All Forums  TMSHelp  TMSHelp General Forum  Graduation...and symptom substitution...ahhhhhh...

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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by lobstershack[/i] [br]Howdy, So as of Friday I am a COLLEGE GRADUATE! The ceremony itself was wonderful, save for the freezing cold weather. I'm just so proud of myself! Even though I didn't happen upon TMS until late last year, I was able, despite myriad symptoms and pains, to make it through all four years (with astonishing grades to boot!). I was doing remarkably well about two weeks ago, and then, a day or two before graduation I started to slump again (perfect timing, right?). In addition to the stomach aches I had been getting on top of the chronic headaches, yesterday I had pain on the right side of my back (behind the rib cage). My mood has been a bit down as well (which always accompanies this sort of thing I've noticed). My first instinct was to blame the fact that I'm SLOWLY tapering down on one of my medications (Lexapro). I was on 50mg, which is high, and I'm trying to get down to 20mg (this all due to a study that was published noting that anything above 20 is essentially moot). Currently I'm at 35 and will stay there for at least a month before I go down to 30 (like I said, I'm taking this very, very slowly). Now, I have never ever had any sort of back pain before, but I am pretty certain that it is TMS symptom substitution; which, in my opinion, is a good sign. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm so excited that I'm at the point where I'm able to handle this transition. In the past I probably would have been freaking out and obsessing over the connection between the medication and my symptoms (as I did many a time in the past). Boy am I babbling. My point is that the way I feel now (although I'm starting to come out of it) is no different from previous "slumps" and therefore is probably just my mind trying to blame my symptoms on anything that isn't emotional. Also, yesterday I developed out of nowhere a pain in the right side of my back (behind the rib cage is the best way to describe it). Now, I have never ever had any sort of back pain in my life, and although it is better today, it must be symptom substitution; which, is probably a good sign when coupled with how well I was doing before. I'm reading the Tao of Pooh now as per the request of someone on this board (I forgot who). But are there any other books up for recommendation? So far I've tackled, Carson (Taming the Gremlin), Weekes (Peace from nervous suffering), Kabit-Zinn (Full Catastrophe Living), and Hay (You can heal your life). I must say, all of these works have been instumental in my recovery and I strongly encourage anyone that is struggling to read one or all of them. They're great for learning new techniques and perspectives and also for support in between therapy sessions and board-checking. Well, that's all for now. I'm off for a run. Be well! Seth [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.