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JSH
USA
8 Posts |
 Posted - 10/08/2004 : 15:32:19
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Am curious about something. In MBP, Sarno recommends writing down everything and anything from your past which may be a contributor to your TMS.
I have gone back & written down every possible thing which I can think of from the 42 yrs I've been alive. Have reached a plateau & been stuck there for past motnh or so w/respect to imrpovement in my TMS.
Once you write down an event or episode that yo think has contributed to your own case of TMS, are you supposed to write down same events over & over.....or should putting each event down once suffice? Just wondering if I am not "getting it" re: to what Sarno prescribes about journaling. |
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Louise
USA
68 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2004 : 20:26:20
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JSH -
At this point, when I journal, I write about things that are going on in my life at the present time - things that I think may be angering, stressing or enraging me, consciously or unconsciously. Lately, I've been writing epic tomes about the politics and gameplaying that's going on at my work. 
You might also try Dr. Schechter's MindBody Workbook. In it, there are specific questions that touch on things that you may not have previously thought important.
Also, you might try journalling about your dreams. They can be telling, and sometimes through them you can gleam onto something that's really important, even though you may not consciously know it.
As to your past events, I would say that if you can write about them without producing any emotional response, you've probably come to terms with those past incidents. However, if the memory still produces feelings of anger or anxiety, you need to explore it further, because there is still something there that needs to be dealt with.
Good luck. Don't let the journalling become a chore. If it feels like it is, give it a rest for a while.
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Burton
USA
18 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 10:58:22
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JSH,
You might check out Julia Cameron's book the Artist's Way, she gives some very good advice on journaling techniques. She doesn't write of TMS per se but does recommend journaling as a way to "heal." She suggests that everyone write a chronological autobiography, not necessarily a BOOK but something like a narrative timeline. She then suggests that you read back over what you've written and underline any incidents that seem significant. Then she suggests that you write two or three detailed pages about those incidents, she has a name for this, I think she calls it a "cup," like you are taking a cup and scooping from the well of memory.
I started a timeline but then abandoned it before I got to my highschool years because I didn't have the energy back then to tackle the telling of my tale as it got increasingly more complicated. I know I "ought" to finish it now, I'd probably learn some things about myself that would be painful/helpful. I also did a few "cups" and then got lazy (or scared) about it and quit. But even these partial efforts helped me IMMENSELY. Those excersises and keeping a regular journal (along with doing the excersices John Lee recommends in Facing the Fire) are the reasons I was able to heal from TMS and don't have any more neck pain. Instead, I seem to be a ball of anxiety lately, most likely because I've gotten very lax about the journaling...
Good luck with the journaling, hope I was of some help.
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menvert
Australia
133 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 19:56:35
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I have tried to do an autobiographical journal at one stage .
this was before I discovered TMS, or even pain .
but my biggest problem was. I can't remember much.
It is a really difficult and interesting exercise . I think it may actually be really useful for trying to discover unconscious issues, because if I don't remember them . maybe they are very significant.
But I still personally find journaling of any description to be a gigantic CHORE as soon as I start all I'm thinking of it is how soon, I can finish and get it done with and forget about it. So maybe my brain really is frightened of the power of journaling, because it is effectively preventing me from doing it?? |
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Steve
USA
48 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 20:16:26
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quote:
Originally posted by menvert
So maybe my brain really is frightened of the power of journaling, because it is effectively preventing me from doing it??
Bingo. I have this problem too...some things in my past are so painful, my mind makes me procrastinate in writing about them. |
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Zshapiro32
USA
31 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2004 : 10:26:19
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With my journaling, it appears that everything is on the tip of my brain, like nothing is repressed.
In high school I had horrible acne, so bad that i took acutane 3 times and it didn't work. That was all I thought about in high school. It seems that during my life, there is always something horrible to focus on. Before law school, it was worrying about law school. That consumed most of my time. Before I was accepted to law school there was focusing on my ex-girlfriend and being unlovable and of course getting into law school. Before that it was graduating college and not knowing what to do.
All of my bad outbreaks of TMS have happened while in college or now in law school. I didn't have a single BAD one during my year off between college and law school. I did have a month long episode of IBS after the breakup with my most recent ex, but I don't recall focusing on that as much. Anyway I had horrible back problems during college.
Anyway, I really just can't think of what could possibly be causing all of this anger. It seems like everything is out in the open.
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JSH
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2004 : 16:46:13
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quote:
Originally posted by Louise
JSH -
At this point, when I journal, I write about things that are going on in my life at the present time - things that I think may be angering, stressing or enraging me, consciously or unconsciously. Lately, I've been writing epic tomes about the politics and gameplaying that's going on at my work.
You might also try Dr. Schechter's MindBody Workbook. In it, there are specific questions that touch on things that you may not have previously thought important.
Also, you might try journalling about your dreams. They can be telling, and sometimes through them you can gleam onto something that's really important, even though you may not consciously know it.
As to your past events, I would say that if you can write about them without producing any emotional response, you've probably come to terms with those past incidents. However, if the memory still produces feelings of anger or anxiety, you need to explore it further, because there is still something there that needs to be dealt with.
Good luck. Don't let the journalling become a chore. If it feels like it is, give it a rest for a while.
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JSH
USA
8 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2004 : 16:47:54
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Good input Louise. Especially about dreams. Now that I think about it, there are several recurring themes to my dreams.
I had not heard of Dr Schecters MindBody Workbook. Is that the actual title if I go to buy it? |
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Louise
USA
68 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2004 : 10:25:54
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JSH -
The title is "The MindBody Workbook" by David Schechter, MD. You can get it on amazon.com, or thru Dr. Schechter's website at www.mindbodymedicine.com
Dr. Schechter is an LA-based TMS physician. He was a student of Dr. Sarno. Thru his website you can also purchase CD's of his lectures, etc. As I live in LA, I saw him a few times last year.
You might also try picking up a book on dream symbols. I don't usually remember my dreams, but I had a really vivid one last year that included my late father, and later had me stuffing a broken umbrella into the trunk of my car. I picked up a dream symbol book in the bookstore a couple of weeks ago & looked up umbrellas. The umbrella is a symbol of protection (duh!), and when I read that, I said "aha!", because it made sense to me that the broken umbrella that I was trying to take away with me was a symbol of the protection that I no longer had, as my Dad was no longer around to look out for me. Interesting.
Louise 
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2scoops
USA
386 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2004 : 11:44:36
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| One thing that really helped me was journaling right before the chronic pain started. Then journaling through my experience with the medical community and the different treatments that I went through. That should show you the programming that you received, which is a big part of TMS pain. You should see how you were programmed to live in fear, which does nothing but increase the TMS cycle. I think some of us try to figure these specific emotions and I do not believe that to be that relevant to dimishing the pain. I got caught up in it just like some of the rest of us. I do not believe it's necessary to come up with every event or personality trait that my cause TMS. I believe it's really simple to the TMS process, but we make it harder than it's suppossed to be, which I believe is another trait of a TMS patient, we try to take something so simple that a child could understand and we break it down and make it seem so difficult. In a nutshell, here is the whole TMS theory, the pain is caused by repressed emotions, don't have to figure every emotion out, just that it's caused by emotions, it's not structural, we were programmed, we are normal, we take our minds off the physical and think emotional. I believe any continuing pain is because we have not fully accepted the TMS diagnosis. But I truly believe if you journal about your experience with the medical community so you see the programming and you think about what was going on during your life at the onset o pain, that you can be pain-free. Just my cents. |
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Michele
249 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2004 : 12:20:33
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I've been doing Dr. Schechter's Mindbody Workbook, but not as faithfully as when I first started. I also journal in a separate blank notebook whenever I can - it's easier to carry around. I like the idea of journaling and am trying to get into the habit. I am fearful my husband will read my journal, even though I put it in a drawer. He knows it is there, and so far, I don't think he's read it. If he did, he wouldn't be happy because I have expressed much of my anger toward him in the workbook. It's anger that doesn't stay around (I can't stay angry at him) but the workbook is an outlet I can use to express it and get it out of my system!
If you've gone through and journaled about everything in your past you can think of, try journaling about your present day. I have found that just journaling every day will put an idea into my head and bring a thought to the surface about my past that I had forgotten. Good luck!
P.S. The Mindbody Workbook is awesome, and worth the $. |
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Laura
USA
655 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2004 : 13:10:43
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I first saw Dr. Schechter over this past summer and purchased both the workbook and CD's. They really helped me a lot and I did recommend them to people on this website. But, it got to a point where every time I sat down to write it was becoming such a chore for me that I would set the book down and find something else to do. It was just way too much work for me. Maybe I didn't want to think about what was bothering me, I don't know. I could read Dr. Sarno's books all day long and listening to the CD's was great. But actually having to dig in and think about stuff was so hard, I would procrastinate and not do it. For me, this website has been my journaling outlet. It's a place I can go and say what's on my mind and write about things that are bothering me without feeling judged. Also, I don't have to worry about hiding the journal like I used to, since I too wrote about my husband and family in that workbook. The good girl in me felt more guilt for writing about stuff and I worried how my husband might feel if he read it. Also, I would not want my two daughters reading about some of the things that happened to me as a child. I think it's easier to type than write anyway, and I've thought about just simply typing my thoughts and getting them out and then deleting it. A shrink once told me it was therapeutic to write something and then burn the piece of paper, although I've never tried that.
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2004 : 14:15:15
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| Good post 2scoops, that's a good overview of TMS. I share your view of it. As the Good Doctor says, knowledge is the penicillin for TMS. You have to learn how to access that switch in your mind to turn from the physical to the emotional to banish the pain. You have to face life head on and express rather than repress. |
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Journaling
