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chrisb89
42 Posts |
 Posted - 05/11/2007 : 13:54:48
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Before I had my back pain I used to have terrible road rage. I would constantly yell at drivers, and cuss at "these idiots" from the safety of my car with the windows closed so no one could know what I was doing.
Once I started having back pain, I stopped. Because just like everything else, these "idiot drivers" seemed of little consequence compared to my terrible pain and all I thought about while driving or anything else was my back pain.
I know Sarno mentioned road rage as a TMS equivalent (and said that he does it himself) because you are not really that mad at the people on the road, but substituting for what you are really mad it. Despite this, does it stand to reason that this release of tension (even at something that is not what you're "really" mad at) would reduce TMS symptoms - and do it in a relatively safe way (as long as you're not driving crazy or causing an accident). If it is a TMS equivalent, then I'd much rather have road rage then back pain. |
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entheogens
USA
24 Posts |
Posted - 05/11/2007 : 14:30:01
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quote:
Originally posted by chrisb89
[
I know Sarno mentioned road rage as a TMS equivalent (and said that he does it himself) because you are not really that mad at the people on the road, but substituting for what you are really mad it. Despite this, does it stand to reason that this release of tension (even at something that is not what you're "really" mad at) would reduce TMS symptoms - and do it in a relatively safe way (as long as you're not driving crazy or causing an accident). If it is a TMS equivalent, then I'd much rather have road rage then back pain.
I dont think that Sarno said it was a TMS equivalent. I think it is displaced anger. You are not getting in touch with what you are really angry about, according to his theory. |
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Shary
147 Posts |
Posted - 05/11/2007 : 15:53:48
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Road rage isn't good for anyone, whether they have TMS or not. A man here in metro Denver was recently tried for killing two people in a case of road rage. (I think it made the national news.) He'll be in the slammer for the rest of his life with no possibility for parole, so you can't exactly say it helped him. And it sure didn't help the two people he killed.
I don't think there's any such thing as safe road rage. It can quickly escalate out of control in ways that can't be predicted. Better to calm down, allow yourself more time to get where you're going, and try to see the idiot drivers as other human beings with problems of their own. There are more constructive ways to burn off anger than venting it on innocent people.
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Big Rob
32 Posts |
Posted - 05/11/2007 : 16:21:55
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quote:
You are not getting in touch with what you are really angry about, according to his theory.
So how do you do that? |
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shawnsmith
Czech Republic
2048 Posts |
Posted - 05/11/2007 : 19:11:59
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You do not have to get in touch with what you are feeling in the unconscious. In fact, for the most part, it is impossible except for a few rare exceptions. If you can feel an emotion then it is not unconscious. The goal is to think pyschologically about what you think may be making you angry thus diverting your attention away from your bodily symptoms unto your emotions. The cure is in the seeking, not in the finding. This is the central message of Dr. Sarno's advice to think pyscologically, and Dr. Nancy Selridge comes right out and makes the same point as I have above in her book "Freedom From Fribromyalgia" one of the most practical step by step TMS treatment plans I have read, and I have read them all.
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Sarno-ize it!
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 05/12/2007 : 10:33:08
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I don't think road rage releases the tension that is causing TMS. It is, itself, a distraction from the true unconscious emotions that are producing the symptoms.
In my opinion it would be more productive to focus that outburst on life pressures that are likely to be contributing to the rage. Being stuck in the left lane behind a slow driver is certainly rage inducing, but it would be more effective to scream and yell at your wife for pressuring you to be a good husband, or your kids for pressuring you to be a good father, or your boss for not recognizing your hard work and dedication, or . . . |
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jst
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 05/12/2007 : 17:33:22
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Chris,
I feel like you've gotta get in touch with whatever might be bothering you BENEATH the tms symptoms or the road rage. TMS symptoms and road rage are both deriving from the same source, and it's constantly questioning the identity and circumstances surrounding that source that will get you to a happier, more peaceful state of mind and body.
I don't think you want to necessarily yell at your wife or kids or boss (though in the very rare instance I'm sure even this can be the necessary solution), and I'm sure you aren't about to kill someone over road rage, but just keep asking yourself: what is it in parts of my life OTHER than back pain and bad drivers that I might harbor rage about?
I feel like in emotionally very difficult, even traumatic events, we get stuck. We repress emotions at that moment in our live so powerfully, that they stay with us forever...until we address them. Sarno suspects the unconscious mind lacks any sense of time. In TMP, he talks of the 58 year-old lady (around that age) who'd been molested as a child and suffered such terrible TMS that she ached seriously all over her body. This pain didn't go away until she finally accessed the shame, anger, guilt, and other painful emotions that she repressed roughly 48 years earlier in her life when she was molested, and which had stayed with her over all that time.
I guess I'd ask myself what might've happened in my life where I harbored so much rage. When did it happen? How did it happen? Why did it happen? How did it make me feel? Why did it make me feel that way? And as you start to access that rage and all the circumstances that created it, you'll come to terms with it. You'll find a more peaceful you. Your body won't have the TMS symptoms. You'll feel happier. You'll be so much the better for it.
Best of luck |
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is road rage good for those suffering with TMS?
