Recent content by joe12stories

Yes to everything except maybe the slamming of the fists, for which I would suggest taking it out on something safer, like JournalSpeaking or a good workout (or both). On the last question of how you know when you've finished with that issue/event/emotion - you'll know. Sometimes you journal it...

Sometimes repressed memories do pop back up, like in the movies. Sometimes they don't. Overcoming TMS is not so much about remembering things you forgot, but rather, letting the feelings associated with them come out. Sometimes that involves a specific memory, sometimes it doesn't, which is good...

Claire Weekes specializes in the type of anxiety that can lead to panic attacks. In that scenario, Hope and Help for Your Nerves is your bible. But for the less intense but longer lasting baseline anxiety you're describing, where you definitely need to get out the repressed emotional stuff, the...

Journaling (not just journaling - check out JournalSpeak; in a journal you keep your entries. Not with JournalSpeak. In journaling you also write things in a private but reserved way. Not with JournalSpeak. It really is liberating). But whether you use Skype therapy or JournalSpeak (as for other...

Yep - multiple doctors with no conclusive results (been there done that) points squarely to TMS. They're looking at the physical, so they will never find the source. But now you know! On the Skype therapist, if he/she helped, why not continue? :-) As for the question of a double-whammy of...

In my specific case, I got that all too familiar back pinch while sitting and twisting. Previously I would get up all crooked as the pain would continue to pinch. But I literally talked it down, taking a moment's pause before I got up and thinking: "Nope. You can't trick me this time. There's...

My thinking was that there is no quick fix to apply to get out of a symptom just when it begins... until I was able to fix a tinge quickly! I still shake my head thinking how impossible I once thought it was. And I agree. Everyone has their own way, and yep, fear is the common enemy! Fear is...

Yep. I surprised myself when I could actually use the method to make a sudden back pain go away. I thought "it works for anxiety, but surely not for one of those back pulls!". I was wrong (and happily so!). I'm not saying there aren't setbacks, but they are so few and far in-between that my life...

Yes! Absolutely! 100%! I was flabbergasted to learn how similar the treatment for chronic TMS pain was to anxiety after reading Dr. Sarno's books.

I'm happy to converse about this constructively, and thankful that a forum like this exists to enable that! First, I honestly don't recall saying the brain redirects our anxiety into pain, and I'm with Alan on what he said. What I may have said, or at least meant to say, is that the brain will...

To be specific, the anxiety isn't actually helping you (after all, it's anxiety), but your brain thinks it is by taking your mind off of some other repressed emotion. If you happen to know it's TMS (usually you can once you expose the brain's tricks), you have a head start because you can tell...

Since you ask for suggestions, it appears to me there are two main camps of TMS'ers: (1) firm believers in the diagnosis and (2) fearful doubters in the diagnosis. Sure, some will fall in-between, but I can see how many are definitely one or the other just by reading the comments. The firm...

Hi. TMS is not the same as anxiety. TMS (think of the T = tension) is where your unconscious self uses your brain to redirect your anger / depression / anxiety into physical pain. Anxiety is something TMS can pull out of its bag of tricks when it sees you're dealing with the pain successfully by...

UPDATE! Baseball65 was right! I kept my mind focused on the unsavory topic, took the anxiety that came with it, and after 4 days of absolute agony, forcing myself to sit up in my chair and walk upright, lying down only when I felt I might spasm. And sure enough, days 5 through 9 saw the pain...

Wow! The first audio clip hit me hard (in the good way). "No because". I really needed to hear this, being the over-analyzer myself. I love how the key for Ginger to let go was her realization that she had to stop thinking. I could learn a lot from that. Feel. Don't think. And thank you John...