Day 8 My TMS treatment up to this point

Hi

I have had back, neck, jaw, head and shoulder pains for over 20 years and intermittently visited chiropractors, osteopths and acupuncturists, mostly inbetween self-medicating with NSAIDs, alcohol and rest. The symptoms came and went, rising and falling with the toils of life. The tension headaches and clenched jaw were ever-present. This accelerated around 5 years ago after a nasty virus and I started to have bad leg and hand pains and also tinnitus, brain fog and fatigue: new symptoms. As these were so debilitating, resulting in weeks off work at a time, I started to visit GPs again and was largely ignored, forcing me to start my own research. I stumbled across things like fibromyalgia, Lyme disease, rheumatoid arthiritis and chronic fatigue syndrome. The GPs sent me for all the blood tests and nothing came up apart from vitamin D deficiency. Eventually, the exclusionary principle led to a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome and access to a government funded programme. I also sought he help of a family friend doctor who was studying functional medicine and a counsellor. All of these things were breakthroughs as they made me start analysing my emotions, diet, sleeping habits and stressors. I made a lot of lifestyle changes which improved things considerably, but I always considered myself ill and accepted that I wouldn't be able to exercise and had to slow down a lot at work and socially. It was only recently, following a bout of fatigue that kept me off work for nearly 3 months last year, that I started to reinvigorate my research and came across Dr Sarno's work. This was a big suprise and reading the personality traits of TMS sufferers really resonated with me and convinced me to read on and then find this Wiki and start the strucutured education programme. It's only been a week but I feel so much more positive and some of my pains have subsided. I am starting to exercise again without the fear. I have had some interesting emotional insights. One thing that really clicked was that I realised that my chronic fatigue symptoms, relatively new ones in my history, were learned from the nasty virus I had. It always confused me that the symptoms of CFS I had were so much like that virus. I was convinced that it was a post-viral condition, and in a way it is but not in the way I imagined. I now know that I learned these symptoms as a way to distract my mind from stress and emotional pain as they were so effective at keeping me away from the source of the pain, a lot of which originates and is triggered by situations at work and how I see myself in my role. I have a way to go but I feel so much more positive and willing to put in the work to get rid of my symptoms once and for all.