Rapid Recovery from Back and Neck PainIt all began with a simple case of back pain. Over time, due to improper diagnoses and inappropriate treatments, I developed pain in my neck, knees, elbows, and one shoulder, as well as pain and numbness in my legs, arms, and hands. I suffered gastritis due to my use of prescription and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications. I was constantly in pain and became severely disabled. At one point the pain was so severe that I was not able to stand or sit for more than fifteen minutes at a time, climb three steps, walk farther than one hundred yards, carry more than our pounds, lift a half-gallon milk container, or even write two lines.

My life became limited in ways that I had never imagined. I could not visit anyone and was reluctant to allow visitors. I had to stay away from work and was faced with serious questions about my career, my future, and my life, especially as a husband and father. All this - and I was only thirty years old.

I was seen by general practitioners as well as back specialists and even a nationally known orthopedic surgeon. Each one had his own diagnosis. I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the spine, degenerated discs, sprained back muscles, pinched nerve, herniated discs, leaky discs, and piriformis syndrome as possible causes for my back and leg pain. I was given a wide variety of different medications and treatments, some of which caused more pain and disability and made my condition worse.

Questions? Questions?

Early in this painful and often-frustrating ordeal, I discovered that the medical professionals themselves were baffled by back pain. Not only did they have difficulty making an accurate diagnosis and prescribing effective treatment, but they were incapable of providing satisfactory answers to my simplest questions about back pain:

To these and many other questions, which appeared simple enough for back specialists and experts to resolve, the responses were unconvincing answers, shrugged shoulders, or simply: “Well, that’s how back pain is!”

In the face of the medical community’s apparent ineptitude in treating back pain—and the fact that some of the treatments prescribed for me actually made my condition worse—I realized that I could no longer afford to be a passive patient. I began to take an active role in my diagnosis and treatment and tried to become an informed consumer, searching the available literature for a cure to my disabling condition—a condition so prevalent that it has become a national health problem. And these are some of the secrets I uncovered:

 

Even though these facts have appeared in some of the most authoritative and prestigious medical journals, you will not learn this crucial information from most specialists, inside or outside the medical profession. Indeed, these treatments are used so widely that you may be shocked to learn that they don’t work in the majority of cases!

The more I studied the medical journals and scientific literature, the more I came across such studies and the more I realized that what we really needed was an accurate diagnosis. Lack of a correct diagnosis was and is the number-one reason why this condition has become a major health problem.

In fact, according to one of the foremost authorities on the subject, Richard Deyo, M.D., “Up to 85% of back pain cannot be given a definitive diagnosis.” Clearly, without a definitive diagnosis, a cure cannot be expected. Once we have the correct diagnosis, the solution can be quite simple!

Finally, An Answer!

After months of searching and reading, I learned about the work of John Sarno, M.D., a professor of rehabilitative medicine at New York University, who was also trying to determine the correct diagnosis. He too was disappointed with the failure of common treatments and realized the need for a new understanding.

As he looked deeper into the medical histories of his patients, Dr. Sarno discovered something that is often neglected by medical professionals. He noticed that 88 percent of his patients had histories of disorders such as migraine headaches, colitis, stomach ulcers, hay fever, asthma, eczema, and, palpitations. These disorders were strongly suspected of being caused by chronic repressed anger, anxiety, worries, frustrations, stress, and tension. Dr. Sarno wondered whether, in the same way that chronic anger, anxiety, worries, and frustrations can cause physiological changes leading to these illnesses, back pain could also be a physical manifestation of negative emotions.

So he put this new diagnosis to work and began treating his patients accordingly. At first the majority of his patients felt there was not enough tension in their lives to cause their pain. Many of them believed that they were handling their teenage children, problems at work, and marital problems effectively. They didn’t realize that these difficult situations were creating a great deal of anger and rage internally, causing pain and/or numbness in various parts of their bodies.

Once Dr. Sarno treated his patients for this new diagnosis and not for some structural abnormality, his patients began to recover. In fact, almost 98 percent of them with confirmed cases of herniated discs recovered without surgery - certainly a much better result than the 1 percent success rate experienced with surgery.

I know what you might be thinking: “Not me!” That was exactly my response to the notion that tension and stress were causing my pain. Being a calm, positive person with a sense of humor who rarely gets angry or tense, I was quite skeptical about whether Dr. Sarno’s findings applied to me. It is well known that stress and tension can aggravate back pain and many other disorders. However, could repressed anger, rage, anxiety, worries, and frustrations be the actual cause of so much pain and disability? I figured I had nothing to lose by keeping an open mind and learning more. At the very least, maybe what I learned could help someone else.

As I learned more about Dr. Sarno’s explanation of the pattern of pain and why the pain moves around and becomes chronic, I found convincing answers to all my questions and more. I began to see why so many people under the age of fifty facing career and family responsibilities suffer from chronic pain; why, unlike a broken bone that heals, back pain becomes chronic and can last for years; why we do not see an epidemic of disabling back and leg pain among Olympic and professional athletes who put tremendous pressure on their spines; and why, because the mind/body connection is so often neglected, up to 85 percent of cases of back pain cannot be given a definitive diagnosis. Dr. Sarno’s explanation, of course, makes it clear why surgery and most treatments directed at correcting “spinal abnormalities” fail to help most people.

My Rapid Recovery

With this new understanding, I combined his treatment program with my knowledge of psychology and many years of personal experience with the workings of the mind to design an effective nine-step rapid recovery plan. This plan enabled me to begin my journey toward a pain-free and able life immediately. Employing techniques used by Olympic athletes and high achievers, I began to reverse the physiological changes that caused the chronic pain.

My improvements could be seen daily and astonished those who knew how disabled I had been. Within the first four days of my recovery, I was able to stand, bend, sit, and sleep comfortably. I was also able to walk without a limp, climb stairs, wear a tie, exercise on a cross-country ski machine, and swim. The climax of my recovery was when, less than two weeks later, I was able to carry both of my children, each weighing over forty pounds. This I had not been able to do for over two years due to pain in my back, legs, knees, and arms. It felt wonderful. And one month later I began taking karate lessons.

But there was more. I had suffered from hay fever for seventeen years and had taken antihistamines to control my sneezing and itchy, watery eyes. However, with my new understanding that hay fever is one of the many disorders caused by tension, by using the strategies in my nine-step recovery plan I was able to eliminate it quickly.

Then, during a routine eye exam, the ophthalmologist told me that my eyes were fine and I no longer needed the reading glasses I had been wearing for the past fourteen years! I was so surprised that I sought a second opinion. The second ophthalmologist confirmed the diagnosis. I discovered that tension played a key role here too. In fact, decades ago, noted ophthalmologist Dr. William Bates recognized the relationship between tension and nearsightedness and other changes in the eye refraction. He designed a program for reversing the effects of tension on the eyes and eliminating the need for glasses.

Needless to say, at times I was amazed and overwhelmed by these improvements in my health in such a short time. I was so excited about my discovery that I began sharing it with everyone I knew—and they began to get well! In order to reach more people, I taught seminars and workshops and explained my system in my book, Rapid Recovery from Back and Neck Pain: A Nine-Step Recovery Plan. My hope was to help at least one more person live free of pain and disability. By the grace of God, since the publication of my book I have received e-mails from as far away as Australia and New Zealand from readers who have also recovered by reading my story and applying my rapid recovery plan. To read their stories, please visit the testimonials section.

So what were the causes of anger and tension in my life, which were the real causes of my pain? They had to do with my marriage and my parents. They were nothing out of the ordinary. We all experience problems and tensions in our relationships with our parents, spouses, children, friends, and co-workers; what is important is to realize the limitations in our capacity to please others and to cope with chronic anger and stress.

The Road to Wellness

It is vital to understand that, as calm and in control as we might appear on a conscious level, there is a part of us all deep within, on the subconscious level that may resent certain aspects of a relationship or a situation, be it at home, school, or work. Unless those troubling issues are resolved through mutual respect and good communication, or through positive changes in our circumstances, it is quite natural to expect physical manifestations of the repressed anger, anxiety, and tension in the form of bodily aches and pains, or other disorders.

I have to admit I was quite surprised at how easily I could resolve the issues that were the sources of my chronic anger and anxiety. I have dedicated Chapter Seven of my book, titled “The Road to Wellness,” to discussing empowering concepts and strategies that have helped me stay pain-free and healthy. You will find nine steps for establishing good communication and resolving conflicts with your loved ones and others, eleven strategies for coping with stress and tension, four steps for immediately improving a marriage, and a three-step plan for raising well-disciplined, goal-oriented children with high self-esteem. These techniques have resolved the issues that were chronic sources of anger, anxiety, frustration, and tension in my life and have made me much happier and healthier. I believe they can do the same for you.

Not Just Back Pain!

According to Dr. John Sarno and some of my own observations, the following is a partial list of other conditions that can be caused by repressed anger, often misdiagnosed, and can be helped or healed by the Nine-Step Rapid Recovery Plan:

Head, face, and mouth: dizziness, ringing in the ear (tinnitus), migraine headaches, Tempromandibular joint syndrome (TMJ), teeth grinding, canker sores, Bell’s palsy, trigeminal neuralgia, Raynaud’s phenomenon, spasmodic dysphonia

Back, hip, and leg: Degenerative osteoarthritis, sciatica, pinched nerve, spinal stenosis, scoliosis, ruptured or herniated disc, spondylolisthesis, the pryformis syndrome, osteoarthritis of the hip, spina bifida occulta, pulled hamstring, ondylolysis, fibromyalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, myofacial pain syndrome, post-polio syndrome, facet syndrome

Neck, shoulder, arm, and hand: osteoarthritis, pinched nerve, thoracic outlet syndrome (TOC), repetitive stress injury (RSI), whiplash, carpal tunnel syndrome, bursitis, tennis elbow, torn rotator cuff

Cardiopulmonary system: asthma, sinusitis, hay fever, palpitations, some types of high blood pressure, chronic bronchitis, tachycardia, mitral valve prolapse (heart murmur), ectopic heartbeat

Skin: rash, acne, hives, psoriasis

Gastrointestinal system: colitis, heartburn, hiatal hernia, spastic colon, irritable bowel syndrome, cramps and chronic diarrhea not caused by an infection, chronic constipation

Genitourinary system: prostatitis, frequent urination, frequent urinary tract infections

Knees and feet: tendonitis, chondromalacia patella, torn meniscus, bone spurs, neuroma, plantar fasciitis, leg cramps, metatarsalgia, shin splints

Immune system: repeated colds and infections, yeast infections, Epstein-Barr virus (mononucleosis), hay fever

Other manifestations of repressed anger may be:

I hope what you read here was helpful to you. Remember that you play an important role in reclaiming your health and your life. So become an active participant in your diagnosis and treatment and do not give up. Never, ever, give up!

Stay informed. Stay well.

Fred Amir