Day 2 this got me...

I was wondering: if I generally experience pain when I'm knowingly stressed or anxious how does repression have a role? I KNOW I'm nervous, mad, anxious, rushed... I don't feel repressed in the slightest, rather activated & painful (flared up).

Today's article reveals this statement:

"Dr. Sarno makes an important point in his books--the feelings that trigger TMS symptoms are not conscious, perceived feelings of anger or fear. The troublemakers are the negative feelings that are simmering below the surface, which is why they're so hard to pinpoint. "

Are feelings of stress stand-ins for other emotions?

 

Hedgehog, I'm not sure how to reply to your post. You don't feel you're repressing anything, but in TMS we are, perhaps unknowingly, holding some anger inside us that is caused by our present or past situations or dealings with others.

I never realized how much stress and anxiety I had about my boyhood until I journaled about it in the TMS program. I realized I was repressing anger and feelings of abandonment and insecurity from my parents' divorcing when I was seven. I had put that out of my mind for years, but it came back ot haunt me in the form of TMS, severe back pain. JOurnaling led me to accepting the pain and realizing it came from my parents' divorce. I came to understand myself and them better, forgave them (mentally, becaue they were both one gone), and it healed my back pain.

Keep journaling and you may discover things that caused you stress that you never realized before.

But don't spend a lot of time day on this. Just an hour max, then enjoy yourself. It's healthy and healing to dig into those repressed emotions, but don;t stay there. And Dr. Sarno also says it is not necessary to solve our emotional problems. It is enough to recognize them, then the subconscious lets go of the pain. It gives us pain so we work on discovering its emotional causes.

 

Hi Hedgehog - I think this is the right question, and I don't mind saying that my answer is an unqualified YES!

The journaling exercises that you'll be doing in the SEP are designed to help you reach these deeper emotions, IF you do them with complete honesty. That means ignoring the little voice in your head that says "oh, don't write THAT down, that's not important" or "that's too embarrassing..." or whatever it might say. Part of this journey is learning to hear that voice, constantly trying to work its negativity in the background of your consciousness.

I found that when I forced myself to write "those" things down anyway, that they revealed old hidden fears and emotions that I had no idea were in my unconscious. And the thing is, they weren't even all that earth-shattering or dire - they were just old things I'd never faced up to, that my brain felt needed to be hidden away. It was really interesting and helpful.

You don't have to have had a dysfunctional or abusive childhood to have TMS. I recognized that I'd had severe anxiety even as a child - and while I can probably blame my mother for that, along with her dislike of intimacy and emotions, I still have to say that our family was pretty damn functional. I inherited a certain amount of self-accountability from both of my parents, which is why I was able to embrace the TMS concept immediately and fully when I read the Divided Mind just about four years ago. Which isn't to say I'm cured - I still get symptoms, but as I often say now, my relationship with the symptoms is totally different. I see TMS in my siblings, and it finally showed up in my mother the last few years of her life (to age 92) although she did a pretty good job keeping a lid on it for years! I think it's ubiquitous amongst all humans, in fact, to some degree.

Good luck on your journey, keep posting, and know that we're here for you!

Jan

 

Thanks to both of you for your caring responses. It's helpful!