Day 1 I'm on board!

Hi everyone!

I have had chronic neck and shoulder pain for the last 22 years (wow just realizing this makes my head spin! Especially sine I'm 37!) which started with a skiing accident. The doctors told me it was a whiplash. The pain just wouldn't leave. After a few years, I just learned to live with it.

Then in my mid-twenties I fell from a chair and landed on my right wrist. The immediate pain was tolerable but the pain that would appear as the months went by would be debilitating. I started having "electric shocks" in my right wrist and I could not use it at times. This went on for a few years and the doctors could not find what I had. Then the shocks started moving up my arm and at one point reached my shoulder (all the while having neck pain). I went to see specialists but they were dumbfounded. Until one decided I should get an MRI. Turns out I had a herniated disk C5-C6. What a relief! It wasn't in my head (or so I thought!).

For the next 4 years I saw osteopaths, physical therapists, massage therapists, you name it! All the while taking very strong drugs for the neurological pain. I even had to be on medical leave from work for two years! Sure I had times were I was a bit better but I never felt like I had recovered. I still had a lot of pain and I had headaches and migraines from the pain.

A week ago I was home from work due to pain and was on the internet when (I don't remember how) saw a forum were someone was talking about Dr. Sarno. I got interested, did a bit of research, ordered two of his books and for the first time in more that 20 years, I feel like the end of my life with pain is close! That soon I'll be able to live my regular life without pain...

I started reading Healing back pain last Friday and I can't believe my luck that I found out I have TMS! My only regret: not finding out sooner!

 

Yeah, I'm 60 and just found out. But I could live another 30 years so they will be much much better. You have made a big positive step to start this program. You are in the right place.

 

Exactly! Good luck to you also!

 

Welcome to the club. I'm 82 and began Dr. Sarno's and Dr. Brady's 6-week program and it's helping me a lot.
Not pain free yet after six weeks but when I tell my back pain it's from repressed emotions it (usually) goes away.
Definitely an improvement.

 

I think I would have felt more pain relief sooner but I did not tell my subconscious the pain was 100 percent from TMS.
Part of me still thought it was from aging or deteriorating back conditions.
The past 2-3 weeks I've told my subconscious it's all from TMS and am finding it helps.

 

After you finish reading Dr Sarno's Healing Back Pain, you may want to start the 37-day Structured Education Program (SEP) offered on the first page of the TMS Wiki:

http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/The_Tension_Myositis_Syndrome_Wiki

The moderated Saturday afternoon chat sessions are also a good place to network with other people in the process of recovering from TMS. You can log onto these via the TMS Wiki as well.

You're in the right place to start the process of recovery.

 

Thanks for the advice, I started the SEP 3 days ago and I really like it. Well structured!
If I have time I'll definitely check out the Saturday afternoon chat.
Thank you very much!

 

Thanks, Jullemire. I'm sure you'll notice from reading Dr. Sarno how TMS can begin following an accident that otherwise wouldn't be that bad. It's what's called a psychological trigger that causes TMS to manifest. But the accident wouldn't trigger a pain condition unless painful emotions had already been repressed into your unconscious. See what Dr Sarno says about so-called "whip lash": The pain is real but the condition is psychological and emotional rather than physical. Good luck with the SEP!

 

Exactly! I saw myself at every page of that book (Healing back pain)... It was comforting! Now I"m starting the Mindbody prescription.

 

You should keep in mind, jullemire, that intellectual understanding of the TMS process is not good enough. I know that I understood what Dr Sarno was saying 3 years ago when I first read HBP. What you have to do to recover from TMS is to accept the diagnosis and begin working on your "head" to change the underlying emotional condition that causes TMS in the first place. But you are already doing that when you go through the SEP. The first thing I noticed while doing the SEP, maybe during the first week, was that the subjective "quality" of my consciousness began to change, real subtle, like calming down. All the best!

 

Don't worry I accepted the diagnosis the first time I heard about it. It made so much sense!
And I already started talking to my brain... The SEP really helps digging in the emotions. Thanks!!!