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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 Odrog[/i] [br]Sorry if this sounds like a ramble or rant, its been quite a day. I'm also trying to keep a sense of humor. I'm new to this whole TMS thing (at least in the sense that I only recently heard of the term 'TMS'). I had been having lower back pain for years (had been to a doctor, no help, you know the story). Finally got fed up with it and did some serious internet searching for solutions. I eventually stumbled across Sarno's Healing Back Pain book being recommended, checked out and saw all of the positive reviews on Amazon.com, and decided to read it myself. Like many here, I saw myself being described in many ways. I have a history of this sort of thing, that is in dealing with anxiety issues. I used to get panic attacks years ago, listening to the Lucinda Bassette "Attacking Anxiety" program was extremely helpful and the whole panic attack thing disappeared completely almost overnight. I still have problems with "negative self talk" which I have to constantly work on. But at that time I didn't know about this whole classic "symptoms moving around" thing. Looking back, the lower back pain thing probably only got bad after I dealt with and fixed the panic attack thing. I've also had other symptoms described in sarno's book - carpal tunnel like symptoms that got very bad but are now completely gone. This is sort of an aside, but I think calling what we have "TMS" is kind of silly, the term is not accurate in many cases (myositis = inflamation of muscle tissue - this is just one subset of possible related physical symptoms). What we really have is simply an anxiety disorder - it manifests in possibly hundreds of different physical ways (many of which are listed in sarno's books, other's that aren't). To tell you the truth, I think the 'Attacking Anxiety' program is a good path to go down for many with "TMS", but both it and Sarno's book are sort of complementary yet incomplete. At least the Attacking Anxiety program has a detailed "attack plan", workbook, and exercises plus lots of handholding from those who have been there done that. Sarno just kind of leaves you hanging. Sure there is a little vague advice about positive self talk and dealing with your worries head on, but that's about it. But the Attacking Anxiety program sort of misses the boat in that those guys (Bassette and company) don't seem to talk much if at all about the fact that so many other symptoms such as lower back pain and dozens of others are also associated with this disorder, nor did they mention or prepare me for the whole "symptom moving around" thing, although I think they do talk about the need to deal with your life concerns. I think there is still room for someone to combine the best of all current knowledge about this stuff, and the best plans for combating it. Anyway, getting back to my story, it was only about a month or so ago that I read Healing Back Pain. My back pain has gone away almost completely (although I sure "tighten up" quick when I'm lifting heavy objects or leaning over an engine block to work on my cars). It was only 3 days after reading the book though that I had a mild "dizzy episode". This is NOT something I'm used to. I said to myself this is the symptoms moving around just like I read about, everything is going to be OK. And it was OK, the episode only lasted for a minute and didn't return for weeks. That is until TODAY. Looking back, I did have one other dizzy episode in my life, years ago, but I was on medication at the time and wrote it off to that, it also only lasted for a few seconds and never came back. But WOW did it hit me hard today, and really came with no warning. I was at work, I had just finished microwaving my lunch in the kitchen and was about to carry it back to my desk. The whole room felt like it was moving, like I was really drunk or something, I could not walk straight, I put my food down and headed for the nearest chair. There was someone else there who was really concerned, I just said I was dizzy (told her I might be getting sick), she got me some water. It was kind of embarrassing. I was pretty terrified to tell you the truth. I sat there and drank my water for a few minutes, then moved quickly back to my desk, still dizzy but not nearly that bad. I was sweating bullets, mostly from the fear I presume. I've really never had anything like this at all before. I thought I might die, or have to have someone call an ambulance or something. Its now an hour later, and I still don't feel right, kind of hard to describe, but I feel sort of buzzed like I had a few beers only its not a pleasurable kind of buzz, more like just slightly "off", disoriented and a little wobbly but not dizzy enough that I think I could fall over. This is just crazy. The back pain was not nearly as bad as this. I'd take back pain any day over this! Haha. But I guess it's just one more thing to deal with, kind of like the panic attacks of years ago, the carpal tunnel like thing, and the lower back pain. I do wonder what is coming next - will it just get bigger and bader? Haha. I know some fellow anxiety folks that have the irritable bowl thing - ouch I hope I don't get that. :) I'm also still trying to figure out what is going on in my life that my subconscious is so worked up about? At first I had a hard time coming up with anything. Employment is fine, finances are fine, family is fine. I have been thinking about my 18 month old son lately, my wife is planning to go back to work next year after staying home to take care of him up until now. I guess I've been worrying about doing the whole daycare thing vs. the stay at home mom situation we've had so far. I guess I need to express my concerns and talk it all out with my wife. That was all I could come up with. Really, when am I NOT going to have something I'm worried about in the back of my mind, that is just who I am, I'm like that all the time. Hope that doesn't mean crazy new anxiety symptoms popping up every few years for the rest of my life... At least I think I have a good attitude. I'm already starting to laugh about this. But at the same time I'm worried about when it might happen again, and how I'm going to deal with it. It's bad when the symptoms of an anxiety disorder cause MORE anxiety, like a snowball effect. How do you even explain how symptoms that you used to have went away? I mean I stopped having panic attacks after learning about what they were. I stopped having lower back pain after reading Sarno's book and learning about how the brain caused it. Now that I know what the whole dizzy thing is about, does that mean this too shall pass? It seems real challenging to CONSTANTLY deal with and talk about all my worries, and eliminate the negative self talk, but I guess that is key to ending the anxiety symptoms and preventing new ones from manifesting... [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.