Mindbody Healing

[ezer]

Hello everyone,
Mark invited me to post my experience with mindbody healing on chronicprostatitis. I have posted on pudendalhope.info and got pretty much ostracized for my anti PNE surgery views.

I suffered from CPPS since 2002. I fell on a wet marble floor and had pain since.

Following is a short summary of my journey:

• Wise-Anderson protocol
• 100 sessions of pelvic floor physical therapy
• MRN Neurography "confirming" PNE
• Received a PNE diagnosis by 5 different physicians
• 6 pudendal nerve blocks and Botox
• Sarno
• 2 PNE surgeries
• I had to quit work

I suffered for 11 years and hit rock bottom after my 2 consecutive pudendal nerve decompression surgeries, being practically bed ridden for several months. Why did I have PNE surgery? I was simply desperate and grasping at straws. I was resigned to muddling through life managing my days around pain.

But now I am symptoms free. The following is a summary of my journey in the last 2 years. I discontinued all medication and I am back at work full time.

My recovery started with an odd incident. In 2012, I met some old friends that I had not seen for 30 years. It was incredibly emotional and I had the surprise of experiencing my CPPS simply vanish after years of continuous pain.

Why would emotions make the pain go away?

I started asking people for what triggered their CPPS. It seems that often there was some unremarkable physical incident but also a strong emotional upset in the mix.

I then searched for emotions and chronic pain.

Emotions are stored in what is called the implicit memory. You cannot recall them. It is hidden from you. You do get some manifestations of it when you blush or stutter for example. Or it is the part of your brain that will make you steer your car away from danger without you actively thinking about it.
The amygdala is part of the limbic system that is linked to emotions. The amygdala functions to control fear responses (fight, flight, and especially the freeze response that is key in chronic pain), the secretion of hormones, and the formation of emotional memories. The concept of the amygdala as an important contributor to chronic pain and its emotional component is still emerging.

Back in 2006, I read Sarno's book, "The Mindbody Prescription". I tried everything that was in the book. I was not successful at all. It did nothing for the pain. There was the cryptic instruction to "think psychologically whenever you are distracted by the pain". I did not have a clear vision of what that meant. I just thought (like 99% of people) that it meant to "not think physical". Since 2006 however, there has been advances in our understanding of mindbody syndromes. There are more resources. It seems that emotions play a key role in chronic pain. For me it finally clicked when I understood that thinking psychologically means to reconnect with your emotions. Sarno was inspired by the seminal work of Dr. Franz Alexander, a Hungarian psychologist.

Emotions are real. They are not just a concept. You can measure an emotion by monitoring the galvanic skin response on the body. There is some theory behind the mindbody connection or more precisely the emotion-chronic pain link including fMRI studies.

http://www.3dinformatics.com/pain.pdf
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247328.php
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/day ... d/17055162
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1813416

But don't get obsessed with the science. Are the symptoms an expression of anxiety, a distraction from repressed emotions, a dysregulation of the amygdala, or something different? It is irrelevant. The process is far more complex than we can understand based on our imperfect knowledge of the brain.

Two of the scientists that made an impression on me are Dr.Robert Scaer and Dr. Candace Pert. Dr. Scaer, an MD that was at the head of a trauma unit in Colorado, studied whiplash and could not comprehend that people suffered terribly from low speed parking fender benders. Dr.Scaer suffered from chronic neck pain himself. He is the author of many papers.
http://www.traumasoma.com/excerpt3.html
Dr. Scaer studied tribal societies that have very choreographed and intense ceremonies where members release freely their emotions and do not suffer from trauma or chronic pain.

Dr. Candace Pert (a brilliant scientist that discovered the opiate receptor and that was robbed of a Nobel prize) wrote "Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Between Mind-Body Medicine". She wrote:

I’ve come to believe that virtually all illness, if not psychosomatic in foundation, has a definite psychosomatic component. Emotions and bodily sensations are intricately intertwined in a bidirectional network in which each can alter the other. Usually this process takes place at an unconscious level, but it can also surface into consciousness under certain conditions, or be brought into consciousness by intention

This Pert interview is a good introduction.

It is impossible to understand what happens in the implicit memory or amygdala. There are semi-intelligent processes that take place like the fight/flight/freeze response that is not always logical. The amygdala is also involved in sexual-arousal and that is not completely logical either. When and why the chronic pain is far from being understood. We do know that the fight/flight response is based on previously recorded emotions. Some speculate that chronic pain is a response from emotions badly processed because of trauma. Animals in the wild release trauma instinctively and physically. We don't. We just repress those feelings.

Have a look at the famous polar bear video releasing his emotions:

http://youtu.be/Vr7lsIXazp8?t=15m5s

If you look at the polar bear shaking in the video, you realize that there is a strong mind-body connection. The bear shakes physically to release an emotional trauma. Emotions create a body reaction. But we humans don't shake like this bear. Unconsciously we counteract the natural body reaction by freezing and tensing our muscles. We store that energy by being stiff. The tension stays in the body and creates pain.

In short you have to reconnect with a lifetime of repressed negative emotions. By definition they are repressed so you do not know what they are, you can only guess. What we are feeling on the surface is irrelevant. What is relevant is what we are NOT feeling and are repressing from our consciousness. We can be happy and fulfilled people but below the surface (and 100% unconsciously) we may be repressing our fear of aging or death for example.

The following video was a great source of inspiration for me and a good introduction to negative emotions as a culprit of chronic pain. The video is made by Dr. Eric B. Robins MD, a board certified urologist and surgeon that practices at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Torrance California. He is a believer in the mind-body connection and cured his own back pain.

Pay close attention to what Dr. Robins says

1. He suffered from debilitating back pain after joining a practice as a young doctor
2. He realized that the pain was not physical
3. He tried to use meditation to transcend the pain but was not successful
4. He had all along compulsive thoughts about his wife not being smart enough
5. He had an epiphany and realized that he was terrorized by the prospect of a divorce like his parents. Once he reconnected with that negative emotion (fear), he resolved his back pain.

It wasn't the stress of a new job (albeit stress probably started the pain cycle) but the real culprit was his fear of a divorce, (an unconscious negative and repressed emotion).

[ezer]

This is my How-to feeling emotions. That was my key to a pain free life.

Feeling our emotions is a way to release our repressed negative emotions. Those trapped unconscious negative emotions are what is keeping us in pain. We constantly repress our emotions as polite and well behaved human beings that have to interact socially.

1. Be mindful of any upset or conflicting human interaction during the day. Alternatively, if nothing comes up, find an upsetting or disturbing event in your past like during your childhood. A typical negative emotion would be for example to feel humiliated when you deliver a well prepared and rehearsed joke during a public speech that falls completely flat. Not a laughter in the audience. You will have to repress many negative emotions in a split second to move on with your speech and not show how badly it is affecting your self-esteem.
2. Once you notice an event, ask yourself what negative emotion you are feeling: ex. disrespected, ignored, lonely, depressed, frustrated, anxious, fidgety, powerless etc. In a further post below, I have a comprehensive list of negative emotions that may apply. For example in the case of your speech above, you may feel: humiliated disconcerted disturbed rattled surprised uncomfortable uneasy unsettled embarrassed ashamed flustered mortified self-conscious anguished hurt lonely miserable regretful depressed disappointed discouraged disheartened unhappy distressed distraught edgy fidgety frazzled jittery nervous overwhelmed restless stressed out helpless insecure shaky
3. Feel the emotion. DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT. Simply feel it. Feel the negative emotion and how it is affecting you. You should experience a body sensation. A shiver. A cold sensation. Or ultimately your pelvic floor should release.
4. Resist the urge to avoid the feeling. Your brain will do its best to make that experience stop. You will procrastinate. You will have something more important to do, you will want to do one more internet search etc. Persevere. To be with your emotions is not a comfortable experience. Be with the feeling and especially do not think. Thinking will simply re-traumatize you. Don't analyze. Be with the experience. Simply observe.
5. You are done. Go back to 1. Do it as much as possible.

Beware of false emotions like anger. Anger is a protection mechanism (sometimes called a secondary emotion) and you are repressing your emotions by being angry. We almost always feel something else first before we get angry. We might first feel afraid, attacked, disrespected, trapped, cornered, exposed etc. The emotions we are repressing and that you should work on are the ones above (afraid, attacked, disrespected, trapped, etc.) and not the anger itself.

The pitfall with mindbody healing is that you quickly start to look for the best therapy or best therapist and in fact avoid doing the psychological work that only you can do. It is a trick of the brain. It will distract you at all cost from delving into your emotions. Your brain has done a fantastic job at repressing those emotions for decades. It does not want you to start experiencing them now.

If you feel that it isn't going to work, then you're absolutely correct! It isn't going to work. You have to be 100% dedicated and not get discouraged by the lack of results initially. If you casually try it, it won't work. The way to stop the pain is not to try to stop the pain, but instead to concentrate on dealing with the emotional realm. The pain termination is a by-product, of your mental work, not the main goal.

In addition to your emotional work, you may want to keep your thoughts in check. Try not to go down negative lines of thinking. If you analyze your thoughts. They are negative for the most part (a survival instinct). You constantly go from the past to the future. Back and forth. The past makes you upset. The future makes you fearful. The present is usually okay.

Try as much as you can to stay in the present, paying attention to what you are doing now.

Watch this neat video of Eckhart Tolle on the subject:

Some good resources I found are from mind-body coaches that work with patients and are the following:

Monte Hueftle:
http://www.runningpain.com/important_tms_updates

Pay attention to the "Sitting with your Feeling or Emotions" paragraph.

I also recommend Abigail Steidley's free ebook "The Key to Your Healing Journey":
http://abigailsteidley.com/

Abigail suffered from CPPS and cured herself. Her target audience is women so you may or may not connect with her style.

What they wrote helped me clarify what it means to connect with emotions.
As a disclaimer, I have never contacted Monte or Abigail. I recovered completely by myself.

I am skeptical of the numerous structured mind-body programs (Schubiner, Schechter et al.). It is too constraining for my taste. Those programs are just a distraction in my opinion. Looking for the perfect program is your brain trying to avoid doing the work.

My recovery time with the mind-body technique was roughly a year. I had to quit my job. I was out of work for 5 years. I am back at work full time as I write this. I do not have any CPPS anymore. I sit as long as I want and travel internationally once again. I am an engineer by training and I was not open to the mind-body connection initially.

The pain is real. It is not in our *heads*. Our muscles spasm and squeeze nerves, but it is the brain that controls our muscles. By doing mind exercises, you can indeed release muscle tension. The key is to work on negative emotions that are stored in our implicit memory (sometimes called the reptilian brain and physically located in the amygdala) and bodies.

[ezer]

Following is a comprehensive list that may help you define your unresolved negative emotions:

AFRAID
apprehensive dread foreboding frightened mistrustful panicked scared suspicious terrified wary worried

ANNOYED
aggravated dismayed disgruntled displeased exasperated frustrated impatient irritated irked

ANGRY
enraged furious incensed indignant irate livid outraged resentful

AVERSION
animosity appalled contempt disgusted dislike hate horrified hostile repulsed

CONFUSED
ambivalent baffled bewildered dazed hesitant lost mystified perplexed puzzled torn

DISCONNECTED
alienated aloof apathetic bored cold detached distant distracted indifferent numb removed uninterested withdrawn

DISQUIET
agitated alarmed disconcerted disturbed perturbed rattled restless shocked startled surprised troubled turbulent turmoil uncomfortable uneasy unnerved unsettled upset

EMBARRASSED
ashamed chagrined flustered guilty mortified self-conscious

FATIGUE
beat burnt out depleted exhausted lethargic listless sleepy tired weary worn out

PAIN (MENTAL)
agony anguished bereaved devastated grief heartbroken hurt lonely miserable regretful remorseful

SAD
depressed despair despondent disappointed discouraged disheartened forlorn gloomy heavy hearted hopeless melancholic unhappy wretched

TENSE
anxious cranky distressed distraught edgy fidgety frazzled irritable jittery nervous overwhelmed restless stressed out

VULNERABLE
fragile guarded helpless insecure leery reserved sensitive shaky

YEARNING
envious jealous longing nostalgic wistful

[ezer]

Berceli's TRE (Trauma Release Exercise)

There is another approach that starts from the body to address pain and trauma. I would call it the shotgun approach. Berceli's TRE, is a body to mind approach.

David Berceli has an interesting book titled "The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process - Transcend Your Toughest Times," which uses a purely physical approach to resolving trauma.

Berceli outlines how our bodies become like records of our past, carrying our emotional baggage physically. Mammals like the bear above naturally tremor after trauma, but socialized humans learn to repress their emotions. Tremoring naturally shakes out negative energy after a traumatizing experience.

Berceli has had success with PTSD patients. He has worked with traumatized kids in Africa for example or with people in China after a devastating earthquake.

I used it and it helps. I have healed with "feeling emotions" so I did not pursue TRE but it is intriguing.

Have a look at his video:
http://traumaprevention.com/home-video/

The role of emotions as felt in the body is nothing new. People like Wilhelm Reich or Alexander Lowen had similar theories 80 years ago (In addition to Franz Alexander).

[ezer]

Finally I would like to post a short paragraph (under the "Fair Use" rule) from Eckhart Tolle's "Practicing the Power of NOW" It is an excellent read. The following paragraph is exactly what got me better but using different words. I think it is brilliant.

EMOTION: THE BODY'S REACTION TO YOUR MIND
September, 2001 by Eckhart Tolle

Mind, in the way I use the word, is not just thought. It includes your emotions as well as all unconscious mental-emotional reactive patterns. Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body's reaction to your mind — or you might say a reflection of your mind in the body.

The more you are identified with your thinking, your likes and dislikes, judgments and interpretations, which is to say the less present you are as the watching consciousness, the stronger the emotional energy charge will be, whether you are aware of it or not. If you cannot feel your emotions, if you are cut off from them, you will eventually experience them on a purely physical level, as a physical problem or symptom.

IF YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY FEELING YOUR EMOTIONS, start by focusing attention on the inner energy field of your body. Feel the body from within. This will also put you in touch with your emotions. If you really want to know your mind, the body will always give you a truthful reflection, so look at the emotion, or rather feel it in your body. If there is an apparent conflict between them, the thought will be the lie, the emotion will be the truth. Not the ultimate truth of who you are, but the relative truth of your state of mind at that time.

You may not yet be able to bring your unconscious mind activity into awareness as thoughts, but it will always be reflected in the body as an emotion, and of this you can become aware.

To watch an emotion in this way is basically the same as listening to or watching a thought, which I described earlier. The only difference is that, while a thought is in your head, an emotion has a strong physical component and so is primarily felt in the body. You can then allow the emotion to be there without being controlled by it. You no longer are the emotion; you are the watcher, the observing presence.

If you practice this, all that is unconscious in you will be brought into the light of consciousness.

MAKE IT A HABIT TO ASK YOURSELF: What's going on inside me at this moment? That question will point you in the right direction. But don't analyze, just watch. Focus your attention within. Feel the energy of the emotion. If there is no emotion present, take your attention more deeply into the inner energy field of your body. It is the doorway into Being.

[webslave]

Wow! Very valuable information here.

I invited Ezer to post this because there are some men who fail the Wise Anderson Protocol clinic, despite being clear candidates for the clinic and suffering classic CP/CPPS symptoms, and we need to know why this is so.

It may be that Ezer, by identifying a subset of sufferers who need deeper psychological work than the clinic can offer, has put his finger on the missing element.

I'll ask Dr Wise to review this information as well. Meanwhile, this is a great topic to explore....

[MajorSky1]

Thanks for all of this information. Makes perfect sense to me, and I've experienced it. Great stuff!

[johnnyblotter]

Something about this rings true for me as well.

I had a lot of physical trauma as a child concerning urination...for years it hurt me to pee due to a fall and a urethral stricture that didn't really resolve until three operations, the first when I was 12, the last when I was in my mid twenties. For years I thought I suffered from impotence. I had so much anxiety around sex for probably 20 years. In my mid thirties this all finally resolved and I learned that I had been fine the whole time. However between age 29-35 I suffered from quite a violent spell of bipolar disorder, where the manic phase was psychotic and destructive. I would literally walk down the street in the middle of the night tensing the muscles of my pelvis and my whole body and see how long I could walk in that almost robotic state. It was an extreme thing to be doing. But what could it be other than trying to somehow get rid of stored trauma or repressed energy? Later I discovered I actually have a naturally high sex drive. I didn't masturbate until I was 20. So perhaps it was something to do with trying to get some release which should have happened years earlier.

All of this manifested in a huge nosedive for those 5-6 years. I ended up in charity housing after being at my parents' house on and off. I picked myself up by teaching myself some web design and starting my own business which was successful enough to get me off of disability. I then overcompensated with working out, perhaps trying to catch up, and my old back issues went south, and I ended up having major back surgery.

So I suppose that now at 39 I'm kind of lucky in that the back surgery was successful, I'm in a good relationship, and I only have one major (although very stubborn) issue with the rectal tightness. I have to think this is connected to the type of disconnection with emotions that Ezer is talking about. For example my dad, who is a doctor, has an extremely dismissive and cavalier attitude about any of these issues. I haven't even really talked to him about this stuff except when I was miserable in a car ride sometime around age 30, and he was just like, well, whatever.

So the point is, there are a lot of issues that contain emotions that I'm not connecting with.

Conversely, my body has always somehow come back from these type of CPPS episodes, but currently it doesn't seem to be.

It's all very difficult to know what to do, but the original post really made me think.

[ezer]

Thanks Mark, Major, and Johnny.

The first time I managed to feel my emotions and experience my pelvic floor release was a very powerful moment. The fear of the pain suddenly vanished. I felt in control of my life. I was not done. Far from it but it finally clicked and made sense.

What people confuse are thoughts around an emotion and the emotion itself. An emotion is not an intellectual concept. It is purely experiential.

This is the definition of an emotion: An emotion is a mental reaction experienced as strong feeling and typically accompanied by physiological changes in the body.

Let me try to give an example that may help feel your emotions. Have you experienced fear of heights?

Imagine yourself next to a vertical cliff right now and looking down. It is windy. A step forward and you fall a 1000 ft. Close your eyes. Imagine the scene. You must feel something in your stomach? Right? Your shoulder must become tense. Do you experience dizziness? Vertigo? Are your hands getting sweaty? That's feeling an emotion. Do you Feel it? Feel your stomach. Feel your shoulders.

Your amygdala is incapable of distinguishing between an event that is imagined and the reality. The amygdala has no sense of time either. It reacts in both cases as if you had just been next to a cliff and not having imagined that situation. It is also why it is detrimental to keep having negative thoughts. The amygdala keeps reacting to those.

Another interesting tidbit: My CPPS will come back with a vengeance to this day if I take 10mg of Zolpidem (Ambien). 5mg is fine. We process our emotions during our sleep and especially during the REM phase.

The role of REM sleep in the processing of emotional memories: Evidence from behavior and event-related potentials
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2712001256

Common Sleep Aid, Ambien, Intensifies Emotional, Negative Memories By Traci Pedersen
http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/06/16 ... 56097.html

[johnnyblotter]

Hi all. I was going to post this within my own thread, but I feel maybe it's better suited to be posted here.

I've had a 180 degree turnaround for the better with this whole thing over the last three days and my thinking has completely changed.

After reading this thread from Ezer, at some point following I just decided that this was the right path and that the Sarno approach was the right approach.

I decided to go to a show with friends that I otherwise would have declined going to due to not feeling well. I just decided to ignore it and to "think psychologically". But whereas last time I tried Sarno before back surgery, this time I focused on issues where I felt hurt, insulted, upset, and specifically focused on actually recalling and feeling the emotion itself. Mostly they had to do with things my dad has said to me where I felt he was being very callous or obtuse and unwittingly hurtful.

That night I didn't feel great, but I felt ok. I enjoyed the show and had some fun with friends hanging out. I didn't take a valium either.

The next day I continued to focus on these encounters and inhabiting these emotions and feeling the feelings associated with them. All of the emotions, being upset, angry, hurt, frustrated, when you actually feel them, they're like some little shot of something, not exactly like adrenaline, but whatever little change happens, it created some absolutely unbelievable and amazing feeling huge releases of tension in my perineum. It wasn't exactly at the same time as when I felt these emotions, but sort of went in little joyful episodes during that day when I just thought about all these hurtful things that had happened to me that I had kind of buried or hadn't thought about in a while.

I stood in the grocery line and sat there in a state of complete joy as my perineum did this huge release that lasted for like a minute. It was like having a mild orgasm in my ass. At that moment I "got it" and realized I was 100% right and that Sarno was right and that unbelievably his direction on this was absolutely right.

I went home and started eating ice cream and sat there in a state of bliss like someone who'd just snorted a bunch of heroin or something. I just sat there with my face in the ice cream feeling so good I could barely believe it.

It was like whatever these emotional feelings were, whatever that little charge was, it inflated the deflated rubber tire in my ass, which then allowed it to all drop and drop and drop some more towards its natural place.

I have only read parts of a few of Sarno's books but I bet somewhere in his text he mentions that there is no reason for your pain to be there. And that's been the thing that's been firmly planted in mind since these amazing releases started happening...there's no reason for the pain to be there. There's just no reason for it.

This has only gone on for about three days and I am not calling it a spontaneous resolution of pain. Two days ago I had almost no pain. Today I woke up and went for my long walk to the coffee shop and felt a bit of that tightness again. So I started combing through my past and thinking about hurtful things that I'd experienced, again mostly to do with my dad (but other things as well). And then boom, again, a big wonderful release. And now I feel just maybe a little twinge of it.

I don't expect this to be totally over. But for me, the Wise Anderson protocol isn't the way. All my work from this point forward will be emotional and if I really have trouble I will contact a TMS therapist to try to deal with these emotional issues.

Another thing that had entered into my mind, and I know this is weird as hell, but I had been thinking I had to get in touch with my feminine side. And that my ass was like a vagina. And that a vagina should be relaxed. I know. Weird. Weird, weird, but perhaps it put my in touch with a more emotional part of myself. I can't really say for sure that that particular thinking had anything to do with it, but I'm mentioning it anyway.

Let me be really clear here: I've been doing the stretching, relaxation audio, external trigger point and internal trigger point therapy with a pretty mature, focused, and consistent approach, spending upwards of 2 hours a day on it.

I'm now giving that up and stopping all the stretches. I got more tension release in two days of "thinking psychologically" then I had in eight weeks of Wise Anderson and physical therapy. All those pelvic drops I had been doing constantly were absolutely nothing compared to the totally real releases I got "thinking psychologically".

So I count myself as someone for whom Sarno "clicked" and I had an epiphany and multiple huge, undeniable releases of tension. Distinct releases of tension that were both completely different than any small feeling of release I had doing Wise Anderson and 1000 times more satisfying.

A few other things that had entered my thinking while having this relief. First, I wasn't going to think about anything I was upset about that was related to the pain itself...ie, I wouldn't try to experience being mad at the opportunities I was missing because of the CPPS. I would only try to experience emotions outside of that.

The other thing I decided was to not masturbate. No reason other than to just kind of maintain focus on releasing tension.

This turnaround is now only 3 days old. I really hope the fact that I now feel this way and it's only been a short time doesn't make someone think this is "Sarno spam" as I've seen it called. I just feel something important and truthful happened to me with results that I couldn't even pretend to deny.

[johnnyblotter]

I hadn't actually read Ezer's numbered instructions...the 1 through 5 numbering above in his second post. I read most of all this post initially and just connected with the feeling of it. But his instructions are exactly what I've just started doing in the last three days...remembering all of these difficult, humiliating, embarrassing or otherwise emotional moments. Once I started getting these intensely pleasurable releases, I started just doing this again and again. I'd even go back to events I already thought about and just put myself in there and reconnect with the feeling that I had about it.

I wouldn't say I got the releases exactly when I was thinking about these things, but it seems the more I think about and feel these emotions, the more corresponding releases I get. So far they've happened within a few hours of thinking of these events.

Sometimes I've thought to myself, there aren't a whole lot more of these situations I can really think of. But then I realize that I've actually been through a whole bunch of fucked up stuff, and I start thinking and I uncover new things that I haven't thought about.

I'm absolutely amazed by all of this, to be honest.

Ezer... thank you for your posts...it really triggered a new direction for me. I would say right now I feel about 80% better in the span of three days. And I plan on continuing this emotional work for as long as it takes. Everything you've said here just totally clicks..looking for the best therapist, etc. When I made the decision to go out with my friends and not think about the pain and just think psychologically, something switched where I shifted the responsibility to myself. It's hard to explain because certainly doing stretching and trigger points means you're doing something, but at the same time it's more comfortable to sit home and do that than it is to go out and live in the moment despite the pain. I can't exactly explain this part other than at first it felt like taking the hard road, but then it's quickly become the much easier road.

Again I know it's only been three days, but I just cannot deny these unbelievable releases I'm getting. I just had another one sitting here lying on the bed that lasted for about a minute. Not all of the tension is gone, but a whole lot of it is gone!

Again, I'm amazed, relieved, and just plain happy right now. Thanks again Ezer for your posts!

[MajorSky1]

I'll be giving this a shot.
Thanks.

[johnnyblotter]

Yes! Go all in!

[johnnyblotter]

One thing I want to add is that having Valium has been like a great safety mechanism. It allowed me to go out and "live in the moment" but still have a backup in case I really felt terrible.

Valium for me makes my symptoms manageable to the point where I am ok to be out and about. If I wasn't able to have that ability to bring my discomfort below a certain threshold, I think this would be harder to do. It allowed me a bit more fearlessness.

Like webslave suggested, perhaps this type of approach is an alternative to people who don't do well with Wise Anderson. I certainly don't mean to discount Wise Anderson, obviously it has worked for many people, but for me, I just got the feeling that the Sarno approach was holding something that I'd missed and I just jumped on the bus and went with it.

[webslave]

Very interesting. I suspected that there was a missing element for some men. In my case, I was tense and stressed by overwork, but other men are in spasm due to deeper issues in their life history....