CENT Paper No.17:
Counselling for Chronic Pain - How Tim Parks' journey can help us to heal
An extended essay review of Tim Parks' book, Teach Us to Sit Still: A sceptic's search
for health and healing
Copyright (c) Jim Byrne,
2011
Introduction
If you are suffering
from chronic pain, or any chronic medical condition which could be stress related, you might find this web page helpful.
It explores one man's journey from chronic pain towards self healing. That journey is shared with the world in the form of
an excellent book by Tim Parks.
By way of introduction, here is an extract from a review (at Amazon
dot com) of Tim Parks' book, Teach Us to Sit Still: A sceptic's search for health and healing. London: Harvill Secker
/ Random House. 2010.
"Teach Us To Sit Still will be of great interest
to anyone with a chronic medical condition which the doctors seem unable to cure, but also to anyone who is concerned about
work/life balance and the long-term effects of ignoring the body's needs. I can't say I'm in either of those categories but
I still found it a fascinating read. But the book is not only about pain and a quest for healing, for Tim, being the writer
and scholar that he is, digresses frequently into philosophical and literary themes which break up the stark accounts of medical
processes."
"Tim Parks developed a set of problems in the region of prostate, groin
and pelvis which had a devastating effect on his life. The first part of the book describes the medical explorations which
he had to undergo in order to seek a diagnosis." They were unpleasant, painful and unproductive.
The story begins with Tim's embarrassing and painful problem with peeing, which causes him to have to get up six
or eight times every night, and to make frequent, inconvenient and painful visits to the toilet during the day. He was
also in so much (increasing) physical pain that he could no longer sit down at the computer, but had to stand. He could
no longer make love to his wife, because of the pain and discomfort. They slept further apart, and they did not talk
about his condition anymore. The pain was miserable.
Medical diagnoses suggested the possibility
of problems with an enlarged prostate, or even cancer of the bladder. Neither of these diagnoses could be supported
by medical testing, including radioisotope x-rays. Nevertheless, the medical profession (in Italy and Harley Street,
London) could not offer him any solution other than surgery. The surgery might have serious side effects, such as impotence
and/or incontinence; and the pain might well remain after the surgical procedures had been completed.
Part of the difficulty for Tim was this: His father had been an Anglican vicar, and his mother a devout Christian.
Tim had rejected Christianity at the age of fourteen years, and veered towards the agnosticism of modern literature and the
claims of modern science. Nevertheless, because of his own researches on the internet, he was more and more forced to
the conclusion that modern medicine did not know what it was talking about when it came to chronic abdominal pain and bladder
problems.
He had given the medical profession the benefit of the doubt, and they had not been
convincing. All the same, the surgeon he was consulting still thought Tim should have the surgery (which "might help").
Tim, being more sensible than the surgeon, and having done his homework on the internet, eventually decided not to proceed
with surgery as a solution. He had collected lots of online statements which suggested that those surgical procedures
had lots of victims out there complaining about the pointlessness of surgical procedures which do not deliver a cure of the
illness for which they are touted as a solution!
A third review at Amazon says this: "(Tim
Parks' book) is a fascinating exploration of personality, a journey through the limitations of modern medicine, an unravelling
of the impact of troubles in life and a lesson in how to come to terms with oneself. All told with humour and intelligent
asides..." (Cathy W.) The limitations of modern medicine are well known to me, after thirty-four years of suffering
from Candida Albicans, without any sign of a viable medical treatment.
Renata (my wife) got Tim's
book from Halifax Central Library (because she is constantly looking for research ideas that might help me), and I dipped
into it. I was busy, preoccupied, and thought I might spend five minutes on it and then hand it back. However,
I was immediately hooked. As soon as I began to read this book, I realised that I wanted to take notes, and to make
those notes available online, for the benefit of chronic pain sufferers - for I believe that what Tim explores and explains
is relevant to all forms of chronic pain, and not just to his particular problem (of pelvic or abdominal pain).
Apart from the therapeutic value of this book, it is also a beautiful piece of literature; a combination of the drama
of a psychological thriller and the deep richness of an artistic autobiography. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
My first notes
The first note that I took from Tim's book was this:
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