom with a walker in excruciating pain.

I have accepted that the pain is emotional and that there is nothing wrong with me physically. Last year at the same time had the same problem. Once I realized the emotions that were bothering and just accepted them, the pain left instantly and felt as if I never had that problem.
This time I can't make the pain go away.

I know in my heart that it is not physical and that I will be back to normal again, but I'm tired of being in bed and in pain

Any help will be appreciated
Thank you
N

 

Answer

N,

Thanks for the question. I’m sorry to hear that you’re in such great pain, but I hope that with your success in the past you know that there is reason for hope.

My first question to you is what is that happened at this time of year that is causing you to be in pain? Why has your pain shown up at the same time the past two years? You’ve probably read about conditioned response here on the wiki, but just in case, let’s review exactly how that might apply here. Was there a part of you that expected your pain to (or at least thought it might) show up at this time of year? Is there something emotional that happened to you at this time of year that is difficult to process? Both of these questions will help understand why it is that not only is the pain back, but it’s worse than ever.

Secondly, I know the pain is unbearable, but I strongly encourage you to find a way not to let it stop you. When we move forward through the pain we build confidence in ourselves and show our bodies that we’re able to do it. That confidence is huge – most TMS sufferers are regularly trying to work through their own confidence issues.

Lastly, in the moment, I know that the pain can be unbearable and it’s easier to give into it. You have three ways of growing new neural pathways at this point:

(1) Tell yourself that you’re safe. Anxiety is closely related to our pain, and anxiety arises because part of us feels unsafe. Reminding yourself that you’re safe over and over helps to calm down the unconscious part of your brain that is terrified.

(2) Get angry at the pain (this is personally my least favorite, but many find it useful). When we’re angry we’re empowered and when we’re empowered we can move forward through the pain.

(3) Laugh at the pain. This is the hardest one to do, but I have found it to be the most effective. Once you are truly able to laugh at the pain (no fake laughing), you won’t care about it and it’ll lose its power. This one takes some practice, so don’t be hard on yourself if it takes awhile

Hope that helps.

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Thank you Daniel. Love this explanation, especially the anxiety part. I really connected with the part of feeling unsafe. Like you, I also don't like the strategy of getting angry at myself. I've used it successfully and unsuccessfully, but it always makes me feel terrible because it's as if I'm turning against myself and I should be my own best ally.

Laughing at myself is hard because you often don't feel like it, but I find that sticking my tongue out at myself in the mirror (or at some part of my body), works quite nicely. And then that often makes me chuckle or at least smile at myself. Sometimes I also make a sound that goes along with the tongue in a mocking chant, like neener, neener, neener and that works too.

 

Good information never gets old. This thread posted in 2014 is useful to me today. I've been considering when I should travel to get evaluated once again. As I'm writing this I know it's only to appease my wife. My condition is stressful for the both of us and I feel like I should make a different move to simulate progress. OK I'll have to turn it up a lot and do more. At the rate I'm going on the pain and mobility scale I'll be back in bed. I'll put myself on a mememe schedule starting next week to save my life. I have to arrange not going to work. Better than the unexpected that will put me on my ass anyway.

 

I'm sorry Omega3 but if you know about TMS, you'd know that sciatic pain is psychosomatic, and you wouldn't be recommending any sort of treatment other than understanding the mind-body connection and knowing that repressed emotions are at work. Chronic pain, although it is very real, is not organic at its root. Please become familiar with Dr. Sarno's work.

 

So glad to hear it JanAtheCPA! It certainly felt that way to me too!