Day 5 It's in your head...

I went to my doctor 5 years ago because I was having shoulder pain. I was told it was probably a rotator cuff injury. She prescribed physical therapy. The PT told me that my pain was in my head. She gave me some exercises and told me I had to get my brain to believe that my shoulder was just like the other one. That's it. She didn't give me anymore guidance. She didn't mention TMS or suggest that I do some reading. I didn't get any positive results from those 14 PT visits. My pain has moved to my other shoulder and I have been have sciatica pain and upper back pain. I thought about her comment often and I thought she was a little off until I came across Dr. Sarno's 20/20 video.

 

Although I'm sure it would have been nice to receive a bit more guidance from the PT, at least she planted the seed! I think you will learn a lot here

 

Hmmm...seems unusual for a PT to tell you that. Wonder if she is still working as one.

Welcome, Ruby!

 

I have noticed when I still went to PT that the physical therapists as a group all know that the problem isn't physical; in most cases it's really psychological. Some say it's really 50/50. However, there does seem to be a professional collective 'code of silence' on this issue that they all maintain to ensure job security. I know a guy who owns a PT business and he told me in confidence that he could tell which of his clients were really in PT to "get attention". They just have to know that Dr Sarno is right; at least in cases that don't involve blunt force trauma or post-operative care. After a couple of years indulging my perfectionist TMSer personality traits in PT, I sure noticed that almost all the patients in there had recently undergone a traumatic event - death of spouse, death of father/mother, loss of job/income - immediately before the onset of their pain symptoms. If I could notice that with a limited sampling of patients based on my personal experience in PT over a couple of years, the physical therapists themselves must have noticed those coincidences long before I was able to. Just sayin'!

 

I find it interesting that the PT flat out told you the pain was in your head and the change that was needed was with your thinking and then completely undermined the diagnosis by giving you physical exercises. How were you supposed to convince the brain to change while the intended goal of the exercises was to cause a physical change in a specific part of your body?

 

My Pelvic Floor physical therapist changed my life forever by introducing me to The Divided Mind. At that point I was in so much pain I was open to anything and had been for years. My Uro-gynecologist at the hospital where he practices now has 4 full time physical therapist who only do Pelvic Floor problems and Intercystitial Cystitis. I think this is the new "in" problem to have. All 4 of the physical therapist support Sarno's perspective but the Doc. is not interested although he knows something is going on because the pain moves around. But he is not open to Sarno.... so sad for his patients. Maybe he is afraid he won't have any patients any more. I don't believe that is true because so many people won't accept the diagnosis. Sandy