Here's a good site for additional info on TMS, and comes from a guy with a running background.
www.RunningPain.com
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Mind, Thought, Belief, Pain
A continuation of my pain relief therapy...
I know it's a big leap to jump from, "see that bulge on the mri? that's what's causing your pain" to "the pain you feel is being caused by your mind" (it is a physical expression of a psychological mechanism, that roots itself in distracting you from things that cause great anger, fear, anxiety.)
Here's why I believe it. You know that stress affects the body. You get freaked out, what happens? The body responds, higher blood pressure, muscle tension. So when would I get freaked out? If I saw a horror movie, that would be very unsettling to me and definitely freak me out. So, these mental responses, definitely have a physical manifestation. So, if this is the case with a horror movie, imagine how much more the body is clever in affecting your body with other things, such as need to be good, need for perfection and accomplishment, the need to push hard and accomplish, and imagine if some of these things are failing. That despite your hard work, things aren't happening as you would want, that the very things you thought would get you where you want to go seem to be dragging you back, imagine this. Do you realize how much stress and pain that would cause? and how much you would not like to realize this? So, imagine the "cleverness" of the mind, in that it doesn't want to stress you about that so instead creates a very real pain that takes your mind OFF the things that are freaking you out (whether you admit it or not) in your life. If watching a scary movie can freak me out/create physical changes in my body, I can't imagine how much more that these really (what I consider) "important" issues not "happening" is going to mess with me.
The good news? Understand this is psychological in nature and that there is no physical abnormality that is causing it. Write it out, recognize it, release it in writing so that the body will not use pain to divert your attention away from it. If you realize what's causing the pain, the body no longer has reason to try to hide you from it (at least, that's my understanding from reading Dr. Sarno's books.)
Dr. Sarno's Books:
Mind Over Back Pain
Healing Back Pain
The Mindbody Prescription
The Divided Mind (i have not read/bought this one...yet)
Open your mind,
be open to new thinking,
what do you have to lose?
if the answer was in what you "knew"
wouldn't you have solved the pain by now?
would you rather
keep the pain
and be "right" in your thinking,
or would your rather
lose the pain,
and accept that what you thought was "wrong"
you will not spend your way out of the pain,
but you can educate yourself out of the pain.
remember, there comes a point
after researching and reading,
you have to work to the solution.
read enough to get started,
then get started.
don't just ingest more and more information.
...
Thanks Dr. Sarno!
Here's why I believe it. You know that stress affects the body. You get freaked out, what happens? The body responds, higher blood pressure, muscle tension. So when would I get freaked out? If I saw a horror movie, that would be very unsettling to me and definitely freak me out. So, these mental responses, definitely have a physical manifestation. So, if this is the case with a horror movie, imagine how much more the body is clever in affecting your body with other things, such as need to be good, need for perfection and accomplishment, the need to push hard and accomplish, and imagine if some of these things are failing. That despite your hard work, things aren't happening as you would want, that the very things you thought would get you where you want to go seem to be dragging you back, imagine this. Do you realize how much stress and pain that would cause? and how much you would not like to realize this? So, imagine the "cleverness" of the mind, in that it doesn't want to stress you about that so instead creates a very real pain that takes your mind OFF the things that are freaking you out (whether you admit it or not) in your life. If watching a scary movie can freak me out/create physical changes in my body, I can't imagine how much more that these really (what I consider) "important" issues not "happening" is going to mess with me.
The good news? Understand this is psychological in nature and that there is no physical abnormality that is causing it. Write it out, recognize it, release it in writing so that the body will not use pain to divert your attention away from it. If you realize what's causing the pain, the body no longer has reason to try to hide you from it (at least, that's my understanding from reading Dr. Sarno's books.)
Dr. Sarno's Books:
Mind Over Back Pain
Healing Back Pain
The Mindbody Prescription
The Divided Mind (i have not read/bought this one...yet)
Open your mind,
be open to new thinking,
what do you have to lose?
if the answer was in what you "knew"
wouldn't you have solved the pain by now?
would you rather
keep the pain
and be "right" in your thinking,
or would your rather
lose the pain,
and accept that what you thought was "wrong"
you will not spend your way out of the pain,
but you can educate yourself out of the pain.
remember, there comes a point
after researching and reading,
you have to work to the solution.
read enough to get started,
then get started.
don't just ingest more and more information.
...
Thanks Dr. Sarno!
Hip Pain and "Normal" abnormalities (but my mri says...)
Well, the back pain is gone, but guess what's popped up. Hip Pain.
I highly suspect tms (tension myositis syndrome). Undergoing some stressful situations and makes sense it would decide to make itself known or rather hidden (read the book to see what I mean). Dr. Sarno recounts in The Mindbody Prescription, that the pain will often travel, and it looks like it's doing this in my case. What I love about this is first and foremost, it works. Secondly, it requires no surgery, medicine, physical therapy or financial drain. It requires that you open your mind, and really think about and acknowledge the cause of it. It's not even that it requires that you solve whatever psychological stress you have, only that you realize the pain is cause by the pyschological repression of things that create anger, fear and stress. Essentially, in understanding "the mechanic of thought" and that it is producing the pain, vs. outwardly physical symptoms causing the physical pain. It is like a leaking hose, you can try and patch the hose to stop the water from leaking, even as more holes are forming, OR, you can simply turn the water off at the source and stop all the leaking. With Dr. Sarno's therapy, you educate yourself into how the mind is working. You learn that the pain is caused, in very particular personality types (type A) and that the mind is creating the pain to divert your attention from anger, rage, fear, anxiety, or/and the things that cause anger, rage, fear and anxiety. Dr. Sarno's therapy is education, understanding how the mind is working, and affecting the body. Inevitably, if you want to search for complex issues and reasons for physical abnormalities, you will undoubtedly find them. Interestingly enough, there was a study done with radiologists, who were given x rays and asked to pair them with who was experiencing pain. It turns out people can have x rays and mri's that would indicate a potential area of pain, yet the person would not have pain. Likewise, people whose xray's and mri's didn't show any abnormality would actually have pain. Dr. Sarno tells us that the physical abnormalities are merely symptoms of the pain, NOT the cause of the pain. In fact, with aging, there are "normal abnormalities" that occur that do not necessarily mean the individual will feel pain. In our high tech world, and in the scientific world we have been conditioned to link the physical abnormality to pain, this, despite the fact that studies have shown the opposite can be true, as is mentioned in this interview:
By addressing the symptoms only,
you only, at best, receive only temporary relief from the pain.
By addressing the cause of the pain (the mind),
you can receive permanent relief.
I highly suspect tms (tension myositis syndrome). Undergoing some stressful situations and makes sense it would decide to make itself known or rather hidden (read the book to see what I mean). Dr. Sarno recounts in The Mindbody Prescription, that the pain will often travel, and it looks like it's doing this in my case. What I love about this is first and foremost, it works. Secondly, it requires no surgery, medicine, physical therapy or financial drain. It requires that you open your mind, and really think about and acknowledge the cause of it. It's not even that it requires that you solve whatever psychological stress you have, only that you realize the pain is cause by the pyschological repression of things that create anger, fear and stress. Essentially, in understanding "the mechanic of thought" and that it is producing the pain, vs. outwardly physical symptoms causing the physical pain. It is like a leaking hose, you can try and patch the hose to stop the water from leaking, even as more holes are forming, OR, you can simply turn the water off at the source and stop all the leaking. With Dr. Sarno's therapy, you educate yourself into how the mind is working. You learn that the pain is caused, in very particular personality types (type A) and that the mind is creating the pain to divert your attention from anger, rage, fear, anxiety, or/and the things that cause anger, rage, fear and anxiety. Dr. Sarno's therapy is education, understanding how the mind is working, and affecting the body. Inevitably, if you want to search for complex issues and reasons for physical abnormalities, you will undoubtedly find them. Interestingly enough, there was a study done with radiologists, who were given x rays and asked to pair them with who was experiencing pain. It turns out people can have x rays and mri's that would indicate a potential area of pain, yet the person would not have pain. Likewise, people whose xray's and mri's didn't show any abnormality would actually have pain. Dr. Sarno tells us that the physical abnormalities are merely symptoms of the pain, NOT the cause of the pain. In fact, with aging, there are "normal abnormalities" that occur that do not necessarily mean the individual will feel pain. In our high tech world, and in the scientific world we have been conditioned to link the physical abnormality to pain, this, despite the fact that studies have shown the opposite can be true, as is mentioned in this interview:
By addressing the symptoms only,
you only, at best, receive only temporary relief from the pain.
By addressing the cause of the pain (the mind),
you can receive permanent relief.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
L5 herniated disk
I had a herniated disk. I had an mri and was diagnosed with a herniated disk back in my L5 in 2007. From 2007 to 2010 I was in constant pain. That period in my life was horrible. Sciatica, pain shot down my butte and right leg, numbness in my right calf. I could barely put on socks and shoes. My body wouldn't bend to the right, I knew what would happen if I tried to push it. I couldn't walk 50 yards without needing to stop and stretch or feel pain and numbness in my leg. Any sudden or sharp movements and I was toast. If anything dropped to the floor, I dreaded picking it up. My body was crooked something wasn't right. At its worst, it hurt to turn over on my side in bed. I couldn't turn over on my side or stomach, or else...pain. Yeah, that's not normal. The mornings were always dreaded. I wondered if I was going to be able to make it from my car to the building i worked. It was only a few yards but it seemed miles way. It took at least an 30 minutes to an hour to feel like I could "walk", if you could call it that. Thank goodness for slip on shoes.I felt like an old man. I couldn't stand very long, I couldn't sit very long, I was always looking for something to lean on. It was difficult to find a posture without pain and I was afraid this was going to last forever.
I didn't know how/where it came from or what I did to cause it. No obvious traumatic injury or anything, it just seemed day by day to get worse, until finally I realized it wasn't a good thing to push aside, I relented, saw a doctor who referred me to a neurosurgeon.
The point of all this? Well, I tried just about everything under the sun to fix it, some things seemed to work, others didn't. I'll go over that in future posts. But the reason I'm writing is this, I hope to provide a glimmer of hope. Know it can get better and that it is temporary. Know that this is possible and will happen.
When my back was like that I was freaking out. I was frustrated, pissed off and scared. What was I supposed to do? Could I even "do" anything to help it heal?
Know that today, I feel back to 100%. No tingle, no numbness, no pain, no surgery, no drugs, no cane. I can gleefully bend at the waist, put my shoes on and I'm even back to some running.
I didn't know how/where it came from or what I did to cause it. No obvious traumatic injury or anything, it just seemed day by day to get worse, until finally I realized it wasn't a good thing to push aside, I relented, saw a doctor who referred me to a neurosurgeon.
The point of all this? Well, I tried just about everything under the sun to fix it, some things seemed to work, others didn't. I'll go over that in future posts. But the reason I'm writing is this, I hope to provide a glimmer of hope. Know it can get better and that it is temporary. Know that this is possible and will happen.
When my back was like that I was freaking out. I was frustrated, pissed off and scared. What was I supposed to do? Could I even "do" anything to help it heal?
Know that today, I feel back to 100%. No tingle, no numbness, no pain, no surgery, no drugs, no cane. I can gleefully bend at the waist, put my shoes on and I'm even back to some running.
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