Back Pain - No longer living in fear

‘I had suffered from headaches a lot previously, but the back pain that jumped into my life with no warning was brand new.

‘It started gradually in 2015 and got progressively worse until I couldn’t go a day without serious pain medication and a lot of rest. It screamed at me like an alarm bell ringing constantly around my mind.

‘As you can imagine, my mental health suffered greatly. The more fear I had and the more despair I felt, the worse the symptoms got – which totally makes sense, now that I understand what was happening to me.

‘Purely by chance, one day I noticed someone posting about their back pain on Facebook, and a friend had commented about a book called “Healing Back Pain” by Dr John Sarno. I was thoroughly skeptical at the time, but I was also utterly desperate and willing to try anything.

‘By not addressing my feelings properly, and therefore not allowing myself to process traumatic events or threatening scenarios in my life, I was literally toxifying my body with an immense amount of stress. As a result, a number of physical symptoms had shown up throughout my life.

‘Journaling peeled back all the layers of protection I had built up around myself for years and allowed me to just sit with my real self.

‘The recovery timeline is very different for everyone, but after about two months of consistent practice and more learning along the way, I started to have pain-free days – whole days!

‘Then the days turned into weeks and, to cut a long story short, here I am today, completely chronic pain-free, anxiety-free (for the most part!)

‘I’m no longer living in fear of my body, convinced that something is broken.’

Daniella