Complex Regional Pain Syndrome : Your Path To Healing

Do you avoid conflict at all costs? Conform to the expectations of others? Worry about the needs and preferences of others above your own? Are you over accommodating or adaptive for fear of ruffling feathers? Have trouble asserting yourself or setting boundaries? Do you have difficulty saying “No” or disagreeing with others? Do you chastise…

Occasionally, I get questions from the readers about past emotional trauma and benefits of digging into the traumatic past. Often people find that facing their painful past causes them even more pain, and they choose to shut the door on it again, thus pushing their emotional pain out of their conscious mind and finding themselves…

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I always loved this line in the poem by Dylan Thomas…a battle cry of defiance and the refusal to settle. The truth was, that if it were not for my own odyssey into chronic pain, I may never have…

When I first learned about mind-body healing, it immediately made sense to me. But I did not know how and where to start. After about a month of trying my pain was still raging through my body, and I got very upset. Upset with myself, because I read in the Dr. Sarno’s book about all…

A recent experience at the ophthalmologist spurred me to examine the idea of the label and our society’s seeming obsession with labels. Since the time I was little, nothing makes me more squeamish than eyeballs. Every trip to the eye dr. would begin with my nervous laughter and ensuing vasovagal reaction, instructions to put my…

I remember very clearly the time when my CRPS was at the peak. I wanted to stop the pain right then, instantly. I would have given a lot for the chance to get that magic pill that would put the end to the relentless neuropathic pain that was present constantly, day or night, the worst…

CRPS is labeled as COMPLEX for a reason.  The sheer variety of symptoms that fall under the definition of CRPS can be overwhelming. They may appear in hands, or feet, or spread to the entire body. Often,  people have some initial diagnosis that is different from CRPS, and it would be specific to a hand,…

In my book Defying The Verdict, I write about my experience with the CRPS forums. I was new to the CRPS world and was looking for the support and encouragement in fighting the disease. Instead, I found a community of people completely absorbed by their illness, for whom their illness became their identity, something that made…

Like the colorfully paved board game, Chutes and Ladders, the TMS journey is one filled with corrective experiences and necessary setbacks. While Candy Land, Clue, and Life, satisfy my inner 70’s child more, Chutes and Ladders has more practical application in the pain reprocessing domain of the mind body framework. The phrase “back to square one” actually hails from this…