The Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs, LCSW

When Jonah Primo, host of the in-app podcast Work in Progress on the WAKING UP app contacted us, Lisa and I were elated. We are long time fans of WAKING UP and its founder, neuroscientist Sam Harris, and we were enthusiastic about sharing space with such a like-minded person. But that was just the beginning. Jonah's own pain story was stunning, and we quickly jumped on the chance to have...

Bri really went through it. Her myriad TMS symptoms cascaded into panic attacks so severe that she had to put her entire life on hold (including her marriage), take her kids, and move in with her mother to be taken care of. This is not an unusual story. As I always remind you, although TMS is completely curable with my methods, the pain IS NOT in your head. You are not dramatic, overly sensitive, or making it up. Bri...

The way I found Manon (and she found me!) is nothing short of amazing. After suffering with persistent headaches for weeks on end, Manon was at a breaking point. Although she was relieved that the expensive brain scan had come back negative, the panic and suffering the headaches brought was too much for her to bear. Manon was not sure she could go on living. Typing "chronic pain" into her podcast search, she came acr...

Each month, Lisa and I run a Boot Camp for our BreakAwake members. We jump onto our private online community and ask, "What is everybody interested in learning more about?" And they weigh in. We take everyone’s questions and show up LIVE once a month where we can be together and tackle the most important topics that span the healing journey. Today on the pod, we share with you one of those sessions. The topic: on...

Dr. Yonit Arthur is an audiologist who is helping people climb out of their chronic tinnitus, vestibular migraine, vertigo, and other related conditions by sharing a message that you have come to know well: NOTHING IS STRUCTURALLY WRONG WITH YOU. This is not to say that she isn't totally empathic and kind in her communication. It is just to say that, like me, she is frustrated with the medical model and the way patients ar...

Scotty's symptom list is so long I'm not sure I can remember it all to include here, but let's give it a try: back, neck, foot, leg, arm, wrist pain, "tennis elbow," pelvic and groin pain, anxiety, panic, depression, dissociation, tooth sensitivity, burning mouth, and post viral infection symptoms. When you listen, you'll hear the whole thing from his mouth! It may sound unusual, but often in the rearview mirror we end up ...

When symptoms move through me, the first place I want to discuss it is here on this podcast. This week I have had some pain, and my JournalSpeak revealed some interesting patterns in my life that it may be time to challenge. I have always had an innate desire to control things, people, situations... am I alone? When I am unable to do so, sometimes my body clocks the danger. Yet, when I reflect on these impulses, I hav...

One day, seemingly out of nowhere, Louise began to feel unwell in her body. An inner uneasiness gave way to tremors and crushing fatigue, and her life devolved into living in her bed. For over eight years, bed bound, Louise struggled to figure out what was wrong with her, seeing countless doctors and specialists and being diagnosed with things like POTS, CFS/ME, fibromyalgia, and chronic vestibular migraine. It wasn’t unti...

Sometimes I have a free hour or two, and my favorite activity is to put in my AirPods, listen to a podcast, and walk. It feels so free and renewing, and sometimes it's where I come up with my best ideas for this podcast. Recently, I was listening to This American Life, Suddenly! A Mirror! and a story in it made me think - how many of us are living our lives defined by past experiences that have encoded us with SHAME? Too m...

Lisa and I found ourselves talking about a frequently asked question in our communities: Won’t thinking about my dark stuff make me worse? This is a typical fear of many people endeavoring TMS work. I have such empathy for the perceived quandary - it makes sense that paying attention to seemingly negative content might make it grow. Yet, we both know this is the opposite of truth. Then Lisa suggested a juxtaposition: let’s...

A lot of people in our communities talk about the difficulty of the “messy middle” - when you are no longer asleep and unaware that your symptoms are TMS, you are doing the work and carrying on, but you’re also challenged daily by the feeling that this is a lot to handle. Jamie, an OMEGA alum, has also been a member of our Heal With Nicole community, and honors the role of connection and friendship in navigating this messy...

It's so easy to get caught up in the "physical" when you are stricken with chronic pain out of nowhere. This is exactly what happened to Adam. Otherwise healthy for his whole life, Adam began having severe pelvic and back pain, and spent years in the frustrating cycle of specialists and failed treatments. In retrospect, Adam can see so many things in his life that he was unconsciously avoiding, key among them facing his so...

COME TO OMEGA

Producer: Lisa Eisenpresser

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Sometimes it's helpful to hear a specific story about a specific symptom to feel secure that this work will help you. I have been hearing a lot about hives and anxiety lately, and a good friend had a transformative experience that led me to share not only her story today, but mine as well. Although many chronic symptoms come from the same place - a dysregulated nervous system - hearing about how certain conditions cle...

Lindsay and Catherine arrived at our OMEGA retreat last summer as total strangers. They left as friends, and have become soul sisters. They carry a message of unlikely friendship (over 30 years apart in age), unexpected connection and support, and recovery fueled on shared stories and best practices. We discuss their journeys from Long Covid, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, and so much more. If there's ever been an...

Agnes' first symptom was years of back pain after a horseback riding incident. It was then that she stumbled upon this podcast, but she was not yet ready to embrace the paradigm of MindBody medicine. Then came the most unsettling diagnosis - Dry Eye. It may sounds innocuous, but Agnes was in 24 hour pain and discomfort. She could no longer wear the contact lenses she had used without incident for eighteen years, and she wa...

When we hear about "flares" in the chronic pain community, they are decidedly viewed as bad. They are feared, judged, dreaded. But what if we redefined flare in the same way we are redefining what it means to be "sick" or "broken" or "hopeless?" What if we challenged the definition of everything that is no longer serving us to make room for a greater perspective? That's what we are doing together today. Join me for a inter...

Alex spent years having no idea that her chronic anxiety, depression, pelvic pain, foot pain, bloating, and more were connected and all coming from the same place - Nervous System dysregulation. So many of us walk the same path. As challenging as it is to be in the dark about such things, it's equally enlightening to wake up to what is really going on - and euphoric when you can do the work to rid yourself of all chronic s...

So often we hear the story of, "a lifetime of TMS," and Tanja is no exception. As the symptom imperative bounced around her body, she went from doctor to doctor, desperate for a solution. When, finally, she found herself at rock bottom and truly worried for her mental health, she opened to the possibilities that this work invites. It's simple, but it's not easy. Tanja put in the time and effort, and stuck with it. Today, s...