Success Story-Sciatica

WAIT WAIT WAIT! Can somebody tell me how to load a m4a recording here? I was so close to ACTUALLY sharing my success story and now this.

Here is what I wrote to accompany my audio recording, a preview if you will....

I'm attaching a audio recording fro March of 2018 about my TMS success story from fall of 2016. I thought I should wait to share my success story until I was really sure I was successful and by now the process has dimmed a bit. I also put off sharing because I felt it should be written and writing is not my preferred way of communicating. THEN I didn't share this recording because it was so long! I tried recording it again, making it shorter but it wasn't as good as the first time I recorded it. And of course I don't know how to edit a recording.

ANYWAY! Here is my story. I'd like to reassure you I have much less anxiety now than I did when I recorded this.

Here is a run down of times I talk about this and that.

TMS Ramble Notes and Times
00:00 Intro and labeling TMS

00:30-02:30 2008 Traumatic experience and sudden onset of pain. “Push through and suck it up.” Associated sciatic pain with driving, not the emotions.

02:30-03:40 Physical treatment tried: chiro, new car, massage. Nothing really worked.

03:40 Tramadol-loved it

4:20 Physical Therapy

4:40 Description of pain and dealing with pain chronically.

5:40 Read Healing Back Pain. Recognized myself! Started working on TMS.

07:00 The pain was gone-but the anxiety was SO BAD I wanted the pain back!

08:00 Time of year seasonal anniversary realization. Anxiety worse and pain came back.

09:30 Stopped TMS work. Returned to the hope of physical cure.

09:50 Steroid injections-one “worked,” one didn’t!

10:50 Only after fail of injections did I really accept TMS.

11:20 Month off work. STOPPING DRINKING ALCOHOL. Which was key for me to recover.

12:50 I didn’t do much journalling. The most helpful thing for me was Alan Gordon’s recordings on TMS wiki.

13:30 Bingeing Alan Gordon’s session recordings. TMS recovery was VERY COUNTERINTUITIVE for me.

15:00 My life is so full of “shoulds” TMS recovery isn’t about shoulds.

15:40 Shocked by Alan’s recording with someone talking about anger. It made me really uncomfortable but made me realize acknowledging anger doesn’t hurt people.

16:40 Outcome Independence. Sitting was painful for me, not activity. Just doing the thing that hurts and trying not to care. I faked it until I made it.

18:25 Reframing the pain as “feelings” and little Alan Gordon thanking!

18:40 What really worked for me was cheering the pain on and inviting it to get worse.

21:00 What to tell other people, especially those in pain?

23:00 The social commradery of chronic pain. I’m not talking to people about TMS unless they ask.

23:30 I was still on tramadol

24:30 Tapering off tramadol

25:00 A little ramble on my love of tramadol

25:40 “I still have sciatic pain” TMS keeps coming up

27:30 Now pain signals feelings, I’m not scared of the pain now

28:30-31:15 Physical “treatments” are still a problem for me. Massage and yoga confirm the belief that there is a physical cause to my pain.

31:20 It was not important to me to “overcome” or “understand” my emotions.

32:00 Anxiety remains

 

I was trying on my computer. I did what you said and it seems like it might work but now it’s saying the file is too big.

 

Ok, I'll work on another solution after work.

Thanks!

 

Where on the site did you find Alan Gordon's recordings to "binge?" I'm interested in doing the same, but can't find a page with more than like 1 or 2. Edit: Oh, wait, are they the ones in the Recovery Program Here: http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/TMS_Recovery_Program (TMS Recovery Program) ?


(Also, you might find success uploading the recording to YouTube, with the video just being a black screen or static image.)

 

Thanks, Jan!

 

Just wondered why stopping drinking alcohol was key for you? I am used to having wine in the pm. Maybe
I should stop? Let me know if you can. Best to you, Nancy

 

Hey I finally typed out my success story and posted it. http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/success-story-8-years-sciatica-pain-gone-overdue-story.20437/ (Success Story-8 years Sciatica pain gone. Overdue Story!)

 

Thanks for sharing your story with us, ladyofthelake!
In my opinion, for someone who don't like writing you've made a great job - especially since you were anxious to share.
I'm going to read this again with my mother, since she's a long-time TMS sufferer, but she's way too sceptical to admit that it's all in her head. She hates the idea that life stresses could be causing her problem (and I'm not sure why). That's why I'm extremely grateful for stories like yours.