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Taoist Pilgrim
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
 Posted - 08/22/2009 : 12:35:36
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Hi
I would be very grateful if anybody with a good understanding of TMS and mind-body syndrome can have a read of this and advise me on the best way to deal with my current health difficulties.
My issues started about 2 and a half years ago when after a health scare that turned out fine I started to experience a lot of neurological type symptoms, general aches and pains and chronic dizziness…this was coupled with an ache in my right hip area that would come and go ay various times.
I was told by my GP that I was suffering from anxiety and that this was also likely to be alongside hypochondria. I would visit my GP regular and was given a number of blood tests and X-Rays but these are always clear. I visited numerous CBT counsellors but try as I might I can never look past these physical symptoms.
About a year ago I also started to experience one sided chest pain and this persists to today. The pain (well discomfort) feels like a deep ache that radiates through to my shoulder blade and also has now started to affect the top of my arm. I have seen various GP’s regarding this who all advise me that no reason can be found for the pain, I have had a couple of chest X-Rays which have been clear but recently had another blood test which showed no inflammation or any other issues.
As it stands I am now experiencing hip pain, chest pain, aching hands and feet arches and occasional dizziness. I suppose the thing that really worries me is just the timescale that this has been going on for and my hypochondria riddled mind is just constantly nagging at me that something like cancer ie bone cancer is going on and this thinking just isn’t allowing me to accept these physical symptoms.
Quite only on in all of this I was told by one GP that he thought my symptoms where somatisation and I was quite receptive to this. I discovered Sarno and read the MBP and it struck a load of bells with me. When all this started I had a huge number of emotional and pragmatic issues going on in my life and I certainly tick all the usual personality trait boxes for TMS sufferers.
Of course, I am aware that nobody on an internet forum can diagnose me with TMS but I’m just wondering if my symptoms sound like that fit a typical TMS presentation. As all my GP’s and counsellors say, if my symptoms where of something nasty then I would be feeling much much worse by now….I can see the logic of that but it is just moving past the fear of these physical symptoms.
I think the clue for me is in the last paragraph. I fear these symptoms. The symptoms in themselves are not painful in the least. They are like dull nagging aches that are just there always lurking in the background and controlling my thoughts and actions. I think it is the fear of what they could be and what they signify more than anything else and they are certainly serving a purpose in distracting me from anything else in my life as these symptoms are just like a 24/7 preoccupation.
Thanks for reading and I would be most grateful for any insight on this. I feel that the longer I stay stuck in this physical mindset the longer this is going to go on for…I can only visit so may doctors and shrinks and I’m just getting so frustrated with the whole damn situation.
Thanks all
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Hillbilly
USA
385 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2009 : 15:16:27
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Your description is the dictioinary definition of an anxiety disorder. The symptoms are caused by repeated periods of stress, mostly about things that could but rarely ever happen. Then once the symptoms are there, they become the source of most of the stress, and so they persist. The cyclical nature is very clear and well understood.
So, now the question is how to treat it. You will hear different things on this forum, same as you will in doctors' offices and from counselors. You are in a bad thought habit or pattern, and that is why you can't get past the symptoms.
You have been thoroughly checked out by a physician, and your description of "neurological" symptoms is telling that nerves are at the core of the issue. The best description for the new sufferer of what is going on with these symptoms is contained in the classic work Hope and Help for Your Nerves by Claire Weekes, an Australian doctor who suffered from nerves during med school, then turned her career to helping others overcome their problems.
There is a book out called At Last A Life by Paul David, a fellow who continued to suffer strong but benign physcial symptoms until he read Claire Weekes' works, learned to accept his symptoms and get comfortable in his own skin, and he got his life back.
I suggest that you get off this forum and any others that you may be frequenting, as your focus on symptoms and and search for answers will merely accomplish keeping you in the cycle. The goal is to go back to living as you did when you focused on anything except what was happening inside your body. The symptoms are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the autonomic system that controls involuntary functions and responds to mood.
I know of no one who has completely overcome their anxiety trouble through Sarno's approach. I know many who have done it through a deep understanding of what is happening and a strong desire to get and stay symptom-free. There are many here who claim to have rid themselves of pain syndromes only to have some other strange thing crop up in its place and start the cycle anew.
I know a man in his 40's who came to a group meeting shaking and barely able to sit still for ten minutes who overcame his "breakdown" in about six weeks by learning to focus his mind on something other than his body. Time passes the same regardless of what we focus on, and our bodies are wired with the understanding of digestion, breathing, heart function, and other things, quite outside the realm of consciousness. In fact, becoming conscious of these functions serves only to interrupt them.
You state quite correctly that the attachment of danger to them is what keeps them there. If you thought they were nothing at all and refused to let them grab your attention and keep it, they would go away in a few weeks.
I did it. It took about two months, but it was worth the effort. You can do it as well. Best of luck. Hope not to see you here for long ;o)
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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Taoist Pilgrim
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2009 : 16:09:49
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Thanks for that reply.
I understand what you are saying about the neurological stuff...as scary as all that was(the usual MS worry)that did finally resolve itself and I no longer have any neuro type symptoms (that I notice)nor do I worry about any neuro illness.
I suppose the thing is that I was aware that neuro type symptoms and anxiety do go hand in hand but I'm just having a hard time equating all the latest (well year long) stuff to anxiety. Yep, I know chest pain is classic anxiety but this is chronic and not happening during a panic attack (which I have never had)but is rather a nagging discomfort that is with me pretty much constantly...as is the hip pain which is slightly more transient I suppose. All this coupled with the joint and muscular discomfort just serves to reinforce the doubt.
I agree with you that 'focus' is the killer with this. I suppose the problem is that once you have noticed an 'imperfecton' you can tend to dwell on it and monitor it. I do with with everything, if I buy something and it fails to meet my high standard of perfection it will literally drive me nuts until it gets to the point where I will have to return it and change it or whatever....the problem is I can't do this with my body right!!
Whilst I try to change my perspective and focus it only takes a twinge to drag me back to the doubt. It could well be telling that I just don't have enough positive things going on in my life to divert my attention away from my body and symptoms.
Once again thank you for the reply. |
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Carly
United Kingdom
5 Posts |
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fibri
Belgium
56 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2009 : 01:22:29
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I think everything you write sounds exactly like TMS. You say it yourself:
quote:
I think it is the fear of what they could be and what they signify more than anything else and they are certainly serving a purpose in distracting me from anything else in my life as these symptoms are just like a 24/7 preoccupation.
I don't really agree with Hillbilly that you should get off this forum. It's early days for you. This forum has helped me tremendously.
I "discovered" Sarno in mid May this year and within about 6 weeks my physical problems were 95% resolved. Now I am working on the main problem, anxiety symptoms. I strongly recommend that you read Sarno's books over and over and keep working on it. Your symptoms won't disappear overnight just from reading a book. You need to do the psychological work! I have found it too difficult to do the journaling that Sarno recommend: instead, I do it in my head, a few minutes every day. And whenever I have a physical or anxiety symptom, I tell myself "that's just that darn TMS again", then try to think what has happened to cause it, and try to at least give it a couple of minute's attention.
The freedom from pain is life-changing in a physical way. The build-up of a much more solid mental state is life-changing in a much more profound way. I find I can much better understand my reactions to certain people and situations than before, and stay much more calm and objective in dealing with them. So, my advice is stick with it, it can work.
And Hillbilly, maybe some day soon I'll be able to get you to eat your words:
quote:
I know of no one who has completely overcome their anxiety trouble through Sarno's approach.
:-)
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Taoist Pilgrim
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2009 : 08:10:43
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Thanks to everybody who replied....tis much appreciated.
Over the last few days I have also now started to experience some sciatica like pain/discomfort. This is located on the same side as my toublesome hip and is at the bottom left hand side of my back and seems to ache deep in my buttock and also down the outside/front of thigh muscle. Due to this coupled with the hip pain I did freak somewhat and saw my GP this morning. Usual routine, she examined all my reflexes and did some mobility tests and stuff and she advised me that there was nothing structurally amiss at all...I told her my worries about how this has arisen alongside the hip pain but she said they are one and the same...muscle tension etc! She tried to reasure me all was well and that it was a case of anxiety etc but I think she knew she was on a losing wicket...just find it hard to see how she can diagnose this without an MRI etc etc.
Anyways, it would appear I am running out of coat hooks to hang this on. Have seen so many GP's about all these weird muscular symptoms and I'm getting the same answer over and over but am not just seeing it sink in...weird.
So, this sciatic stuff, am I right in thinking that this is a common TMS thing. I'm sure I read something by Sarno that states that sciatic pain should affect all of the nerve and if it localised i.e just part of the leg etc this can be a good indication of TMS.
Oh well, just another weird and wonderful thing to add to the list. Heck, at the moment I only need to sit down for 5 minutes and I find that both calf muscles and my feet arches are stiff as hell when I sit up....it basically feels like I have aged 25 years over the last 12 months.
Thanks for reading and any insight into this sciatic type stuff. |
Edited by - Taoist Pilgrim on 09/07/2009 08:16:58 |
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Taoist Pilgrim
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2009 : 01:35:09
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Strange, whilst my left hip ache is still well, aching lol, I have now found that the left sided sciatic type stuff seems to have all but vanished BUT the deep butt ache discomfort now seems to have shifted to my right side. Am somewhat puzzled by this as I did sort of box off the left sciatic pain as related to my left hip pain (my health anxiety riddled brain actually confirmed to me that it was the sign that a tumor on my hip was growing!). The thing here is that surely if this was structural thing it would not just stop in one side and start in another as this just doesn't seem to fit how something structural would progress.
Anyway, any thoughts or opinions greatly recieved. |
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william
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2009 : 02:09:30
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I have been working at recovery from TMS for 13 months. I had a heart attack in May 2008, and a lung tumor removed (turned out to be non malignant) in July 2008. It was enough to throw me into depression and TMS. Following the Lung operation I got the back pain. For a long time I went for physical therapy, accupunture, etc. Once I decided it was TMS and understood it was just my brain working on me I started to gain control over the problem. You must always assume it is TMS first. The constant fear it is physical only is part of the syndrome.
The sensations and pain will move all over your body, that is the way it maintains its control over your mind.
When you see it move around your body laugh at it. When you fear the symptoms you encourage the TMS.
I just returned from a 12 day trip to Greece, Turkey and Italy. I could never have done this if I kept responding to the symptoms. They are still there, but I do not let them win the battle for my conscious thoughts and feelings. It is not easy, but this is the only way I have been able to get my life back.
Ignore the TMS symptoms and think about the emotions and feelings. |
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fibri
Belgium
56 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2009 : 02:02:50
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quote:
Ignore the TMS symptoms and think about the emotions and feelings.
Hi Taoist, I agree with William. In your posts you focus in great detail on all the individual physical symptoms, showing that you are still focused on the physical. The physical is succeeding in distracting you from thinking psychological.
I have read many, many psychological and self-help books over the years and until recently I looked on them like cookery books: if I could get just one good nugget of insight out of each one (one good recipe) then it was worth the money.
Sarno is different. It is not about reading a book and taking from it a vague notion that on top of other things going on there may be something called TMS that could be causing some of my problems. The TMS diagnosis to me is as clear-cut as if the doctors had found a tumour. I realise that TMS is THE "illness" or condition that is the cause of ALL the physical symptoms that were plaguing me. But it's not enough to know it. You have to work with that idea over and over and over and over until you convince not just your mind but your brain... the physical brain that is the one causing all these aches and pains by shutting off oxygen to parts of the body, thereby causing pain. The brain is doing this to distract me from the psychological. When I focus on the symptoms, the brain is rejoicing at its success!
I have found that rereading Sarno again and again is the best help for me. I have the audio version of HBP and I must have listened to it 20 times since May.
Which didn't stop me from getting a total relapse last week, although that's nearly better now.
In short, stop, stop STOP focusing on all the individual aches and pains around your body. Stop listing, enumerating and evaluating the severity of each one - that's a treadmill we all can get on! Instead, dump them ALL together into one big bag of symptoms you call TMS. Don't give them their individual names "hip pain" "leg pain" etc but just this big generic name "TMS" and each time TMS is there, try to think what is going on emotionally. And try to talk to your brain that you "won't accept this TMS nonsense" and suchlike talk (this helps minimise it and reduce its powerr to cause fear).
My relapse last week was scary because I saw how legitimate foot pain (I was on a walking holiday!) mushroomed into foot and leg pain, back pain, arm pain (arm pain from WALKING????) etc etc until every one of my old TMS symtoms was raging at the same time, and I could hardly hobble never mind walk (but I kept on walking through the pain.) The scary part was how easily the physical problems seemed to invade my mind so fully that it was almost impossible to think psychological. It was like trying to do complex mental arithmatic while standing near the speakers at a rock concert. The noise and commotion of the physical filled my brain so it was almost impossible to think.
So I stopped trying to think and just listened to Sarno, and let his voice wash over me until the noise started to diminish and I could think again. Then over the following days I was able to think a bit more clearly about what had caused this relapse and it is all now subsiding.
So try to find a way to calm down the noise in your head caused by all the focus on the physical, till you can get beyond the noise into a place where you can relax and think. This also means finding peace and quiet in your day to give you the space and time to think.
I know how hard that is but I wish you all the best. |
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Could This Be TMS?....grateful for advice.
