| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| TMessedUp |
Posted - 10/26/2006 : 09:27:36
It seems like there are so many of us for whom TMS doesn't kick in until we're in our early/mid 20's. I've been wondering why this might be, so I did a little digging. Here's what I found so far:
Brain circuitry and development doesn’t reach full maturity on average until the early to mid-twenties. Some brain researchers estimate that the brain matures at 20-21. Others estimate that it is closer to 25-26.
These are the ages at which you are making career and relationship decisions that will impact the rest of your life. And yet you may not be fully equipped to manage your impulses and make good long-term choices until your brain reaches maturity—perhaps as late as 26 years old.
While as a teen or young adult you may appear to be mature and have advanced intellectual and reasoning ability, the link between your seat of judgment and problem-solving (frontal lobe) and the emotional center of your brain is the last connection to be fully established. This link is crucial to emotional learning and self-regulation.
Any thoughts about this? |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Tunza |
Posted - 10/29/2006 : 12:15:59
From 8 years old until my teens I had phobias and panic attacks then when they came right I had anorexia then a relative break from it all except mild social phobia then in my 20's the pain began.
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| Shadytalks |
Posted - 10/29/2006 : 09:31:43
I had frequent upset stomachs and severe insomnia as a child. In my teens, the migraines started and became worse during college. But as far as symptoms that brought my life to a screeching halt, those started in my mid-20s.
Shady in Idaho |
| miehnesor |
Posted - 10/28/2006 : 23:02:31
Certainly while the stressors of adult life and the personality traits of perfectionist and goodism pile on more rage necessitating symptoms, I believe there is another reason why the symptoms kick in later for a lot of folks me included.
The repressed emotion pushes its way towards consciousness to become integrated and resolved. The closer it gets the more scared the parent part of our unconscious gets and symptoms kick in to maintain the repression. |
| carbar |
Posted - 10/28/2006 : 15:05:58
I used to get headaches in the first grade that were so bad that my mom had my eyes checked and I would take tylenol. I don't really remember emotional stress at that point, though. I do remember feeling stressed about standardized testing, though, which our school started in the 1st grade. :P
Later around age 10, when my grandprents were very sick and dying, is when I developed depression that lingered for most of adolescence. Also, I remember a friend had a heart problem, I used to feel chest pains until I went to the doctor to get it checked out. After that, the pains stopped. So, i guess I've always been suggestable to maladies...
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| Wavy Soul |
Posted - 10/28/2006 : 13:24:39
Yes, I had TMS during childhood (as I now realize) and I had lots of emotional stress from my parents' break-up (which should have come much earlier than it did).
I remember going to school as a very young child with antacids in my pocket.
xx
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
| Littlebird |
Posted - 10/26/2006 : 14:28:24
In my case there was a lot of stress in childhood, but I didn't develop pain or other physical symptoms then. I did develop anxiety and depression in my pre-teens, which grew worse as I got older.
I definitely can link the development of physical symptoms to relationship and career decisions made in my late teens to early 20's, when I was quite clueless about what the choices I was making would mean for my life. I believe that part of the reason I had difficulty with those choices was my immature brain and part of the reason was that my parents were not offering helpful guidance and were the source of a lot of the ongoing stress that had started in childhood. I didn't see my family members making good choices, so I didn't have good examples to learn from.
There's a neuropsychiatrist who says that dysfuntional lifestyles are both genetic and learned. If our parents have brain function problems, we may inherit that, and because of their brain function problems, we'll grow up with a dysfunctional lifestyle and may live the same way because that's what we learned. I sometimes wonder how many of us with TMS grew up in homes that were dysfunctional. I know it's not the only source of the stress and anger that lead to TMS, as some here have mentioned having normal backgrounds, but I do have several friends who've been dx with fibromyalgia and all came from really dysfunctional backgrounds.
I think it's true, up to a point, that life does get more stressful, especially once we start a family, because we've got more obligations and are dealing with not just our own choices but are also affected by the choices of our family members. But I believe that how well our brain functions also plays a role in just how stressful things will become, because of the link between brain function and the ability to make wise decisions.
My six step-children have all struggled in life, except for the oldest one, making bad choices despite my efforts to help them reason on their choices, and some of them have definite signs of TMS. My only bio child is now 20 and has been willing to listen to my advice, partly because of what he's seen both me and his siblings go through, partly because he's had an interest in brain function and reads some of the information I pass along, and I think partly because I'm an older and better parent than I was when the other kids were his age.
My kids all inherited some degree of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from my husband (and with my bio son, possibly from my side too, but I don't have it--my stepchildren's bio mom had it), so I've read about that and learned that some people with AD/HD don't develop full brain maturity until about 35, which may explain why some of my grown kids still seem to think like teenagers. The ones who are least mature in their decision making are the ones who appear to have TMS. I'm also beginning to think that my husband's pain and fatigue, which have contributed to his being on permanent disability, may be TMS. Although he does have other health issues, his doctors can't explain the pain and fatigue.
I know Dr. Sarno says that the symptoms our unconscious mind chooses depend on what's commonly seen in our culture, so I wonder what symptoms people in other cultures develop. Those in stressful circumstances, like in places where there is war, must also be at high risk for TMS in some form.
I'm curious, if people are comfortable sharing, whether those who had TMS symptoms during childhood had a lot of emotional stress during that time. |
| art |
Posted - 10/26/2006 : 13:39:54
I also had a minor case of OCD....I had to pray evry night before bedtime, and each night I'd have to add 1 more prayer...("Now I lay me down to sleep" as I recall)....
Kind of touching, now that I look back on it...Somehow it never got too out of hand as I figured out ways to reset the required number to zero again...Lasted a few years as I remember.. |
| Nor |
Posted - 10/26/2006 : 11:45:46
I can also remember childhood "maladies" that, in retrospect, had to be emotionally based. |
| art |
Posted - 10/26/2006 : 11:11:20
I think it's just a part of the normal life cycle that as one grows older one must deal with greater stress...
But TMS is not strictly an adult affair...I had terrible "growing pains" (so-called) when I was a little kid..Turns out Sarno believes those are TMS.. |
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