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dgreen97
122 Posts |
 Posted - 07/09/2013 : 13:54:47
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Talked to my psychologist today and brought up a couple of things I already knew but kind of talked about them in a different way. First, since I began learning about TMS there was always this sense of you could never feel pain physically and have TMS at the same time.. or some people call it being on the fence. I've read a lot where if you think that part of your pain is physical then the distraction strategy has you. In my case, how many people work on a computer for hours a day and have zero (and I mean nothing at all) eyestrain at the end. I doubt many people can say that. Why can't TMS/anxiety amplify existing pain in your body? Isn't it unrealistic (and perfectionistic) of me to assume that since I have TMS I can never experience eyestrain in a physical way while using the computer.
I had this viewpoint for long while that if I even though I was having eyestrain from using the computer then the distraction strategy had me locked in and I was screwed. My thoughts on this are that my perception of my eyes have changed since I began working on the computer as a career rather than a hobby. It became a threat to me when it became a job because its my livelihood and Im afraid to work in pain every day. So fear is now associated with the pain which = TMS. Personally I believe you can have pain that is amplified by TMS, it doesn't always have to be completely generated by it. I would get some eyestrain in the past when working on computers but I never thought anything of it because I wasn't scared at the time. It was when it became fearful of it that it became chronic.
Does this mean Im doomed to be in pain for the rest of my life? No i dont believe that at all. If I were to magically cure my eye pain right now it would pick another part of my body to start worrying about and eventually that would hurt chronically.
I guess I felt scared to say that for a long time because I felt like I was giving in to the distraction strategy but dont get me wrong.. I believe TMS is causing my pain. What I dont agree with some people on is that TMS can coexist or amplify "normal" pain. If you stood on your feet for 10 hours a day working I think you would have some foot pain at the end of the day but the difference between me and another person is: they aren't fearful and concerned with the pain, always checking on it, trying to make it go away while I am. I think its a form of acceptance on my end as well that Im being a perfectionist thinking that I should never experience pain because its TMS and you can't have both at the same time.
I dont know what it is about the eyestrain but its been the hardest one for me to shake. I've had other episodes of pain come on in the past the exact same way but somehow i was able to stop fearing them, stop thinking about them 24/7 and they went away. Maybe because its my job I dont know.
By "normal" pain I mean that it actually goes away. What I'm having isn't normal. I wake up with eyestrain and have it all day long no matter if Im on the computer or not so thats a clear indication its not just "oh you were on the computer for too long today". I went 7 days once without touching a computer for more than like 2 hours and had the same eyestrain that entire week because I couldn't stop thinking about, I was fearful of the pain coming on the next day, etc.
Please don't respond like "oh so you don't believe its TMS" because I do.. i just disagree with saying that if you have TMS then you couldn't possibly have any "normal" pain at all thats being amplified by it. My wife gets eyestrain at the computer too. Does it mean she has TMS? No because her eyestrain goes away like it should. |
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gigalos
Netherlands
310 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 14:27:58
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I think you are right about it.
If you are strained, things that normally will dissappear in time, suddenly stick around. The body is somehow unable or unwilling to heal it as it normally would; the placebo function in the body is prevented from doing its job. I agree that if you are strained about symptoms, you will experience any symptoms more intensive. The focus indeed is a bad thing as it is a form of strain. You're in a vicious circle that you slowly will break out of...
so, strain can develop and intensify physical pain... |
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chickenbone
Panama
398 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 14:31:32
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dgreen, you are so right. A lot of my TMS symptoms began with real physical pain. I just know that I have a tendency to fear the pain/discomfort and therefore to extend it beyond the normal time frame. I have always been like this. I want to deal with my TMS, not so much so that I won't have physical pain and discomfort, but more so that I will not psychologically make my pain worse than it has to be. I also think that we may be healthier physically when we are healthier psychologically.
We are all going to get sick and die eventually. I hope people don't regard getting over their TMS as the path to immortality. |
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icelikeaninja
USA
316 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 14:56:18
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Dgreen, a year ago my eye doctor diagnosed me with viral pink eye, said it won't go away so quickly . I had dry eye and pain when I blinked it felt like glass.
Saw my regular doctor and spoke to Sarno, they both concluded Tms. Sure my eye pain started w a real issue but the pain stayed.
It went away once I stopped doubting. But imagine if pink eye is Tms which Sarno told me personally then what else is out there? |
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icelikeaninja
USA
316 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 14:59:01
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| Who the hell has pink eye for three months lol |
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dgreen97
122 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 15:07:10
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| thats what my psychologist was telling me, that pain may start out as physical but when its chronic like we have its now psychological. as you read in all TMS books actual injuries last like 3 months max and then they're healed. after that you should suspect TMS. so in my case, maybe i had physical pain that first day in my eyes for whatever reason but after that my pain became chronic due to the fear cycle and TMS (researching, afraid of the pain, not accepting it, trying to fix it every day, spending hours upon hours reading about it, etc.) |
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dgreen97
122 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 15:09:10
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| ice i know what you mean when you stop doubting and it goes away. i did that twice in the past, for two problems i had that became chronic and lasted for a couple months, over time I just stopped caring about them and they went away. this eyestrain problem is the one that im having the most trouble with, its sticking with me for some reason while the others would go away. im trying to figure out why that is |
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dgreen97
122 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 15:10:52
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quote:
If you are strained, things that normally will dissappear in time, suddenly stick around.
yeah this definitely makes sense. i was able to make problems chronic in the past (willfully) by worrying about them happening. The harder I tried to get rid of them, or make it stop, the more it happened. It wasn't until I let go that it went away. Very much easier said than done. Like I just posted, some symptoms seem to be much harder to just let go of than others. |
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icelikeaninja
USA
316 Posts |
Posted - 07/09/2013 : 16:19:07
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Degreen,
I looked up so much crap from bleharitis to all sorts of weird eye diease. I remember telling myself " oh great of course Iam the rare person who gets this issue".
For me hearing it from my doctor put me on a road to recovery. I think it was about a month or two of constantly reassuring myself that two of the doctors I trusted the most said Tms Tms Tms.
I remember by the time Sarno called me back the pain was almost gone. He also told me there are so many conditions that are Tms that he wouldn't have time to write it all in a book.
Wish there was a way I could better reassure you. Also I assumed I never got to the cause of it because I had so much stress and problems in my life that I gave up on trying to figure out what caused it and just repeated Sarno and my other doctors words.
Other doctor is a cancer surgeon who put me onto Tms. How real does that get? |
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pan
United Kingdom
173 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2013 : 01:06:19
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Think you guys should look up the work of Lorimar Mosely....the subjective reference point of pain and how this ties in with pain amplification is certainly worth a consideration before we start rooting around for all those unconcious driving factors of pain.
Wake me up with your amphetamine blast
Take me by the collar and throw me out into the world
Rock me gently & send me dreaming of something tender
I was brought here to pay homage to the beat surrender
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dgreen97
122 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2013 : 06:40:40
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| the only problem with reading moseley is that he doesnt give any treatment options, at least that ove seem |
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dgreen97
122 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2013 : 07:29:15
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yeah i think the physical pain that may have initiated the original pain is long gone. After the initial pain started, it begins the fear cycle which perpetuates it until you consciously stop it. Thats the problem though, its a cycle and very difficult to stop especially if its something you really care about and its been going on for a long while. you kind of have to nip it in the bud really early otherwise you become entrenched like we are and its much harder to get out. I read an analogy somewhere its like a truck stuck in mud tracks. even if you're turning left and right the truck is still going to go back in the ruts until finally after some time you turn and it goes out of them.
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Interesting talk with psychologist today
