Chronic Pain Relief

Have you ever noticed that musicians are more likely to have repetitive stress injuries?  Of course you have.  But are you sure that the cause is actually overuse? 

What about headaches, back aches, neck aches, abdominal pain, fibromyalgia and TMJ pain?  Do musicians have more than their share of these as well?

Consider the situation of Jill, a 35 year old cellist who suffered from chronic and recurring wrist pain that for year she attributed to overuse.   Here is her story in her own words:

 
”I have been an active freelancer in a major city for years. Since graduate school days, I have played in many orchestras and chamber groups, driven long distances, taught in various schools, and presented at conferences.Like many of us, I had lived with various aches and pains for years. One fall, preparing for some particularly demanding concerts, my whole upper body seemed to just shut down. I experienced overwhelming fatigue, pain, and various other symptoms. Somehow I kept performing through the 3 month wait for appointments, tests, and results. I was horrified when the specialist told me in all of 5 minutes that I needed 3 surgeries.

I was incensed at his bluntness and his unwillingness to come up with anything more than that. I made up my mind then and there that I would find my own way out of this, and consider surgery the absolute last resort.

For the next several years I went from one medical professional to the next, with discouraging results. I did exactly as I was told, paying large sums of money to see people not covered on my insurance, and yet nothing was improving. Playing caused symptoms - sometimes predictably and other times with no recognizable cause. I was also unable to do many other things I loved to do. I became very discouraged and ready to give up.
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MBS Blog –  #9 Mindfulness Meditation

I have been a devoted and passionate teacher of mindfulness meditation for about 15 years.  Many people have misconceptions about meditation.  The most common misperception is that meditation is about relaxing.  Of course, meditation may be relaxing at times, but not always and the intent is not relaxation, but obtaining a better understanding of yourself, and learning to respond to body sensations and thoughts/emotions more deliberately, and learning to live fully in the moments of our lives.  Mindfulness meditation is a form of meditation that asks people to simply pay very close attention to the here and now, to the present moment, to what is happening right now, whatever that may be.  One of the great things about mindfulness is that one can practice it at any moment, no mater what you are doing or what is going on.  That makes it quite useful as a way to cope with the ups and downs of life.

The reason to learn mindfulness meditation techniques for people with Mind Body syndrome is that it can help a great deal in learning to live fully in the present and to learn to let go of some of the things that tend to perpetuate MBS, such as fear, anxiety, sadness, issues from the past, or worries about the future. 

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MBS Blog #4 – Psychological aspects of MBS

I have discussed the relationship between the mind and the body in prior blogs.  Briefly, it is important to realize that they are essentially one, i.e. there is no separation between the mind and body in the sense that physical stimuli (e.g. an injury) immediately produce changes in our minds (emotions, reactions, etc.) and emotional stimuli (e.g. a scare, a verbal criticism, etc.) immediately produce physical reactions.  The relationship between the mind and the body are immediate for survival.  It would take too long for thought processes to engage prior to reacting if we happen upon an angry bear.  Our survival instincts of an immediate reaction (running, freezing, etc.) are much quicker.  William James, the father of psychology, noted that it is not true that first, you see a bear, then your feel fear, and then you run.  He reasoned (and we now know he was correct) that you actually see a bear, then you run, and then you feel fear. 

Our minds and bodies are constructed (through the process of evolution) to maximize survival.  When an animal is frightened, it immediately goes into one of the survival reactions: fight, flight, freeze, or submit (play dead).  When we get overwhelmed in our life, our body will react in a way that is designed to help us out of the situation.  For example, I saw a woman who had a very difficult childhood with neglect and abuse.  Her reaction to this was to look for love and attention whenever and wherever she could find it.  She grew up and always attempted to appease others and tended to neglect her own needs.  Like many people with MBS, she had a very strong dose of the “shoulds” (as Dr. Sarno often refers to Freud’s superego or conscience).  As her life became more complicated and busy, she tried to do more and more for everyone else.  Finally, her body reacted by giving her severe migraine headaches and fatigue.  These reactions were her body’s way of trying to protect her, i.e. forcing her to rest, to lie down, to stop doing so much for everyone else and to do something for herself.  Unfortunately, she there was a great cost to this response, i.e. severe pain and fatigue.  I believe it is useful to view the body in this way, as trying to help us, to protect us, rather than as betraying us, which is a common thought that many people with MBS have. 

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