Gigalos

I discovered TMS beginning of 2013 by coincidence and it was truly a life changing event. At the time I was home bound by a great variety of shifting and changing symptoms, and I couldn't find any long lasting relief with traditional and alternative therapies:
- Pain (top-down): headache, oversensitive teeth, neck, upper back, arms/hands, chest pains, stomach pain, stabbing groin pain, hip pain, buttock pain, rectum pain, leg and foot pain (incl. cramps in calfs and inside upper leg muscles).
- Muscle fasciculations: all over, varying from a buzzing feeling after workout to visible twitching of large muscles.
- Muscle control: especially my legs refused to cooperate after walking short distances, sometimes it felt like I was walking on a waterbed.
- Dizziness: certain movements would provoke the room spinning in front of me.
- Digestion: IBS like symptoms
- Energy: extremely low on energy, sleeping most of the day.
- Immune system: often a cold, skin rashes, zits, athletes feet, urticaria.
- Addictions: several (tobacco, weed, sugar, games, forums )
- Mental: worried, depressed, anxious and angry about all my symptoms.

I changed my diet to a healthier one, which helped me to feel a little bit better, but the real key to my recovery was acknowledging the fact that I was suppressing emotions like hell and scared sh!tless about all the symptoms; I was living my life in freeze-mode.

Initially I made significant progress, but it took me more than a year to really feel like I regained control over my brain. I managed to walk any distance, could play table tennis again, grow my own herbs and veggies in the garden (great way to clean your head) and lift objects that used to scare me. Like many of us I experience setbacks, but the intensity is only a fraction of what it used to be. Being healed is being able to cope with any symptoms the right way. I cannot tell which methods helped me most, because it is a mix of many different things. I will state the most important ones:
- affirmations to counter self critique and pressure on myself: 'I accept myself, I appreciate myself, heck... I love myself!'. Or to quiet myself down:'I feel relaxed, patient and confident'.
- meditation to get in touch with my emotions and somatic tracking to teach my brain not to fear any symptoms.
- journalling/psychologist: only in the beginning to get some things of my chest and to get a better idea what I really struggled with.
- being physically active to regain my confidence, but never to the point that I tried to push through intense symptoms.

There is a lot of information to be found that helped me or still helps me, so I will state the most important ones:
- Books: Sarno 'The Mindbody Prescription', SteveO(zanich) 'TGPD', Claire Weeks 'Essential Help for your Nerves'.
- Video's: 'All the Rage', 'This Might Hurt', 'Pain Brain'.
- Several posts by dear members of the TMSHelp and TMSWiki forums.
(Nederlandse bezoekers adviseer ik om ook eens te kijken op www.depijnvoorbij.nl)

My goal here is to periodically help people with similar struggles I had or still have. The danger of a forum is that it starts to become a distraction, so don't be surprised if I am not around for a longer period of time.

There is so much more that I could write down, but I think this is enough for people to get an idea.

"The reign of pain lies mainly in the brain" - Howard Schubiner