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chickenbone
Panama
398 Posts |
 Posted - 06/06/2013 : 13:47:51
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Hi Everybody,
I have just been plodding away recovering from TMS slowly. The last problem I had was sleeping. I finally realized that this problem was being kept alive by my catastrophizing about it (What if I can never sleep again?, What if I get really sick from lack of sleep? Can you imagine how awful I will feel in the morning?, etc.) I beat it by not ever trying to fall asleep. I began playing soft music and chakra meditation tapes when I got into bed and just relaxed and listened to the music and tried to NOT THINK about sleep at all. No more sleep problems. (A lot of you basically told me this, but I guess we don't see it until we are ready) I have also been moving toward symptoms and accepting them in a totally new way. However I am sometimes thrown by symptoms that are not painful and that I never before thought of as TMS, but am now pretty sure they are TMS. I never associated my sleep issues with TMS until now. I finally realized that it really was related to my TMS after the same tactics I used to get rid of my pain finally worked with the sleep problem - getting over the fear and totally accepting, but even something more - becoming intimately familiar with the symptom to the point of associating long forgotten emotions with them. This is so hard to explain, but it is what people like Claire Weekes and Peter Levine are talking about. Guess what? Now, I am having allergy and asthma symptoms again. I have not had these in quite awhile. I guess the symptom imperative isn't finished with me yet. I caught myself, after waking up with wheezing and sniffles, thinking catastrophic thoughts again about the allergies and asthma. I guess I need to begin again with each symptom. Back to the drawing board. Any thoughts??? |
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Ace1
USA
1040 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2013 : 14:17:29
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| Cb if you effectively ignore something, it just shifts, if the underlining strain habits are not changed. This is the work that has to be done, which s a very slow process. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2013 : 18:18:22
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My gf, who's 58, kicked her asthma she's had since childhood, (a tough one), after she read that it's TMS in one of the Good Doctor's books, in my opinion a modern day miracle.
G'luck |
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Peregrinus
250 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2013 : 18:20:32
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Chickenbone:
Before finding this forum I suffered from lower back pain and knew it was TMS (psychogenic from the old days). Now I have a long list of symptoms including groin pain, knee pain, GERD, tinnitus, hypertension, neck and shoulder pain, and a few others. Equipped with the wisdom obtained here, I naturally suspect each might be a manifestation of TMS although I probably had all of these complaints before I ever heard of Dr. Sarno. At times I feel like the pain is winning although there are times that I feel great and start to believe that I’ve turned the corner. To some extent I have found that ignoring the condition causes the symptom to subside. This has been the case with my knee pain, the tinnitus, hypertension and the neck and shoulder pain. So far I haven’t been able to conquer the back pain in the same way but that might be due that I’ve conditioned myself to having that pain in many common situations (e.g., bending down). It occurs to me that your approach to insomnia is essentially to ignore the problem. Perhaps the best thing to do is to respond to a new symptom with a shrug.
All the best!
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chickenbone
Panama
398 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2013 : 07:59:50
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Hi Everybody, thanks for the responses and good advice. I guess I spoke too soon. I realize now that I just caught a chest cold. I generally get 2 colds per year. I think this propensity to catch colds is also part of the TMS.
Ace, since using your keys, my pain have never seriously come back. So I think they definitely cured me of pain. However I am realizing that I have several other symptoms like colds, allergies, asthma, GERD that I don't have all that often, but are TMS also. I am trying to work on these too. I have been conditioned all my life to think of these as having an organic cause so there is a lot of prior conditioning that I need to overcome. I admit that I have trouble staying calm on an ongoing basis. I now use chakra meditation tapes and classical music to go to sleep with.
Here is something that tends to happen to me. I tend to be hyper-sensitized, especially at night. This is why I have used the music and meditation tapes and it is working. Now I am sleeping well. However, I cycle through periods of really bad sleeplessness that often end with a bad cold. Once I get sick, no more trouble sleeping. Sometimes it seems like I needs to be sick to start sleeping well again. I just wonder what this is all about. |
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1koolkat
USA
24 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2013 : 06:08:05
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Hi Chickenbone,
Thank you for all your support for me as a newbie here. I appreciate your work with sleep and I'll try what you said. As far as thoughts for you, I mentioned a book I've been working with in my post to 'marlawantstohike' today, and it has been extremely helpful to me. It's important because I can now heal the trauma I survived as a child and stop using the incredibly unhealthy anger as protection.
"The Language of Emotions: What your feelings are trying to tell you." by Karla McLaren.
Be well in Love. Kat |
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chickenbone
Panama
398 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2013 : 08:32:04
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Thanks so much, Kat. This definitely sounds like a book I can benefit from. I will probably order it. Sounds like it helped you a lot to get in touch with your feelings.
Take care,
Patricia
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2013 : 09:10:53
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FYI, here's an article about sleep that Balto found a while back. It gives an anthropologic perspective on the subject.
Broken, segmented sleep is normal according to this article at BBC news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783 . |
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chickenbone
Panama
398 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2013 : 09:51:34
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| yes, TT, very good article. I don't mind at all if my sleep is segmented, especially as long as I get enough sleep. However, there are times when I don't. |
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recycling symptoms
