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dewiniaeth
13 Posts |
 Posted - 07/27/2008 : 16:40:39
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I did a lot of typing one day and I was so amazed that I wasn't hurting. I typed for a couple hours and felt I could keep going indefinitely. I was significantly better for a while after discovering TMS, but the day after the typing, I started hurting, and it hasn't really gotten better. That was about a week ago. One morning I was really angry with a friend about something -- and I knew I was angry -- and while I was putting my shirt on, and made a very slight movement, my neck suddenly hurt and I couldn't move it for the rest of the day. I *knew* it was eerily similar to what Dr. Sarno talks about but why would this happen to me *after* I know about TMS? (And why did it happen when I was consciously angry?) Now I feel pain in my neck and even my back at times. Sometimes my feet would start hurting for no particular reason. I'm a little bit discouraged. Knowledge of TMS is supposed to make this better, but instead, I have symptoms in even more places. Is this just a step in the healing. Am I moving backwards? How do you approach it when symptoms spread after learning of TMS?
Also, if I keep working through the pain, and the pain just gets worse, am I *still* conditioning myself to associate work with pain? Or does knowledge of TMS somehow stop that association of work and pain from happening in my brain?
Another question that I don't expect anyone to be able to answer. Is anyone familiar with vipassana or mindfulness meditaiton? Is it helpful with TMS? I know part of this practice is mindfulness of the body, but now that I'm supposed to focus on the psychological, should I not do that (especially when it comes to paying attention to the pain)?
Thanks!!! |
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dewiniaeth
13 Posts |
Posted - 07/27/2008 : 18:45:57
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Oh, and a more interesting symptom: the whole right side of my body went a bit numb for a while. This was after I "strained" my neck (and the pain there was also on the right side.) It didn't last more than a day or two, but it was really strange.
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quantguy
14 Posts |
Posted - 07/27/2008 : 19:18:05
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Hi dewiniaeth,
I'm sorry to hear that, I'm completely new to TMS treatment, so I cannot give you much advise, BUT...
The first day I learned about TMS I felt that was it, my arms and shoulders felt better so I decided to sleep on my side (I've always slept on my sides except for the last 4 months since my shoulders started hurting), well I woke up at 1:30am with the most horrific shoulder pain I've felt and couldn't go back to sleep. I'm still convinced my condition started due to stress and anxiety at work but somehow I also believe that I wasn't prepared yet to go all the way and forget about my pain, deep inside I was still doubting. Now I'm going to do it in baby steps, making sure to not to demoralize myself with unnecessary setbacks. |
Edited by - quantguy on 07/27/2008 19:18:53 |
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ChrisSC
25 Posts |
Posted - 07/27/2008 : 20:33:36
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What is now happening to you is the symptom imperative, which basically confirms TMS is what's been bothering you all this time. You are accepting that your primary location of pain is psychological, which is thwarting the unconscious mind's strategy. TMS is now "on the run." You are absolutely NOT moving backwards. At first it is hard to deal with the new locations of pain, as they often start up unexpected and you aren't already used to dealing with it, as you probably were with the initial pain. What will probably happen, as long as you continue to identify unconscious sources of rage and accept that your new pain is TMS and not physical, is that the total severity of your symptoms will decrease as time goes on. The first couple new pain locations might be severe; this is TMS fighting back, trying to discourage you from continuing. Don't let it!
quote:
Also, if I keep working through the pain, and the pain just gets worse, am I *still* conditioning myself to associate work with pain? Or does knowledge of TMS somehow stop that association of work and pain from happening in my brain?
The best advice I can give here is to not push yourself to the point where the pain is very severe. If you push too hard the pain will overwhelm you and it might discourage you. Your brain is still conditioned to feel pain with certain activities and it takes time to adapt to the thought that you can do things without feeling pain. Use your best judgment on how hard you can push through it.
I don't actually know what mindfulness meditation is, but I think I remember seeing that a TMS doctor, Dr. Schubiner, suggests it to his patients. He has a website, www.yourpainisreal.com
You've taken the first major step into your recovery. It can feel like a step backwards, but if you look at the forum posts over the past few years you'll find that just about everybody went through the phase of "TMS on the run" once they started to accept TMS. Continue to commit yourself to the TMS work and you should see positive results. |
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armchairlinguist
USA
1397 Posts |
Posted - 07/28/2008 : 08:57:26
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quote:
I *knew* it was eerily similar to what Dr. Sarno talks about but why would this happen to me *after* I know about TMS? (And why did it happen when I was consciously angry?)
It even happens to Dr. Sarno and to recovered TMSers sometimes. It is a fairly common part of the process. Your unconscious mind is trying to convince you that you are off-track by moving the symptoms around. I had old knee pain come back and weird random shoulder pain start up when I was still working on TMS recovery. It is not necessarily logical or in correspondence with your conscious mind's knowledge, because your unconscious mind isn't logical and it doesn't know the same things you know consciously.
Luckily this actually is great evidence you are on track. If your pain was physical this could not happen, because it could correspond only to the exact location in which it normally occurs.
It may have happened when you were consciously angry because there are other aspects of that situation that are causing you emotions you don't want to deal with, or because you were angry and your unconscious didn't really want to be angry anymore because it seemed dangerous, so it created a distraction to make you stop thinking about it).
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What were you expecting? |
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shaun canada
Canada
3 Posts |
Posted - 07/30/2008 : 18:41:00
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This is something I've also dealt with, and I think the key is really as Dr Sarno would say, "there is still work to be done".
Despite what is written in the book, changes don't happen overnight in most cases. The reason is you weren't born yesterday. You've learned and been conditioned to believe certain things cause certain reactions.
Re-read your opening post. The whole post points out the different between recovery and recovered. To fully recover you have to FULLY accept that the pain is caused by TMS. You are questioning it in the post, which means you don't yet fully accept it.
Trust me I understand this point in the process. I've been at this point for some months now. It's really hard to give away fully that the problems are due to TMS and not what you have been accustomed to. The brain knows this very well and will continue to test you - and everyone.
My mistake was not continuing to do the work on the "good days" as a preventative measure. |
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Symptoms spread after learning of TMS
