A bit of fun

You can have a chat with your brain (no need to take it out). It's really about getting to know your psyche (your thinking patterns, emotions, personality traits). Putting it all down on paper seems to work best for most people. All the self help TMS recovery programs are designed for this and take you through it one step at a time. You just have to commit to doing it every day no matter how uncomfortable it makes you. There is the free version here called the Self Education Program. I used Dr. Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain.

 

Yes I did the SEP. Thank you so much

 

I didn't believe my symptoms were mind-body until I read Dr. James Alexander's book The Hidden Psychology of Pain: The Use of Understanding to Heal Chronic Pain. He explained Sarno's hypoxia theory—that mild hypoxia can cause severe pain—which made perfect sense to me because my main profoundly debilitating symptoms were body-wide severe 'fibromyalgia'/muscle pain and muscle spasms. (While people have discredited this theory, I still think it's a mechanism the brain uses.) This gave me the optimism that I could get better.

Another symptom (one of a myriad of symptoms) was swelling and inflammation (specifically affecting my breast tissue), so severe that I was investigated for inflammatory breast cancer at the local breast clinic on numerous occasions. I hadn't thought this would be due to TMS, but then, having joined the forum, I read two success stories where the people concerned had been diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome—one had suffered with severely swollen and inflamed feet, the other with inflammation of the hands. I believed their stories, which gave me hope and a smidgen of optimism too.

I also started to take baby steps. I'd been bedbound for 18 months and couldn't stand up at all without pain—or stand for 5 minutes without that pain becoming excruciatingly severe. No doctor could help me, so I started by standing for just 1 minute a day and gradually built up from there and was able to move my body again, which gave me optimism. I read loads of mind-body books and forum postings, cherry-picked techniques that gelled with me from those and from YouTube videos too. I tried to keep an open mind, didn't wallow in despondency, and was never a person who would say "yes, but..." to suggestions from the forums—I vowed I'd try things out rather than dismissing... The plethora of suggestions for techniques gave me optimism that at least some of the things would click with me personally and they have. The encouragement I received here also kept me going, and all the information seeped into my psyche. All of this stuff was I guess like gathering the pieces together of a jigsaw puzzle.

 

Your amazing well done.

Im disheartened because everything ive tried hasn't worked.

. I stopped avoiding. Infact i cant avoid.
. I did journal speak for months. I cried etc nothing changed.
. I did the SEP.
. I did meditation.
. I did breathing exercises
. I went back out to try and do things but it was to hard.
. I told myself im safe over and over
. Ive seen several coaches
. I went back to journalling
. I would listen to music with my eyes closed and imagine myself healed and dancing.
. I did somatic tracking over and over

Im Just so confused how not one of these things has helped.

Perhaps im missing something really obvious

 

The only thoughts you have are related to wanting to heal but not knowing how? I guess that kinda answers the question, you’re completely desperate and in a panic and caught in looping thoughts about your symptoms. Is that what your thoughts are like nonstop?

you say you meditated, what did that entail, methods, for how long? Did you apply what meditation taught you to your daily life and thoughts. The same for the other tools? Were they done with desperation and panic or compassion?

I’ve been TMS aware since feb 2025, I developed jaw pain in March that same year, I didn’t make any lasting progress with it until dec 2025. I had to be honest with myself about the degree of obsession, panic and desperation I was in. You can try all the tools or programs you want but if the moment after you put the pen down after journalling or end a somatic tracking session you go back to the same panicked desperate thoughts, then zero is being accomplished. This isn’t a passive process and tools shouldnt be seen as just passive things we do in the moment, they should seep into the rest of our lives, we are the ones who have to reinforce them.

 

If the mechanism of tms is about distracting you from your emotions and ive religiously journalled, cried, explored my emotional world. Felt my feelings. Been raw. Been honest. Been real. Why didnt it stop? Theres a flaw there with the mechanism then.

I do not get much out of meditation personally. It isnt for everyone.

Yes im desperate. Because I have done everything ive been asked to do and it has made no difference what so ever.

When I started this work I did it calmly as instructed in the books and by the coaches I hired. When nothing changes after months on end. Yes one starts to panic because the mechanism and the way the books says it works isnt working.

 

There is way way more to this than a distraction from emotions. Maybe that’s what started it or primed you for chronic pain, but panic and obsession regarding the symptoms and treating yourself like trash can easily perpetuate them and keep them going. Only the Sarno purists adhere to this being solely about rage or repressed emotions. Sarno, if he were alive today would’ve unquestionably updated his philosophy.

if there are coaches who you paid that fed you that this is just strictly about repressed emotions, then they failed you, and I’m sorry they let you down. So many factors can throw us in nervous system dysfunction. It’s very clear your thoughts are now the thing doing it.

I highly recommend non guided spiritual based meditation and approaching all this from a different lens.

 

I do not know whats perpuating it anymore and I wish someone would just sit with me and explain to me what needs to happen.
Because I no longer understand.

Clearly its just my way of being thats causing it then.

I dunno.

I Will go. I wont bother anyone anymore

 

It’s all our ways of being that causes them. All of us are dysfunctional. We’re working on it. It’s hard work. I think a first step is just detaching a bit from the symptoms, and modifying thought pattern to lessen obsessive thoughts regarding them. Which I why I think meditations and mantras (japa-silent mantra in your head or chanting out loud) are useful tools, but they take time to actually see progress.


I can’t speak for everyone, but you aren’t bothering me, I like chatting with you. But your sadness and desperation makes me sad. I hope you know you deserve better.

 

Yes so @CalmIsTheCure Ive just recently started this Rabscuttle meditation shit and im already starting to love it. I cant set an alarm so i kind of just have to go with vibes but i already find myself not wanting to return to life whilst meditating considering it is pretty shitty. Meditation in comparison is pretty nice

My symptoms are kind of flaring too but yeah we just gotta stick with it. I get desperate too, we all have. Try meditating with us. Rabscuttle made me try it again

 

No one is saying you're bothering us. This is your despondency speaking here, and we've all had at least moments of that, so we understand.

I agree with @Rabscuttle, I believe he is spot on with the following...

Referencing my own recovery journey, what I believe you're 'missing' is that recovery isn't try one or two things at a time, seeing if they 'work', then always giving up on them when they haven't done the trick, but building a new life where the pieces (habits, mindset, joys) interlock—like a jigsaw puzzle—creating a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts. Sure, some people meditate or journal and recover from just doing that, but for some of us (I would wager the majority of us) we need to incorporate new life affirming, healthy activities into our lives and make them habits over time. It took months of "seep-in" before shifts happened.

My advice would be to choose one thing you don't mind doing or even like (e.g., 5 minutes gentle music listening or a mindful stretch)—add it daily without expecting anything to happen in the short or medium term. Make it a neutral habit first, then layer another. No pressure-list of 'chores'; just steady, enjoyable building that feels like "me-time", not work.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rc6Od1XV1KA

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zRHSoJERaug

 

A coach told me that if you prefer the meditation to being in your life then its bad. Your trying trying to escape your reality.

I do.a meditation every night anyway.
What u doing

 

Thanks. The pain is just so bad I dont think I can take it anymore.

 

Lol who said that?

I understand what he means but its just a hobby (maybe even more). Im not trying to escape anything; I’m just making do with the cards im dealt.

You see if i were desperately trying to do everything perfectly i would now freak out because you said some coach said i was doing something wrong.

We just have to learn to communicate with our bodies. I dont know if ill ever get there but i wont pass up on some lovely divine enlightenment.

I was getting scared because symptoms were slightly higher but im already back in my groove again. Just try to tell yourself ‘it aint that deep’.

 

BINGO!!!

 

I dont wanna call the coach out.

But the idea being that meditation is just escaping your reality. I dunno. I dont know what anyone is talking about anymore

 

I just want to share this is some big character development on my part because i was close to a complete mental breakdown and suddenly an hour later im back to business. I dont know what new stuff will be wrong tomorrow but im really still evolving

 

Its about creating a selfcare routine. The journaling, the meditation, whatever else you can come up with. If its done purely to get better, its the same ruthless attitude we tend to have towards other parts of our life. Give yourself a break.

And if i never get better then meditation is the perfect skill because it can be done in silence lol. Only winners here.

Everyone says something else. Thats why you have to find what resonates with you. We all have a different path.

And the ‘lets stop talking’ is tms personality. I always did the same thing. When id be at an appointment id be cutting off the convo just so we wouldnt be too late. Fuck that, thats the therapist or doctors or whomevers job, not mine. My job at the doctors is to be heard and to be seen.

People choose to respond to you. If Adam or Moon want to stop talking — they will let you know. You are worth our time. Everyone that comes here to learn and get better is worth it.

Just keep coming here. We dont really have anywhere else to go. I think you found the right place

 

You are all beint very lovely.

Im just battle weary now.

Ive tried. I really have.

I deserve to heal. I have done everything ive been told to do.

I feel alone.

As usual

 

And as long as you arent improving people will keep trying to find something wrong with whatever you do. Its kind of the premise of tms that everyone can get better. I sometimes wonder how much of this is just a big game of chance but the least we can do is laugh about it and keep trying