Pain distraction techniques

Hi - I'm new on here. I have longstanding issues with chronic gastric pain which has worsened considerably over the last 18 months. I also, as a result, tend to experience a lot of symptoms that I assume are caused by stress, and which induce intense anxiety verging on panic. I have found it really helpful if I can distract myself with some mental exercise. I am unable to do anything that involves being physical or moving around so need things I can do purely in my head to take my mind off pain and other symptoms. I found, for example, that thinking of a subject - countries, clothing, food, authors etc - and thinking of one for each letter of the alphabet really helped, but I have now exhausted all the subjects I can think of. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am really interested to hear things that have worked for other people. I have tried mindfulness but it doesn't really work for me as I want to be taken out of the moment, rather than concentrate on being in it!

 

@EllieJ
I’m torn over this one.. because tms IS the distraction from the internal, psychological processes that we are avoiding. So what I am reading is that instead of thinking psychologically, you want another distraction from the distraction.
Now perhaps you can see that is tms-era spend a lot of time distracted “from the moment” already. We tend to overthink, analyze, work a lot and hard, beat ourselves up.. but the one thing we don’t actually do is be in the moment without fear, or without our emotions (or the breadth of emotions).
So my question is: by avoiding the moment, what else do you avoid and is all this distraction and avoidance really helping you feel better long therm or short term?
Have you been able to read any of Dr. Sarno’s work (or anyone else’s) to learn more about the mechanism of TMS, emotions and personality? If not, it’s a wonderful help and reassurance.

 

Well ...I preach this one pretty repetitively. Mostly because it has worked for a long time.
Dr. Sarno whose work this forum is pretty much dedicated to, encouraged us to turn our minds to a 'persistent source of irritation' when we find ourselves focusing on the pain. That tells the unconscious mind that even though we don't know EXACTLY what is going on, we know from WHERE is is coming and this thinking 'blows the cover on a covert operation' making it useless...and the symptoms cease.

That sounds awesome, but I can't always get there. I have found when doing Sarno's suggestion that a lot of the time by the time I stop running that 'tape' I have forgotten all about the pain.

 

I agree with @Baseball65 recommendation. But I have found another technique to be useful at times, which is consciously moving toward the discomfort (whether due to physical or emotional pain or anxiety). Sit with it and give it your undivided attention, but without the internal dialogue that judges the sensations as negative. I think Alan Gordon calls this somatic tracking, but it is also called mindfulness (non-judgmental awareness of the present moment). As Carl Jung said "What we resist persists."

I think this works because it reduces the fear associated with it. It shows us, yes we can tolerate this and don't need to distract from it.

 

Would you mind expanding on your understanding of this? I don't understand it exactly...could you perhaps give an example?

 

I believe it's on page 66 or so of "Healing back Pain"

Say I have something bugging me...most recent my feet. Felt like the bottoms were bruised and every step feels like poking into a bruise. Anytime I catch myself focusing on the pain I "immediately and forcefully shift my attention" to thinking about how F'd my Girlfriend is for ghosting me (just happened), what a dumbsh+t I was for keeping her around as long as I did, and what a waste of time and resource it was.....all true things and things I am really pissed about but don't like to think about!!
I keep thinking about it as long as I can stand it..what usually happens is, my mind drifts but after awhile, I do something and catch myself focusing on the pain again? I go back and run that same 'tape' about my ex-GF.....as many times a day as I need to.

Eventually, if I am diligent, I will notice in a day or so, the pain is GONE. Period. BY sending the message to my unconscious that I know what it is doing, I am "pulling the cover on a covert operation" to quote Sarno.

We don't really ever know exactly what goes on down there, but Dr. Sarno and co. were fairly certain that repressed rage is the main issue.

so, I feel a Symptom? I Immediately think about rage inducing stuff..... I have made the TMS useless...and told my brain I know it's trying to distract me and it isn't working....and it goes away.

You can use any negative anger inducing situation your aware of..Sarno says 'Personal problem or financial'... I have used that coupled with resuming all normal activities to diffuse all sorts of TMS symptoms over 25 years...knees, feet, back pain. It is THEE main strategy. I read a lot of warm fuzzy stuff on the forum here about 'it being Okay, loving the inner self, outcome independence and so forth'

I want an outcome! I want the f%king pain to leave!
....THAT is what Sarno recommended and since his information is the 'Original' information I will stick with that...I don't have time to meditate, love myself or forgive myself... I just ain't that nice. In fact, the more of a weenie I am (to myself) the quicker the pain leaves...as long as I do it knowing I am trying to run a diversion.
I am really high strung...but I am pain free none the less.... because I am good at following instructions...and that was one of Sarno's most important "In my not so humble opinion"

 

Thank you. Gotcha. For me my pain/tension is very chronic and is there pretty much all the time so it can be very difficult to identify what is even bothering me in that moment. I don't think I have ever really been able to link an emotion to a pain in real time like that. I was also not able to find it in Healing Back Pain on page 66, perhaps my version is different, which section was it in?