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Brit with TMS
United Kingdom
4 Posts |
 Posted - 10/08/2006 : 07:47:43
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| I have been suffering from back pain for 4 years and neck pain for 3 years. I have become obsessed by them, expect to feel pain. 5 months ago I read J Sarno's book and recognised myself. Since then I have felt more confident, believe that I have TMS and have just got on and ignored much of the pain. The pain did shift to my knee but kept thinking psychological.The pain never fully went but did improve and I felt more confident. I never overcame my fear of bending forward though but I thought take it a step at a time. However two weeks ago my back pain became acute again when bending forward. i stuck with the TMS methods and things improved. I felt greatly encouraged until yesterday. I was standing watching my younger son play football when my back went into acute spasm. Every movement today brings on pain. I now feel full of doubts/discouraged/frustrated and confused. Any advice? |
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ndb
209 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2006 : 08:03:12
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Reread Mindbody prescription and try to journal and explore your emotions. Laugh at your brain for causing the spasm. How could your back possibly spasm from just standing and watching a game? You WILL get over this too, it really sounds like TMS.
ndb |
Edited by - ndb on 10/08/2006 08:03:43 |
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sonora sky
USA
181 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2006 : 08:46:07
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If you can, try to think back to yesterday when the spasm started. Even though you were engaged in watching your son's game, there may have been other thoughts or emotions going through your mind. It could be feelings/thoughts related to your son or it could be something completely different. That might help to get to the root of the pain.
best, ss |
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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 00:29:14
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In the short time that I've been aware of TMS I've had some ups and downs with sx getting better, then worse again. From what I've read on this forum this does seem to be a fairly common thing. It seems like some of us won't have a totally linear recovery, but will have some days when the TMS gets our old sx stirred up again.
I think if you hang in there and stay focused you'll push away the pain again. Reading other people's experiences here has helped me to build confidence that this is really the true cause of my pain and that I'll be able to conquer it.
Best Wishes,
Corey |
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Darko
Australia
387 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 01:18:11
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Brit,
the biggest thing I had to learn and am still learning is how to get "in touch with my feelings" I know we've heard it all before. One thing I've learnt is that I don't actually feel a full spectrum of emotions. So I always think about what I'm feeling, and how something makes me feel. Even on boring days, the thoughts that run around in your head actually make you have emotion. Watch your thoughts, are they negative? What are you always thinking about, how do things, all things make you feel? Focus on that for a while and see what happens. Also you MUST MUST MUST remove the fear, push yourself and you'll see that there is nothing wrong with you. PROVE it to yourself, don't become a prisoner of your own thoughts! |
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 06:46:29
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Hey there Brit I'm a Brit (expat) too
The problem all lies in soccer, the biggest TMS equivalent in the universe!
Yes, I concur with others here - the path is up and down.
Actually, for me, the path all lies in being a Brit - meaning that even after decades as a therapist dealing a lot with emotions, I still unconsciously repress stuff, or go for that stiff upper lip. In fact, I am sometimes amazed when I read the posts here to realize that I actually have to go FURTHER into tracking my feelings ongoingly. What? Am I getting obsessed with my feelings now?
I guess I have to because I have the pain. My choice - and it isn't really obsession, it's just the strange new habit of non-repression.
Keep on it, mate!
x
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 09:32:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Littlebird
In the short time that I've been aware of TMS I've had some ups and downs with sx getting better, then worse again. From what I've read on this forum this does seem to be a fairly common thing. It seems like some of us won't have a totally linear recovery, but will have some days when the TMS gets our old sx stirred up again.
I think if you hang in there and stay focused you'll push away the pain again. Reading other people's experiences here has helped me to build confidence that this is really the true cause of my pain and that I'll be able to conquer it.
Best Wishes,
Corey
Hi Littlebird,
I've been wondering what the "sx" acronym stands for. I was hopeing for sex but somehow I don't think so.  |
Edited by - tennis tom on 10/09/2006 09:33:49 |
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Kristin
98 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 10:53:23
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is it "symptoms"?
duh, I'll bet you knew that. |
Edited by - Kristin on 10/09/2006 11:02:58 |
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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 15:23:22
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Yes, sx is short for symptoms. Sorry, I used to frequent a board for people with multiple sclerosis, because I was convinced that the neuro symptoms I was having must be due to that, and I picked up their abbreviations.
Now that my neuro sx are gone, and I've been weaning off the medication that was supposed to control them, I'd like to go back to the MS board and share what I've learned, but I think everyone there would have a hard time accepting the idea of TMS. There were several other people there like me, with all these neuro sx but nothing showing up on the tests. What a relief to know there's not a wheelchair in my future after all.
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Brit with TMS
United Kingdom
4 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2006 : 04:09:24
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Thanks for the replies so far. I think having so many people listen to my dilemma when I have never met anyone who has heard of TMS, has helped. As far as I am aware no doctors in the UK specialise in assisting TMS issues. Unless anyone knows of any?
Well, I've done a lot of thinking and realised there is a pattern with TMS attacks often linking to when I have a funeral to go to. It's like a delayed reaction days after hearing of a loss. Anyway, despite the spasms I went to a friend's funeral yesterday so am taking the first steps to grabbing the sword of damocles. Thanks Wavy Soul, you are right ....sod the stiff upper lip! |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2006 : 10:16:24
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"As far as I am aware no doctors in the UK specialise in assisting TMS issues."
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No surprise here Brit. It seems though there are legions suffering with TMS in Britain and also our neighbors to the north in Canada, due to their your socialized medical systems there is no room on the form for checking TMS as an alternative. I doubt if any doctor in either nation would risk going out of the box. Therefore everyone gets vanilla medical un-care. When the Canadians get really sick they come to the US for care.
But we are not far behind in our head-long leap to creeping socialized vanilla medical un-care. |
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 05:30:28
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creeping socialized vanilla medical un-care.
he he heh Tennis Tom, you are so poetic (sorry I didn't give the whole story on that other thread - couldn't quite muster it right now).
I think the creeping socialized vanilla medical un-care is quite possibly the source of some British TMS, not because they don't give a TMS diagnosis, but because it becomes so possible to use being sick to take care of what is really emotional problems. Isn't it in Sarno's book that in countries where there is no care for back problems no one gets them?
But then on the other hand, over here we have the whole industry catering to sickies, so our health becomes a new consumption addiction. Apples and oranges.
Also, in England it's so FRUSTRATING waiting your turn in the NHS at times, that I'm sure by the time you get your surgery or whatever your condition has moved to another part of your body in suppressed rage. I know my poor sis (a TOTAL TMSer, but I dare not mention it!) is waiting for her second hip replacement at 58. This pisses her off - plus there is a whole story about how the doc did the first one wrong. But also I think if she was in the US it would be something else, because she couldn't afford the hip thing.
I don't know the answer to the whole thing about outer health care. I think it's fraught with contradiction. I just go to one doctor who is a naturopath/homeopath and is working more on rejuvenation and unraveling old stuff than any alleged "illness." I also have a friend who is an MD at Kaiser whom I can check in with if I have something serious apparently happening, and he LOVES the TMS diagnosis.
blah blah go back to bed me!
xx
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 10:26:42
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quote:
Originally posted by Wavy Soul
But then on the other hand, over here we have the whole industry catering to sickies, so our health becomes a new consumption addiction. Apples and oranges.
I also have a friend who is an MD at Kaiser whom I can check in with if I have something serious apparently happening, and he LOVES the TMS diagnosis.
In this country we used to have a system where doctors were independent, and often practiced out of their homes and visited yours. I recall when my brother and I got severe sun-burns as kids in the late 50's our family doctor came to our house to examine us on the hide-a-bed and administered some lotion to us and we lived. That kind of service would be un-heard of today.
Today doctors are some of the most un-happy people I know. They have been stripped of their once respected status and are now reduced to giving in to the demands of their patients and prescribing once unheard of quackeries such as chiro, accupuncture and supplements that have been proven ineffective, (but NOT so publicized), such as glucosoamine-chrondroitin. They are prescribing these out of frustration because their patients with chronic TMS pain are NOT getting better. They have thrown up their hands and give them what-ever they ask for.
There are several factors that play into this. Western culture's health problems have shifted from physical to mental. This parallels a shift from an agrarian/industrial/manual labor economy to the high-tech/office work environment. Also our parents are now THE GOVERNMENT, composed of lawyers making rules, (laws), for us that make them money, put doctors out of private practice and force them to line up on an assembly line in an HMO. Your car gets more TLC and bed-side manner than you do.
Most of our TMS is caused by a plethora of PC laws that are constantly changing and we have NO chance of keeping up with. We have enormous societal pressures not to break these laws. We are increasingly slideing into an Orwellian/Kafkaesque socialist
world. It won't be long before we are told, "in the interest of the environment", how many pieces or toilet paper we are allowed to use.
What would happen if your Kaiser doctor would give you a TMS dx?
He would probably be sent to the Kaiser HR/psch ward for re-indoctrination. If he insisted on handing out TMS as a dx he would be fired or shunned by his peers, (as Dr. Sarno is at NYU). Your doctor might be sympathetic to TMS but I doubt he/she would ever be able to come out of the TMS closet as Dr. Ziggles is contemplating.
The medical instituitons are just too big to buck. We are in a litigious law-suit happy society created by politician, (un-leaders), in it only for themselves and their close friends(anyone who gives them enough money to champion their self-enriching legislation).
When all the stand-alone private medical practices, and small group practices are killed off by the economics and laws of small, then the Kaisers and Summits will merge and we will have one med-monolith with no competition to drive for excellence. We will receive the med care of the socialized nations.
Good luck--don't quit your exercise program. Get in line, you'll have plenty of time to read your Sarno while standing-up waiting because there won't be enough wheel-chairs, (only high ranking public officials will be accorded those and they will be at a slightly nicer facility).
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Edited by - tennis tom on 10/11/2006 10:38:57 |
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Kristin
98 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 11:18:46
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TT: I thought the merging of mega-corporations was monopoly capitalism, not socialism. In my understanding these medical monopolies would probably still be privately run for profit. Although the lack of choice and competition does sound bleak and soviet. I doubt many people understand the consequences of demanding socialized medicine.
Like Sarno's example of the whiplash in Norway, it's seems like the insurance companies are driving our idea of "acceptable" illness and "acceptable" cures. Yes, like people have demanded chiropractic care, it is now covered by insurance companies whereas years ago it wasn't.
I wonder just how many people accepting TMS it would take to turn the medical industry on its head. |
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HilaryN
United Kingdom
879 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 13:17:00
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quote:
As far as I am aware no doctors in the UK specialise in assisting TMS issues. Unless anyone knows of any?
Not yet there aren’t, but hopefully one day…
I keep meaning to write to my GP’s about my recovery because I’m sure they would be interested and sympathetic. After all, whenever I’ve been to see a doctor about an illness they always ask how things are generally (as in do I have any stresses going on in my life). So there does seem to be a vague acknowledgement that psychological stresses can cause physical ailments. Just no help on how to sort it out.
Also, I was chatting to a friend of a friend a while back and found out she’s a psychotherapist – Freudian/analytically-trained, although she says there’s no demand for that. I told her about TMS and she was very interested. I haven’t heard from her since and don’t know if she’s read the book, so I must follow up on that.
Hilary N
PS I hope you'll be able to change your name soon to "Brit without TMS."  |
Edited by - HilaryN on 10/11/2006 13:19:14 |
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HilaryN
United Kingdom
879 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 13:28:36
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quote:
Now that my neuro sx are gone, and I've been weaning off the medication that was supposed to control them, I'd like to go back to the MS board and share what I've learned, but I think everyone there would have a hard time accepting the idea of TMS.
Littlebird,
Please do that. Even if only one person decides to investigate further, it’s worth it.
Hilary N |
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Kristin
98 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 13:53:25
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Brit:
Was there something about going to the game or events around the game that could have been trying to tell you something?
Wavy:
I am also amazed in how much I need to be thinking about this stuff. We can think that we're re-programming and re-conditioning rather than obsessing! |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2006 : 23:28:09
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Littlebird said:
"Yes, sx is short for symptoms. Sorry, I used to frequent a board for people with multiple sclerosis, because I was convinced that the neuro symptoms I was having must be due to that, and I picked up their abbreviations.
Now that my neuro sx are gone, and I've been weaning off the medication that was supposed to control them, I'd like to go back to the MS board and share what I've learned, but I think everyone there would have a hard time accepting the idea of TMS. There were several other people there like me, with all these neuro sx but nothing showing up on the tests. What a relief to know there's not a wheelchair in my future after all."
I find that so interesting because I had the same "neuro" symptoms last year and then four yrs earlier. I too was convinced I had MS, yet both times all tests pretty much ruled it out and I'm now back to normal.
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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2006 : 00:37:13
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Brit w/TMS, so sorry about your friend. But I'm glad you've found the emotional source.
Hilary N, thanks for the encouragement to go back to the MS forum to share. I will soon, I'm just trying to decide if I should post and run or view it as an opportunity to work on my dread of anyone being upset with me.
Wrldtrv, I'm glad to hear you're rid of the neuro stuff too--it can be scary when you think you've got something that's only going to get worse. One of the common questions on the MS forum was whether stress makes sx worse, so I really think some of those people in what they call MS limbo, meaning the tests don't show anything, have TMS.
Kristin, I like that idea that we're reprogramming rather than obssessing. I'll have to tell my husband that when he asks why I'm spending so much time reading all the threads.
Tom, I guess it's good that those of us with GI issues are getting rid of them if they're going to be rationing toilet paper. Maybe I'll hang on to all of my old medical books in case I need to recycle the pages someday. |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2006 : 09:01:20
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Littlebird,
I would stay clear of all those disease forums. If you are of the hypochondriacal sort as I am, that is worst thing you can do. For the past year, I have forced myself to refrain from going to docs unnecessarily or research symptoms on the internet. It's working. I am less obsessive about sx than I would have been a year ago. |
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Frustrated and Unsure
