I'm new here AND SO GRATEFUL!

I was in the military when my physical problems began to overtake my regular life. I began to have incredible pain in my heals and feet and lower legs.

After several years of treatments and visits to specialists, the military doctors diagnosed me with chronic, bi-lateral tarsal tunnel syndrome and achilles tendonitis.

No matter what we did, the pain never went away. It only got worse.
They could never determine exactly why my issue started in the first place, or why it wouldn't go away.
Eventually, they got to the point where they had given up on fixing my problem, I was kicked to the curb with a medical discharge. This was just after 9/11 and the doctors and my superiors all said I was a liability. If I couldn't keep up, someone else might be put in harms way to support me if/when our unit was ever deployed.

During my last meeting I had with a military podiatrist, I was told that the problem would never go away. I was told that I should never run or jump anymore, and that if I did, it would mean certain pain. I was told that my tendons were at risk of rupturing and that eventually the left achilles tendon would almost certainly do so. At that point I would require surgery, but the podiatrist said, surgery would not guarantee a cure for the issue. I was advised to avoid surgery for the tarsal tunnel because the results of that kind of surgical intervention was a "mixed bag" at best.

So in civilian life, I avoided running and jumping, though my old profession (prior to my call into pastoral ministry) required a lot of walking, climbing and carrying a heavy load. So, the pain remained, but I pressed on.

Once I followed my call into the ministry, I took on a much more sedentary lifestyle (except for standing up to preach on Sunday's, most of my time is spent at a desk in my office, or in a chair during pastoral counseling sessions. But, my logic was that with less movement and not carrying heavy loads, my pain should go away.

The Opposite was true.

After a couple of years, my pain had increased so much that I couldn't walk with any assurance without a cane. I was prescribed a high powered anti-inflammatory for the tendons and a nerve med for the tarsal tunnel and given high-dollar orthotics. They provided some relief, for a time and I was able to come off of the cane, but then I began to have side effects (I was told from the meds) including skin rashes and a possible ulcer (severe gut pain and IBS).

So what happened?

About a year and a half ago, one of our locals who I was friends with came to me with a book called "Healing Back Pain" by a guy named John Sarno. I love my friend, but, as he described how the book (and a 20/20 news report on Sarno) had helped him understand his chronic pain to be a "Mind/Body" issue, I quickly tuned out, inwardly thought, "What is this "New Age" nonsense, and placed the book on a shelf to collect dust and never to be read.

Fast forward to a month or so ago (I am writing this in November 2018), as my friend saw the pain increasing and traveling to new parts of my body, he tried to tell me about Sarno again. This time, God bless him, my friend gave me another copy of the same book, this time underlining and tagging each page that spoke directly to my issues! He also gave me a copy of an article he had written for a regional newspaper recounting how he used information to cure his chronic pain.

As I read his story and as I read the underlined passages, I began to consider TMS/PPD to be a likely culprit for my life altering chronic pain.
I then looked up the 20/20 video on YouTube, watched it and really began to see myself in the story.

So, I checked out the audio book version of Healing Back Pain and gave it a listen and — I don't know how else to say it — I was better!

My pain in my feet went away. AFTER 16+ miserable years!
My gut issues also subsided. Then the pain started to move around to other parts of my body. But, having read about "having the pain on the run" I actually laughed it off, told my brain that it need not try to distract me with pain, that I have all the tools I need to deal with any "repressed rage" or whatever else it was trying to cover up, and those traveling pains, traveled on out of my life (for the most part, though they still try to creep back in for a fresh rebuke .

So, I am joining the page because, yesterday, I bought a pair of running shoes and this morning I ran.

I. RAN! Actually I walked, ran, walked, ran in accordance with an app I'm using to help couch potatoes get back on to their feet.

This is a milestone that I am nearly without words to describe.

I am also here to start a conversation about the understanding that Dr. Sarno posits about the id, ego and superego in his book, "The Mindbody Prescription". While I don't buy into Freudian terminology, there is a direct correlation between what Freud described (retold as the "Child" "Parent" and "Adult" by Sarno) — There is a direct connection between the war within those aspects of our mind and the war within the human soul described in the Scriptures as the "inner man" and the "me" of faith. The Apostle Paul describes this tension between the letter to the Romans, chapter 7. Later he talks about a "thorn in the flesh," which no two scholars agree upon what that "thorn" was. Also, the Psalmist (in Psalm 31) describes a distress causing his 1) body and bones to wasted away, 2) his years spent with sighing, and 3) his strength failing, because of his own iniquity (sin).
Those could all be terms I would have used in the past for my chronic pain!

Anyway, I won't enter into any squabbles about the different faith traditions of the consumers and contributors of TMSwiki, but as I couldn't find much here or anywhere on the Christian approach to this helpful movement in the relief of chronic pain, I'd like to be a part of helping that avenue take shape for those interested.

 

Thanks Jan, I’ll check that out!

 

Welcome Pastor Ken.
Yes... I vividly remember the first gentleman who told me about Sarno. He was my downstairs neighbor, and I otherwise liked him a lot, but he was crazy! MY pain was 'real'.
I had a strong urge to Kick him in the face.

I spent another year going through the system (and getting worse) . I saw that 20/20 thing on Sarno. I saw a production assistant from Oprah be featured in a blurb story about Sarno.

Than, after the system had failed me utterly and I had been relegated to the chronic pain scrap heap, I had an epiphany of sorts and went and found that book. It freed me from a lifetime and fear and pain.

Funny... I used to think all of the healing stories in the New Testament were 'metaphors'. I think quite otherwise nowadays.

good to read your story

 

I got a chuckle from: “I had a strong urge to Kick him in the face.” I’m glad you “repressed that rage” lol!


I loved: “Funny... I used to think all of the healing stories in the New Testament were 'metaphors'. I think quite otherwise nowadays.”

I do too, Baseball65! I believe that all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still active in our day. I have personally prayed for a person in my old workplace who had been diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his gut, and upon his next scans he was completely cancer free without one operation, or chemo, or radiation.

Sadly for me and for her family and friends, I have also prayed for a teenage girl on life support after a prolonged illness. And she died there in the hospital. (Doctors were never able to identify her malady - not even posthumously).

The New Testament tells us that the Spirit gives the gifts in accordance with His will and His plans - not ours.

What I love about this cure, which Sarno and Schubiner, and Dr. David Butler and others have helped us with is that - unlike a lot of the “New Agey” and pseudo-spiritual “treatments,” which I’ve been told to look into, this one is firmly based in scientific research and clinically proven substantive documentation (I’m not one of those Christians who feels faith and science should be at odds).

The only hiccup I have is the Freudian stuff. Freud was excessively allergic to Religion of any sort, and so bypassed and re-labeled pretty standard Biblical definitions of the internal struggles in life. Those labels of id, ego, and superego (child, parent, adult) in Dr. Sarno’s book can surely help people to overcome chronic physical pain, and I believe emotional/anxiety issues as well.

However, I honestly believe there is a much deeper pain in the realm of our spirit that can be resolved with the scriptures, which cannot be overcome with “psychoanalysis/psychotherapy” alone.

I am working my head around how to lay out a case for that in a way that makes sense to others. Honestly, the concern is how to introduce Christians to this helpful cure - MANY people whom I work with struggle with a variety of chronic pain - I want to develop a way to introduce them to the MindBody/spirit remedy to their TMS/PPD that they can redily receive.

I think it primarily will be a process of replacing Freudian Phycotherepy with Biblical Counseling that doesn’t shy away from the physiological aspect of the pain.

Just as Dr. Sarno wasn’t afraid to mix the disciplines of his medical and expertise and that of the psychological field. I think the Biblical counseling discipline can aid in our people’s recovery by pointing them to the medical findings of Sarno and his cohorts.

 

Was your pain ever so severe you required pain meds ?

 

Yes, I was told by several docs that I would be better off with pain meds, but because of a prior history with alcoholism, I had to avoid anything addictive. Toward the end of my pain journey, I was taking Lyrica and Diclofinac for a while, but the side effects were a mess (actually some of the side effects may have been TMS?PPD as well).

 

Can I ask you to pray for me ?

 

Absolutely.

 

If you can, email me specifics for prayer at warsawbaptistky@gmail.com

 

Hi Pastor-

Thank you for sharing your story of healing. I’m new to the forum too and on my own healing journey from 10 years of backpain.

I’m also a Christian and many times in the past month of discussing this TMS/emotional/psychological work with my husband we have been able to draw direct correlation to scripture. I’ve always believed that science is just catching up to what God designed! I’m a Holistic Health Coach and I see SO many correlations in the scriptures and how we should be caring for our bodies-a message that the current day church body desperately needs to pay attention to. Satan loves nothing more than to distract us from our Great Comission by allowing us to feel that sick bodies are somehow the “will of God” and that our health is out of our hands. I teach a lot about how we need to be eating more God Food and less Man Food as part en parcel of caring for our temples as an act of living worship!

Anyway, If you feel led to write a book about your correlations between TMS and the Bible I am certain that it would set thousands of Christians free from pain so that they can go out and fulfill their callings!

Thank you again for sharing your story and soon I hope to add my story to the wall of healing too. Take care.

 

Thanks you for responding! I am considering writing something more and more. I look forward to reading your story.

 

Hi All, and Welcome Pastor Ken,

Ken, I appreciate very much that you are getting better and are trying to find ways to spread the "good word" to others, finding ways that match others' experience and beliefs. Allowing the basic information in is the biggest barrier. Putting the information into a way that is taken in is a hugely important task.

I also had a friend send me the books, which I resisted mightily!

You might enjoy this article on my website Doubts About Dr. Sarno's Work. These were not doubts about Freud's basic construction of the human psyche, but more personal. Like Dr. Sarno, I use different words for id, superego, etc. Freud's work simply gives some concepts that we can attach to the inner tensions and conversations --as you rightfully are doing by correlation to scripture.

http://www.tmspainrelief.com/doubts-about-dr-sarnos-work/ (Doubts about Dr. Sarno's Work | TMS Pain Relief with Andy Bayliss)

Like you, I had to look very deep into my experience and knowledge in order to get better. I needed evidence which supported Dr. Sarno's work. Your personal relation to the Scriptures, how you see Dr. Sarno's work as a truth which in some ways has been known for thousands of years, is a great example of how we get better: we use our creative intelligence to see through our barriers to the common, personal truth of Dr. Sarno's work.

The whole experience feels like a miracle as the pain finally lifts. Often, a new faith in the world may arise, because we feel supported. Good luck in your TMS work, and in your pastoring.

Andy B

 

Thank you Andy B!

I will give that article a read. I have very much appreciated the warm welcome that I have received here on the tmswiki site.

 

"""""The only hiccup I have is the Freudian stuff. Freud was excessively allergic to Religion of any sort, and so bypassed and re-labeled pretty standard Biblical definitions of the internal struggles in life. Those labels of id, ego, and superego (child, parent, adult) in Dr. Sarno’s book can surely help people to overcome chronic physical pain, and I believe emotional/anxiety issues as well. """""

1000% agreed!

SINCE I got 'cured' in '99 I have twenty more years worth of study . .. scriptural, exegetical and scientific. I also have many more experiences of TMS trying to sneak in the back door.... hand, knee, gall bladder, teeth, you name it. I have noticed that as long as we keep seeking the truth it keeps coming in fits and starts and is borne out to be so by our experience and results (By their fruits you shall know them)

Every time I re-read 'Healing Back Pain' I still marvel at Sarno's seemingly perfect balance between acknowledging scientific truths yet keeping them in context with the obvious awesome power of the mind. He acknowledges Freuds most valuable contribution at making the Distinction between the different components without taking a knee at the altar of pop culture psychology.

I still use that model every time I get a 'tickle' of a new symptom. That is I acknowledge that there are things going on in my mind that have not reached the level of consciousness (and may never) that necessitate a distraction in my waking mind (pain, itch,ocd)

Sarno was a Doctor and those guys have to have some sort of empirical argument to arrive at any conclusion. Quoting Marcus Aurelius or Lao-tse will only get their papers tossed in the trash. Sarno's papers were all tossed in the garbage by his peers anyways, just for making that teeny leap of faith about the need for a distraction.

So, after my miraculous cure I certainly had a different point of view and I began to see that people have had TMS type of experiences (and cures) as long as we've scribbled on stuff. The first Detailed TMS account I found is in Genesis 32.22-32. I also found that amusing because my family's last name : Israel (LOL)

Of all the writers, pastors etc. whose work I have perused the one who seems to come closest to making a direct correlation between Freudian 'discoveries' and ancient Divine truth is Emmet Fox. He actually points out the verbage used in old and new testament and it's modern equivalent in 'psychiatric' jargon. I don't have it memorized verbatim but He points out that 'Dragons ' and 'Fire' and all of the dramatic, poetic language used in the Torah, Psalms, Proverbs,etc. is equivalent to Freuds dark 'Unconscious' prison. Those fancy verbose poems take on a new vibrant and real time meaning when examined in such a context.

I find when working with others I have an easier time passing on the message when they are 'believers'. Jesus makes it perfectly clear that God loves us and only wants us free. "I am come that they might have life and HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY"

""""""However, I honestly believe there is a much deeper pain in the realm of our spirit that can be resolved with the scriptures, which cannot be overcome with “psychoanalysis/psychotherapy” alone.
I am working my head around how to lay out a case for that in a way that makes sense to others. Honestly, the concern is how to introduce Christians to this helpful cure - MANY people whom I work with struggle with a variety of chronic pain - I want to develop a way to introduce them to the MindBody/spirit remedy to their TMS/PPD that they can redily receive.
I think it primarily will be a process of replacing Freudian Phycotherepy with Biblical Counseling that doesn’t shy away from the physiological aspect of the pain.
Just as Dr. Sarno wasn’t afraid to mix the disciplines of his medical and expertise and that of the psychological field. I think the Biblical counseling discipline can aid in our people’s recovery by pointing them to the medical findings of Sarno and his cohorts."""""

I am a member of a 12 step group. One of my recent discomfitures has been that we have been invaded by pop psychology. I have never gotten relief from anything because I got more detailed information of how 'screwed up my childhood was'...that crap can go on forever. It's only useful as an explanation, not salvation. Only the spirit can provide that. I am glad you joined our forum. I look forward to the value and insights you have to share. Peace

 

I used to be in a 12-step program too (actually before I came to Christ). But alas, after many different groups, and eight years of working the program, I found that their acceptance of any and all "God's of our understanding" hit a brick wall when people spoke of Jesus (as Jesus spoke of himself in the Scriptures). Mention Him and things quickly devolved in the meetings.
I bowed out of the 12-stepping, though I still apply many of the principles — keeping my side of the street clean, serving others, helping other alcoholics and addicts to recover, quickly working to resolve conflict and confess my part in issues, etc. — principles that I learned in those smokey rooms.

 

Update: Still loving the new pain free life! Couple of things.
After running, pain is still not an issue, however I did remember that pain wasn't the only reason I didn't like running lol.
Now I'm exercising through power walks, bike rides and push-ups and sit-ups.
Also, I had an ultrasound that had already been scheduled for gut pain issues (before I found out about TMS/PPD). Even though I was feeling better, my wife suggested I go ahead with the ultrasound just to confirm there is nothing wrong. I agreed and on the hour+ drive to the hospital, I began having the same gut pain as before. I actually laughed out loud at the reoccurrence and as soon as I realized that it was likely due to the mind/body connection to the former pain, the pain vanished. These brains of ours are something else!

 

Love this thread. It breaks my heart when people believe God wants them sick so that He can draw them closer, teach them a lesson, or perform a work in them.

Also, the book The God Shaped brain is a good read. It is written by a Christian psychiatrist. He talks about Neuroscience, the brain, and the mind body connection.

Pastor Ken, would it be ok if I send you an email with some questions?

 

Yes, though I would prefer to respond to questions on the forum so that everyone can benefit. If you have questions, it is likely that others are wondering the same thing.
Also, I am still pretty new here and value insight that others can add to the conversation as well.

 

Hi Pastor, I’m a Christian as well. I really appreciate your story and so glad you healed. I am doing much better than when I first started on this journey 7 years ago. But I wonder if its harder for Christians because of the human desire to please God no matter what’s going on with us. God already knows our thoughts but we think for some reason we have to hide them snd be “good.” What are your thoughts?