2. My Success Story

:eek:

Okay, seriously... why does YouTube always choose absolutely the worst still image to use as their cover photo? o_O

I told them to update it, but apparently it hasn't caught yet.
 
Thank you Forest...its so encouraging to hear your recovery......you had pain for a very long time....as I have had...and
Ive always been afraid that the chronicity isa barrier to getting well. You must have felt you were in a nightmare thru some of that stuff! Yeah 90 % is acceptable....if I could even get 50% id be happy. I walked up the ten stairs to my garden today and now as I lie in bed I have a burning pain in both legs and my neck is solid...but Im at the beginning of my recovery so I start where am today.
Thanks for the video
BB
 
That was great, Forest. And I'm glad you're feeling so much better now. It was helpful to hear that you still get some pain (even though I'm of course sorry to hear that) because I tend to feel like I will only be better when I pretty much have zero pain all the time. I still feel I'm not quite "healed" yet, but it seems to be getting better overall--trying to look at it as progress rather than perfection.
 
thanks so much for posting this forest. the success story hits home so much more when its in a video like this instead of writing because i've read your success story before but when you talked about it in the video i connected with it more. was an incredible story that after all of that time you got better it really gives me more hope. i also connected to a lot of things you were saying. i to had the same problem where it started out that i could do a certain amount of time before the symptoms started, then it progressively got shorter and shorter, then the activities i could do became more and more limited, etc. I also do the thing where you look at the "physical reasons" for your symptoms one by one and justify why they didn't work.. i have to do that a lot actually but it just reinforces more and more why doing physical treatment doesn't work and why psychological thinking and treatment is the way to go.

The other interesting thing is that your doctors told you to do way less computer work to heal from the "physical injury". Funny thing is I've had doctors tell me the same crap to stay off the computer and stuff... however it really doesn't matter how much time I spend on it. I used to come home from work after an 8 hour day, watch TV, read if I wanted, and sometimes go on the computer. I've experimented where I didn't do any computer work on the nights that I came home over a couple days and the symptoms didn't change. Again another thing that doesn't make sense. For christ sake I've had times where for 3-4 days I didn't do any computer work whatsoever and the symptoms were just as bad as if I had worked all day long on one. This just proves more and more the psychological connection.

I also know how hard it is to accept the mind body diagnosis when you have doctors telling you stuff they think is structurally wrong. When a doctor, a person you respect of authority in medicine, tells you you have this or that wrong with your body and its causing the symptoms, that always places the doubt in your mind which in my opinion you have to overcome to cure yourself.

Veronica you made a good point too.. there is an acceptance you have to have with the pain as well. Its not uncommon to get pains throughout the day its the chronic pain that is the issue. I've also had this perfectionist attitude that if I dont have zero pain then I havent accomplished my goal of getting rid of the pain. Part of getting rid of the pain though is accepting that some pain is ok you dont have to be 100% pain free constantly to live life. That's a struggling point for me right now as well because I have that perfectionist attitude that every ounce of pain has to dissipate to be happy and I think its a hinderance to progress.
 
dabatross said:
thanks so much for posting this forest.
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I agree 100%. Can't thank you enough for taking the time to post your video. I too connected with it a lot more. The first video that long I have ever watched on Youtube without doing other stuff while it plays. Watched and listed to every second. I literally can relate with everything you said. I didn't realize you had your pain for that long... very sorry to hear about that. But so glad you feel better now.

I too struggle with the perfectionist attitude. Probably always will. But at least now I know.
 
Hi Brian and Enrique,

Would you guys be willing to upload a similar video to Forest's about your success stories? I've also read both of your success stories but think they would sink in much more if it were on video. Anybody else as well who has a success story and is willing to share it on video I and am sure others would greatly appreciate it if you posted. For me personally its hard to find success stories applying directly to my problem so if I can see other's videos that have had similar computer use issues like I have it would be greatly helpful.
 
I'm glad you all liked my video. As dabatross mentioned, videos can really help get the message across and have it sink in. You could probably find a couple other success story videos on you tube. I don't have time to make a lengthy response, but will over the weekend. It is so great to hear everyone's kind words about the video. As I mentioned in the video, what really helped me more then any thing else was connecting to other people's stories about how they recovered. I've always thought videos can really connect to people, and hope to do more in the future.

Veronica said:
I tend to feel like I will only be better when I pretty much have zero pain all the time.
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A lot of TMSers are perfectionist, and I think it is very easy to bring this personality trait into our treatments and feel like we have to have the perfect recovery story. But this can lead to frustration and doubt when we don't get better right away, and I really think it can prevent us from recovering. I have to say, what helped me more then anything else was knowing that I didn't have to limit myself anymore. If I had some pain, I could still do whatever I wanted to do, because it was not a structural problem. Recovering isn't about never having pain for the rest of your life. Recovery to me is simply having the freedom to do what we want. If we have pain a couple times a week, then who cares. We know its just TMS, and don't have to let it take over our lives.
 
That's great, Forest! It's great that you have really gotten your life back after so much time in pain.

Pain didn't limit me that much--I just did a lot of things I had to do with pain, and I really don't want to do that anymore. I know I'll most likely have non-TMS pain from time to time like everyone does, and I'm OK with that. I'm also OK with occasional TMS pain that is alerting me to suppressed feelings...but I feel like I don't want to accept pain too much beyond that. It's kind of a paradox--wanting to accept where we are, even if that includes pain, and yet still be firm with the mind that we're not going to tolerate physical symptoms anymore.
 
Bawbee said:
Thank you Forest...its so encouraging to hear your recovery......you had pain for a very long time....as I have had...and
Ive always been afraid that the chronicity isa barrier to getting well. You must have felt you were in a nightmare thru some of that stuff!
Click to expand...
That which takes a long time to build may take a bit longer to unbuild, but you can do it! Just remember that TMS is not a structural problem, and you can heal.
 
dabatross said:
For christ sake I've had times where for 3-4 days I didn't do any computer work whatsoever and the symptoms were just as bad as if I had worked all day long on one. This just proves more and more the psychological connection.
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I've had very similar experiences with my right knee. It hurt for a couple of years as well, and hurt more when I walked. I might have thought it was physical, but I didn't want to limit myself, so I joined a broomball team. Basically, in broomball, you run around on a bone-jarring ice rink for nearly an hour. If anything would have made it worse, that would.

... But, of course, it didn't. My knee is absolutely fine. It was just conditioning and fear.
 
sounds great Brian thanks sorry i didn't see this thread the forum layout changed a little bit and this was in a different section. forest are you planning on posting your relapse video still? would be interested in seeing that too thanks
 
Many thanks Forest for a terrific video and such harrowing story about TMS. I am so glad about this website, thank you for such an amazing contribution.

One tends to associate pain with (generally) older people. Seeing young human beings suffering such debilitating symptoms is sobering. There is no age for TMS, it can strike at any time. My grandson, complained about a neck ache at the age of 11. There was nothing else affecting him, now I know, that day he had TMS. He also gets asthma attacks when he gets emotional, now I know that TMS can catalyze asthma. TMS must be the most common malady that humanity is experiencing. However, it is shrouded from view, it lurks hidden in the recesses of our psyche and yet it is so overt about the way it strikes. No one can hide from it. What a game, what a strategy!
 
Forest, thank you so much for posting this. I can't imagine being in so much pain for 14 years! I am so glad you're better now.

I was struck by the fact that the pain attacked you in such a way that prevented you from doing what you love (working on your computer). I wonder if this is a common thread with TMS.
 
gailnyc said:
I was struck by the fact that the pain attacked you in such a way that prevented you from doing what you love (working on your computer). I wonder if this is a common thread with TMS.
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I wouldn't be at all surprised if it is. The point, after all, is to keep us distracted by keeping us focused on our body. If our symptoms take away an activity that we depend upon, then it is easy to become obsessed with our "injuries" and completely distracted. This seems to be important in RSI, because it affects specifically whatever you do the most - typically how you make your living - but also on low back pain, neck pain, or many others, where the postural muscles are key to so many activities. All of a sudden we are focused on our symptoms rather than whatever else we might not want to think about.

Looking at the bottom of the page, I just noticed that two people recommended this thread on Facebook. I don't know who it was, but thanks, folks!
 
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