Question
Dear Dr. Gold--I have been searching for five YEARS for the answer to my chronic back pain.   I'm 43 years old.  Six different times in the past five years, I've been hospitalized with an acute back spasm.  (It feels like a Charlie horse in your calf, but it's in the middle of my back, left side.)  When it happens, I can't even walk one step.  I'm usually in the hospital for a week, and physical therapy for months, until my insurance says I can't go anymore.   After each time, it does get so it's not so acute, but the tightness and pain never go away.  Every day, the muscle gets tighter and tighter as the day goes on.   By about 3:00, I have to force myself to stand up.  My muscles are like a board.  Every doctor I've seen says it's the worst case of chronic muscle spasm they've ever seen.  I can't stand in one place more than about five minutes.  I can't sit through a whole football game.  I gave up golf a long time ago.  I can't pick up my grandchildren.  And worse than anything, I've gained 50 pounds because I can't workout.  When this happened, I was 5' 6", weighed 120 pounds and worked out two hours a day.  Now I'm 5' 6" and weigh 175.  I can walk and even lift some weights in the mornings (when I feel better), but when I do, I pay for it immensely.  I do stretching exercises every day, but nothing helps.  I've done tens units, epidurals, trigger point shots, stretches, massage therapy, pain killers, muscle relaxants, and even neurontin for my nerves.  Next week I'm getting a CAT scan to see if this is referred pain.   I've had MRI's and it's completley in the muscle.  Any ideas?   And should I stop exercising?  The ONLY thing that relieves the pain is lying down.  I can be a 9 on the pain scale, and it'll go to a 4 by just lying down.  Thank you for reading this long and desperate note.  If you have ANY ideas, no matter how "alternative," I will listen.  I want my life back.

Hurting in Nebraska

Answer
Dear Lori,

The key to ending muscle spasms is to learn better control of the involved muscles.  Muscles contract and relax; by so doing, they control posture and movement.  The key:  understanding the function of the involved muscles and mastering it.

Somatic training facilitates exactly such learning and control.  I invite you to read the relevant articles at somatics.com/page4.htm.

This is an approach that works.

To work with a practitioner would be fastest (a few sessions, at most, once a week).  The program, Free Yourself from Back Pain, is for people who can't get to (or afford) a practitioner.  (Free preview by sending email to [email protected].)  

Let me hear from you.

Lawrence Gold