1. Our TMS drop-in chat is today (Saturday) from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM DST Eastern U.S. (New York). It's a great way to get quick and interactive peer support. BruceMC is today's host. Click here for more info or just look for the red flag on the menu bar at 3pm Eastern.
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Forest
Last Activity:
Aug 29, 2024
Joined:
Feb 18, 2012
Messages:
3,310
Likes Received:
3,151
Trophy Points:
131
Bookmarks:
13
Gender:
Male
Birthday:
Jun 12, 1973 (Age: 51)
Home Page:
Location:
Boston, MA
Occupation:
Economics Instructor

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Forest

Beloved Grand Eagle, Male, 51, from Boston, MA

“Baseball is 90 per cent mental. The other half is physical.” -- Yogi Berra Jul 12, 2017

Forest was last seen:
Aug 29, 2024
  • My Story

    Some Favorite Threads and Posts
    I encourage everyone to make a list like the one above, to share the threads that you find most helpful. To see how, click here.

    My story

    As you can read, below, I had my own 18 year struggle with TMS. It played a huge role in my young adulthood and I think that no one should have to live with TMS pain. Therefore, as I was recovering, I decided to found a wiki about TMS where people could share their experiences as peers. That was 6 years ago, and I am now the president of The PPD/TMS Peer Network, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs this website. I have also presented at the TMS conferences in Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, and New York, as well as the TMS Master Class in New York.

    What I have learned the most from are are my own experiences (see below) and what I have read on this forum. I do put a lot of effort in behind the scenes, though. To help people understand where my time goes, I put together a todo list a couple years back.

    Feel free to hit me up on Facebook or LinkedIn.

    My experience with TMS

    I've done videos of my success story and a relapse I had. There is also a video of a presentation of my story that I gave at a conference. The following is the writeup that I did when I first started posting, 5 years ago:

    TMS first started affecting me when I was a teenager. I was a bit of computer hacker, typing away on my Mac plus, when my forearms began to hurt. I visited a doctor about it, and was told that I had tendonitis from too much typing. I was sent to occupational therapy and told that I needed to be careful about typing too much.

    Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, the "tendonitis" only got worse. As time progressed, the amount that I could type or mouse before my symptoms started to flare up got smaller and smaller until, five years in, I couldn't type more than a couple sentences without some sort of flare up. Worse, the "RSI," as I now called it, began spreading into my neck and back. I became very limited in the amount of time that I could spend sitting in certain chairs, looking down at papers on a desk, or even writing.

    Eventually, I graduated college. Holding any sort of job was a challenge, but I still had to support myself, so it felt like a struggle to survive. The pain levels always got worse when I did certain activities, and I had been trained to believe that if I didn't stop doing those activities the pain level would keep getting worse until it was excruciating. Experience had taught me that the worse I let it get, the more rest it would take to "heal."

    My hands were so sensitive that I would develop writers cramp after writing even a very small amount of text. I tried using voice recognition software many times (I own 5 versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking), but whenever I did, my throat started to hurt. That terrified me because I didn't want to have to drastically limit my speaking the way I felt I had to drastically limit my computer use and handwriting. If that happened, how could I hold a job?

    That was the way that my life was for over 10 years. I chose my jobs based on what I felt would give me the best chance of healing. I avoided dating because I felt like I needed to focus on getting some financial security. When I did date, I refused to get married because I felt like it was all that I could do to keep myself employed without worsening my RSI, so I knew that I couldn't be a good father or husband.

    I had come across mind-body ideas years ago, mostly from Paul Marxhausen's postings on the Sorehand mailing list. However, they felt to far-fetched to me at the time, so they didn't help me. What finally convinced me was stumbling across and reading a bunch of TMS success stories last December that were written by people whose experiences were extremely similar to my own. That convinced me to push my boundaries a little. Doing so went terrifically, which helped me believe the ideas more. Eventually, the whole process snowballed, and now I don't limit my day to day activities at all and am enjoying athletic activities that I had avoided for a long time. I still have occasional flareups, but they don't bother me, even though I am doing far more than before. I just ignore the symptoms, and feel like I have my life back.

    Almost immediately after recovering, I started thinking about starting a wiki, because I wanted to share what I had learned with other people who were still sick. Since it was reading other people's success stories that cured me, the first thing that I decided to work on was the Success Stories by Symptoms & Diagnoses page. I want everyone to be able to find a list of success stories by people "just like them," as well as information about their specific diagnosis or symptoms.

    I also always thought of the wiki as being part of my healing plan. I had had recoveries like this before, but had always relapsed. The immense investment that I have made in the nonprofit has forced me to commit to mind-body ideas. I'm very proud of what I've done on the wiki, and helping people through it is slowly becoming part of my identity. I'm an extremely private person, but I just told my first work friend about it, and have finally mustered the guts to put my success story up. After all of this, how could I possibly not commit to this approach?

    [​IMG]
    1. Krisssyiii
      Krisssyiii
      How can I erase my date of birth for privacy? I left it unchecked and it still stays there. Please erase krisssyiii
    2. Lainey
      Lainey
      Forest
      How can I install a new icon. I want change the current one of my pet.
      Thanks
      Lainey
    3. BlissfulYonath
      BlissfulYonath
      I would like to change my username to 'BilssfulYonash' and delete my old postings. I sent you a PM
    4. Bennyvk
      Bennyvk
      hi forest can you tell me how to delete an old thread o the sub forum page?
    5. Hamed
      Hamed
      Hi Forest, I watched your success story video on YouTube and was curious about a few things. While experiencing your RSI symptoms, did you also experience general hand weakness and clumsiness in addition to the cramping? Were you ever diagnosed as having Carpal Tunnel (with or without an EMG)? Also, how are your symptoms these days?
      1. Forest
        Forest
        Nope, not CT. Only TOS, and not much nerve involvement. I did have some hand clumsiness and weakness. Always good to work with a TMS doc, though, as I can only speak to my own experiences. My symptoms are good these days. If I type a lot, they are sore, but I ignore it and it doesn't affect my life.
        Feb 26, 2018
    6. Albertson22
      Albertson22
      I want to change my username to Panther
    7. Kevin Barry
      Kevin Barry
      This Wiki is an amazing display of what the human spirit can do. Thank you!
      1. Forest and plum like this.
    8. dIK8Lsf3Bl3y4DTtSWEZ
      dIK8Lsf3Bl3y4DTtSWEZ
      "...I suspect English isn't his first language..." What is that supposed to mean? That I don't know what I express in english?
    9. Forest
      Forest
      “Baseball is 90 per cent mental. The other half is physical.” -- Yogi Berra
    10. Riffdex
      Riffdex
      Pt 3: Perhaps some users wouldn't mind lending out their book as long as the borrower pays "to" and "return" shipping costs. What do you think?
    11. Riffdex
      Riffdex
      Pt 2: Perhaps another user owns the book Healing Back Pain, or "The Presence Process: A Journey Into Present Moment Awareness" by Michael Brown and wants to ship me their copy temporarily to read. Shipping soft cover books via USPS is very easy and affordable. Users can reach an agreement on paying for shipping costs.
    12. Riffdex
      Riffdex
      Pt 1: Hi Forest. I wanted to suggest we start a "Book Club" thread where users can state the TMS books they own (and have already read) and agree to ship the books to other members around the country while that user sends a copy of their book to the first user. For example, I own and read The Mindbody Prescription and The Divided Mind by Sarno. I am happy to send these to another user who would like to read them.
    13. Dasgo218
      Dasgo218
      Part 2 of my message: I don't remember my password. When I click on "forgot password", I type in my username (email) and then it says that my username does not exist so it won't send me a temporary password to reset it. Can you help?
      1. Forest
        Forest
        Apr 13, 2017
    14. Dasgo218
      Dasgo218
      Hello Forest. I am having some issue with logging in. I can log into the forum (it will pre-populate my username and password), but if I navigate away to other pages, it shows me as not logged in. When I click on "log in" again, it doesn't pre-populate my username and password, as it does on the forum page.
    15. riv44
      riv44
      Health anxiety is epidemic and encouraged by the society we live in.
    16. Zoltan
      Zoltan
      Hi, thanks for creating this community. I could already run and I got so much worse from one day to next that I did not think it was even possible. I'll go to the success stories. page crying.
    17. douggie
      douggie
      Thanks for putting together the wiki as well as sharing your story.

      When I read about how you delayed dating and had to qualify the jobs you worked at based on managing your RSI I started crying because I've been there. The worst feeling during that period is seeing how the RSI progressively would get worse. It makes life so much harder to enjoy
      1. Forest likes this.
      2. Forest
        Forest
        I hear you. It's hard to understand how it narrows your life and the fear that that causes unless you've been there.
        Nov 18, 2016
    18. diver12
      diver12
      Forest, you say that you just ignore the symptoms and they don't bother you. Do the symptoms actually go away with this TMS healing or is it just a way to ignore it?
      1. Forest likes this.
      2. Forest
        Forest
        Heya, diver, they generally go away, though sometimes it takes a while. Of course, if I focus on something else, the time inbetween is better.
        Nov 18, 2016
        Hamed likes this.
      3. Hamed
        Hamed
        Forest, how did you manage to focus on something else when the typing gets progressively harder and harder as the cramping/pain increases? Any suggestions?
        Feb 26, 2018
    19. Joely
      Joely
      Where do I start post?
      1. Forest
        Nov 18, 2016
    20. Nanna7
      Nanna7
      Hi Forest, I'm new and have written my story. Where do I go to share it and get help with my tms symptoms that's at the end of my story?
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  • My Story

    Gender:
    Male
    Birthday:
    Jun 12, 1973 (Age: 51)
    Home Page:
    http://www.tmswiki.org/
    Location:
    Boston, MA
    Occupation:
    Economics Instructor
    Diagnoses:
    Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI), Tendonitis, Tendonosis, Tenosynovitis, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disorder (GERD), Patellofemoral syndrome, Plantar Fascitis, Anxiety, and Major Depression
    Some Favorite Threads and Posts
    I encourage everyone to make a list like the one above, to share the threads that you find most helpful. To see how, click here.

    My story

    As you can read, below, I had my own 18 year struggle with TMS. It played a huge role in my young adulthood and I think that no one should have to live with TMS pain. Therefore, as I was recovering, I decided to found a wiki about TMS where people could share their experiences as peers. That was 6 years ago, and I am now the president of The PPD/TMS Peer Network, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs this website. I have also presented at the TMS conferences in Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, and New York, as well as the TMS Master Class in New York.

    What I have learned the most from are are my own experiences (see below) and what I have read on this forum. I do put a lot of effort in behind the scenes, though. To help people understand where my time goes, I put together a todo list a couple years back.

    Feel free to hit me up on Facebook or LinkedIn.

    My experience with TMS

    I've done videos of my success story and a relapse I had. There is also a video of a presentation of my story that I gave at a conference. The following is the writeup that I did when I first started posting, 5 years ago:

    TMS first started affecting me when I was a teenager. I was a bit of computer hacker, typing away on my Mac plus, when my forearms began to hurt. I visited a doctor about it, and was told that I had tendonitis from too much typing. I was sent to occupational therapy and told that I needed to be careful about typing too much.

    Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, the "tendonitis" only got worse. As time progressed, the amount that I could type or mouse before my symptoms started to flare up got smaller and smaller until, five years in, I couldn't type more than a couple sentences without some sort of flare up. Worse, the "RSI," as I now called it, began spreading into my neck and back. I became very limited in the amount of time that I could spend sitting in certain chairs, looking down at papers on a desk, or even writing.

    Eventually, I graduated college. Holding any sort of job was a challenge, but I still had to support myself, so it felt like a struggle to survive. The pain levels always got worse when I did certain activities, and I had been trained to believe that if I didn't stop doing those activities the pain level would keep getting worse until it was excruciating. Experience had taught me that the worse I let it get, the more rest it would take to "heal."

    My hands were so sensitive that I would develop writers cramp after writing even a very small amount of text. I tried using voice recognition software many times (I own 5 versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking), but whenever I did, my throat started to hurt. That terrified me because I didn't want to have to drastically limit my speaking the way I felt I had to drastically limit my computer use and handwriting. If that happened, how could I hold a job?

    That was the way that my life was for over 10 years. I chose my jobs based on what I felt would give me the best chance of healing. I avoided dating because I felt like I needed to focus on getting some financial security. When I did date, I refused to get married because I felt like it was all that I could do to keep myself employed without worsening my RSI, so I knew that I couldn't be a good father or husband.

    I had come across mind-body ideas years ago, mostly from Paul Marxhausen's postings on the Sorehand mailing list. However, they felt to far-fetched to me at the time, so they didn't help me. What finally convinced me was stumbling across and reading a bunch of TMS success stories last December that were written by people whose experiences were extremely similar to my own. That convinced me to push my boundaries a little. Doing so went terrifically, which helped me believe the ideas more. Eventually, the whole process snowballed, and now I don't limit my day to day activities at all and am enjoying athletic activities that I had avoided for a long time. I still have occasional flareups, but they don't bother me, even though I am doing far more than before. I just ignore the symptoms, and feel like I have my life back.

    Almost immediately after recovering, I started thinking about starting a wiki, because I wanted to share what I had learned with other people who were still sick. Since it was reading other people's success stories that cured me, the first thing that I decided to work on was the Success Stories by Symptoms & Diagnoses page. I want everyone to be able to find a list of success stories by people "just like them," as well as information about their specific diagnosis or symptoms.

    I also always thought of the wiki as being part of my healing plan. I had had recoveries like this before, but had always relapsed. The immense investment that I have made in the nonprofit has forced me to commit to mind-body ideas. I'm very proud of what I've done on the wiki, and helping people through it is slowly becoming part of my identity. I'm an extremely private person, but I just told my first work friend about it, and have finally mustered the guts to put my success story up. After all of this, how could I possibly not commit to this approach?

    [​IMG]

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