| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| nsherwood |
Posted - 12/05/2007 : 09:18:24
I find it very hard to keep focused on the fact it is all my brain causing my symptoms. I can usually go for a couple of days, but then the pain/fatigue/brain fog becomes so great good old doubt sets back in and I'm back to square one. A little part of me thinks "What if there really is something wrong with me".
I have beaten my pain in the past by shouting at my brain, but that doesn't even seem to work anymore. Its like my brain knows deep down I don't believe anymore.
Any suggestions of how to keep the TMS "faith".
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| 18 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| playsinpain |
Posted - 12/09/2007 : 18:26:57
So many people at this site talk about TMS as if it is some sort of religon....something you need faith to believe in. I don't get it; particularly when we talk about back pain. Sarno was a back Dr. for decades, treating people by the methods he had been taught, to no avail. He developed his approach through years of failure. And what has he seen since sharing the TMS diagnosis? Overwhelming success, inarguable percentages of cured people. Healing Back Pain is about education...not faith. And applying TMS is about courage and resolve, both physical and emotional. Hypochondriacs rely on infirments to fill voids and manipulate themselves and others. People who suffer from TMS detest their pain and the fear cycle it creates, and are willing to explore the darkest recesses of tehir characters to understand feelings few want to encounter. I acccept the TMS diagnosis just as I accept that the Sun rises in the East; because it is true. |
| wrldtrv |
Posted - 12/09/2007 : 16:58:24
I can sure relate to this topic. I have been struggling with TMS belief for years. I go back and forth depending on how I feel. I haven't posted here for a long time, partly because I felt it was becoming counter-productive, but also because I was feeling better and didn't want to "jinx" myself by reading about symptoms. I stayed away even when having a brief relapse or two along the way. I'm currently having another moderate relapse (sensation of hamstring tightness/weakness that has bothered me off/on for 6 yrs).
So, why am I checking in now? Because the psychogenic explanation is the only one that has ever made any sense. No doc or medical test has ever found anything wrong with me, with one exception: About 6 mo ago I checked with an ortho sportsmedicine doc who dx'd some hamstring and external rotator weakness and said I must have had some trauma or injury at some point and sent me to physical therapy. On my followup visits, the weakness had been corrected and gradually I was back to normal for about 1 1/2 months. Then, it started again. This made me lose faith in his dx and I am back to square one: either my long-time fear of MS (ruled out twice over a 4 yr period) or psychogenic...or maybe some sort of mild physical anomaly that occasionally pops up again and which my hypochondria magnifies.
I realized a couple of days ago when someone on this board re-stated Sarno's precepts of "repudiate the physical" and "think psychological", that I haven never really done this. My ambivalance has always kept me with one foot in the physical realm. I try to hedge my bets by paying lip service to the psychological, while being ready to flee to the security of the physical. And while I have often repudiated the symptoms in the form of testing them; running marathons, doing 14-ers...and even though I am vindicated when I do these things, soon I am back to babying my symptoms, being careful not to overdo it, icing, taking ibuprofin, carefully doing the pt exercises I have been given. Some days, when all is well, I feel like a true believer in TMS theory, while other days, when I am tested with a relapse, I lose all faith in it.
I'm thinking that when hypochondria is added to TMS, it is much harder to shake because one is dealing with an obsession that is not easily moved by logic. I guess the only thing to do is, as Art said, just keep plodding along, despite belief or unbelief; in fact, "live as if" one believes. |
| art |
Posted - 12/08/2007 : 17:45:49
I'm with you Anthony....I despise going to doctors of any kind. The whole enterprise is soul killing. |
| AnthonEE |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 20:05:48
quote:
Originally posted by Wavy Soul
quote:
I keep falling off the wagon, going to an occasional doctor appointment here or there to check on this or that.
This is a killer! Heh heh. Yes, and I'm convinced that my symptoms are an addiction like alcohol, drugs, food, etc. ...
Interesting point Wavy Soul. I gave this a little thought and concluded that I'm not addicted to the symptoms. I hate the symtoms, I hate the doctors visits, I hate missing work, and I hate paying the deductables and co-pays. But I am addicted to the idea that conventional medicine still holds some answers for certain things that have not responded to TMS treatment. I keep coming back for another hit (MRI?) to satisfy this hope and each time it costs me yet another co-pay  Seems I never learn.
Point is: there is still hope for progress, even for the skeptical over thinkers out there like me that go back and forth and second question the TMS ideas now and again. |
| Wavy Soul |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 18:43:55
quote:
I keep falling off the wagon, going to an occasional doctor appointment here or there to check on this or that.
This is a killer! Heh heh. Yes, and I'm convinced that my symptoms are an addiction like alcohol, drugs, food, etc. And I secretly believe this is true of everyone else's, too. But I'll just take my OWN inventory here.
The reverse of this is that all those other addictions are really distractions from core feelings, like TMS.
xx
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
| AnthonEE |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 11:00:38
This has been a real problem for me too. Since the very beginning I've been so concerned about the hows and whys of TMS, and whether the treatment plan really works. As a result I've only come to full 100% belief in certain parts of the theory, and I remain completely skeptical about the other parts. And I continue to read books on related topics but that go off in slightly different directions.
But the bottom line is this I've had good results with about 8 of 12 physical "problems". This progress has been obtained by following the advice that Art has given here. You need to just "do TMS" and not worry so much about the "believe in TMS" part. Give it a try and be patient. It's not a silver bullet, but I have made progress this way, and so have many others. For me some of that progress is very real and easy to 100% believe in.
So I think Art is correct. And so is "It's not 100% belief that's required, but 100% commitment". The only thing I would add to that is even without a full commitment, you can still make decent progress. I keep falling off the wagon, going to an occasional doctor appointment here or there to check on this or that. But overall I've been living my life in accordance with Mark Sopher's advice: "You're not broken!". And as a result I've become less "broken" over time. Still much work to do, but less broken than before. Really. |
| la_kevin |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 08:11:00
Why yes.... I butchered the quote. It goes:
"It's not 100% belief that's required, but 100% commitment." |
| la_kevin |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 08:07:17
Someone here has a great quote in their signature nsherwood. Something to the effect of "100% belief is not needed but 100% dedication is" I think I really butchered the quote. Anyways, you get what I mean. |
| art |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 08:00:53
I embrace pain, to the extent I am able, by not fearing it. Move forward, if you can't believe act as if you do. In the final analysis, it amounts to pretty much the same thing in my opinion. |
| lidge |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 07:47:54
Is the belief here that it is the non-acceptance of the pain that is actually keeping the pain going? Or is it that accepting the pain will just make the TMS process easier? In other words, is it impossible to be rid of the pain unless one actually embraces it in some way?
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| justme |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 21:14:58
quote:
Originally posted by art
My recommendation is to forget about struggling to believe. You'll just tie yourself up in knots. Rather, simply act as if you believe. Good things will flow from that, I can practically guarantee it.
I am in agreement with Art on this one. My second time around with TMS has been really difficult. After much "struggling with believing" I have naturally and gradually been letting go of struggling to believe. I think it had to do with what my yoga teacher told me: "I am on a journey. I have to go throught it, go forward. I cant go back to the past." I think my struggling has been mostly been about wanting to go back to that place in the past where I did not have pain. The fact is that I have pain now and must evolve through it. It can be a graceful transition or one fraught with much struggling.
Keep the faith and be kind to yourself.
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| art |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 16:01:51
My recommendation is to forget about struggling to believe. You'll just tie yourself up in knots. Rather, simply act as if you believe. Good things will flow from that, I can practically guarantee it. |
| nsherwood |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 15:07:31
I have also had much success in the past, I don't know why I should think this time is any different, there is a little part of me thinking "maybe last time wasn't TMS". arghh!!
I also suffer from depression also which makes it really hard to keep positive... |
| mom2aidan2002 |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 12:12:15
I am sooo with you. I have had good success in the past, but this time the TMS is getting the better of me. I feel like I have lost the TMS faith too, even tho I know it is accurate. What used to work in the past? |
| subzero |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 09:30:12
I have a similar problem. As I'm dealing with my current TMS relapse, oftentimes I find myself in so much pain that I can only think about the pain, and not why the pain is there. It then becomes a vicious circle, because I rationally understand that TMS is the problem, but when the pain comes and I can only think about the pain which makes me question the TMS diagnosis even though the treatment has proven itself to work for me in the past. |
| nsherwood |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 02:09:39
everything A OK |
| Michele |
Posted - 12/05/2007 : 11:53:16
Have you had the tests to rule out anything structural? |
| electraglideman |
Posted - 12/05/2007 : 10:33:26
How long have you been at it? |
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