A Rise in Your Internal Anxiety

[Forest]

A slight rise in internal anxiety is like your body letting you know, "I need to be attended to." When you attend to it, it calms down. When you don’t, much like a baby, its cries will get louder.

Know this: your chronic pain is the baby crying louder and louder, desperately trying to get your attention, so you can attend to your internal state. If you learn to sooth your internal bully these cries will slowly but surely diminish. The more you sooth yourself, the less rage your unconscious will have.

Your unconscious is the primitive part of your brain, and is very much like a baby. It want so badly to be listened to that it cries and cries. These cries take the form of chronic pain. However, if your primitive brain is soothed, then these cries lessen and lessen, and there is no longer any need for it to create the symptoms. Learn to soothe your inner child, and you will heal.

 

[Stella]

I was with my Mother today. All their prescriptions got screwed up. I could feel the muscles in my abdomen getting tighter and tighter... but I felt it. I knew it. Meditation has helped me become aware of all the parts of my body and how they respond to stress. I knew it was time to sooth that crying baby. Time to back away. Time to kick the internal bully in the butt. Get out of my head.

 

[Gigi]

I'm having pain in my feet again and it's no doubt calling me to pay attention to something. But as I'm still sort of a newbie, I have a great deal of difficulty getting a read on WHAT I'm supposed to attend to!!

 

[Gigi]

I'm having pain in my feet again and it's no doubt calling me to pay attention to something. But as I'm still sort of a newbie, I have a great deal of difficulty getting a read on WHAT I'm supposed to attend to!!

Louise Hay would say I should repeat something like, "The answers I seek will be provided to me as I need them." I really DO believe that I'll figure this out--and that's progress

 

[myg]

I think that this section, about attending to one's internal state, is probably the most important section in the entire program:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/TMS_Recovery_Program#Attend_to_Your_Internal_State

We TMSers are constantly generating tension that feeds our symptoms. One of the absolute most important keys to healing from TMS is learning to attend to that internal tension, understand it, and figure out how to soothe it. We always need to be paying attention to our own internal level of tension and then doing whatever it takes to relieve that tension.

 

[Forest]

Stella, it is great to see that you were able to identify when your anxiety was ramping up and taking steps to calm it down. Learning to identify, as Myg mention, when our internal states are getting out of hand will be a tremendous help in reversing this disorder.

Gigi, as for what to do when your symptoms are increasing follow what Dr. Sarno says under the Think Psychological section of HBP: "I suggest to patients that when they find themselves being aware of the pain they must consciously and forcefully shift their attention to something psychological, like something they are worried about, a chronic family or financial problem, a recurrent source of irritation, anything in the psychological realm, for that sends a message to the brain that they're no longer deceived by the pain. When the message reaches the depths of the mind, the subconscious, the pain ceases."

It is not all that important to figure out exactly what your unconscious is trying to tell you. Simply by turning your thoughts inward, you will be able to reduce the need for the symptoms. By thinking psychological you will be able to reduce the internal tension that your symptoms create.

 

[Leslie]

But as I'm still sort of a newbie, I have a great deal of difficulty getting a read on WHAT I'm supposed to attend to!!

I've been around here a little while and I still have a fairly high degree of figuring out specifically "what" (in terms of which emotion I might be suppressing or repressing). I'm pretty sure my inner child is right around 2 years old, limited vocabulary and prone to throwing fits that consist of incomprehensible babble. I don't spend nearly as much time now trying to identify the "what". In fact, I find if it's going to identify itself it generally does it when I'm not trying to figure it out anyway. Now when symptoms get my attention I acknowledge the attempt compassionately. Generally a conscious thought along the lines of "ok, I'm paying attention, to me". I'll spend some time doing for me and making the changes I can to reduce stress and tension. The first place I start is paying attention to my breathing. I always find that's it shallow when I'm at the beginning of this sequence and concentrating of taking deep breaths almost always makes my yawn and feel like I can't breathe at first but after the first few seconds it starts to regulate and the symptoms begin to leave the front of my mind. Another thing I'm doing more and more is to do the opposite of whatever my instinct would have been in reaction to what I'm noticing. For instance if I feel my anxiety increase, rather than immediately look for something, anything to distract me from it, I force myself to sit quietly and be with it. If I'm feeling fatigued (and I know there is not a genuine reason for it) I increase my activity for a little while. I don't do these things to the point that they become a punishment though, just long enough to remove the symptoms from the forefront of my thinking.

 

[Stock Trader]

Another thing I'm doing more and more is to do the opposite of whatever my instinct would have been in reaction to what I'm noticing. For instance if I feel my anxiety increase, rather than immediately look for something, anything to distract me from it, I force myself to sit quietly and be with it. If I'm feeling fatigued (and I know there is not a genuine reason for it) I increase my activity for a little while.

I like this idea.

 

[Forest]

I'm pretty sure my inner child is right around 2 years old, limited vocabulary and prone to throwing fits that consist of incomprehensible babble. I don't spend nearly as much time now trying to identify the "what". In fact, I find if it's going to identify itself it generally does it when I'm not trying to figure it out anyway.

We have to be ready to heal. If you are ready to heal and accept your emotions, then you won't need to even do anything to release them. They will release themselves on their own. If we are not ready to recognize our emotions than we will not be able to release them. This is also why some people will never be able to accept the TMS diagnosis. If something is too frightening to our ego, then the only option available is to reject it. This is why the goal of TMS treatment isn't so much of uncovering repressed emotions, as it is learning to accept our emotions. By learning how to accept our emotions, our repressed emotions will begin to slowly and naturally reveal themselves.

 

[Eric "Herbie" Watson]

(Alan Gordon)- A slight rise in internal anxiety is like your body letting you know, "I need to be attended to." When you attend to it, it calms down. When you don’t, much like a baby, its cries will get louder.)​

Forest)- Know this: your chronic pain is the baby crying louder and louder, desperately trying to get your attention, so you can attend to your internal state. If you learn to sooth your internal bully these cries will slowly but surely diminish. The more you sooth yourself, the less rage your unconscious will have.

Your unconscious is the primitive part of your brain, and is very much like a baby. It want so badly to be listened to that it cries and cries. These cries take the form of chronic pain. However, if your primitive brain is soothed, then these cries lessen and lessen, and there is no longer any need for it to create the symptoms. Learn to soothe your inner child, and you will heal. )

Eric)- This so right on Forest, I usually at least once a day have to go rest in meditation. While im doing this I also combine visualizations and see the most wonderful episodes.
This helps sooth the inner child and quietens the inner bully for me.
I also go about most my days being mindful and staying in the now or the present and that keeps the inner tension down too.
Thanks for the Post
Bless You.

 

[Gigi]

I can't remember which book it was, but one of the ones I read several months ago suggested treating your subC like a 4 year old. The author was an advocate of promising little rewards, like a walk to a nearby park if it behaved, and punishments, like having to wash the car, if it didn't. It worked for me when I was trying to banish migraines.

 

[Forest]

I don't know if I agree with punishing yourself, but I do like the idea of rewarding yourself for the progress you have made. I read something similar in Freedom From Fibromyalgia by, Nancy Selfridge. She correctly says that Fibromaylgia is in fact TMS. It is so easy for us to get down on ourselves and to think that we are not making enough progress. Rewarding yourself for even small successes may help you feel better about the progress you have made and increase your confidence.

 

[Leslie]

I'm inclined to agree with you on the subject of punishing Forest. I think as TMS sufferers we already inflict so much subconscious punishment that doing it intentionally could just add fuel to the fire. I find the reward system to be somewhat effective but I did notice that it is more effective for me personally when I have also established a "punishment" to counter it. I read an article about a study done on the effects of punishment and reward in children that I found to be quite interesting. The study was pertaining to why the threat of punishment was highly effective in eliciting a desired behavior in some children but the promise of a reward was more effective in others. The authors of the study found that it was linked to the dominant hemisphere of an individuals' brain. I can't remember which hemisphere dominance resulted in which path being more effective but basically they found that the threat of punishment was (and would be for life) more effective for persons dominant on one side, while the promise of reward had the same effect on the opposite hemisphere group.

 

[Allissa RS]

Know this: your chronic pain is the baby crying louder and louder, desperately trying to get your attention, so you can attend to your internal state. If you learn to sooth your internal bully these cries will slowly but surely diminish. The more you sooth yourself, the less rage your unconscious will have.

Your unconscious is the primitive part of your brain, and is very much like a baby. It want so badly to be listened to that it cries and cries. These cries take the form of chronic pain. However, if your primitive brain is soothed, then these cries lessen and lessen, and there is no longer any need for it to create the symptoms. Learn to soothe your inner child, and you will heal.

O wow
I know this was description was almost metaphorical in description, but it resonated with me so much more literally. When my symptoms first began I would say to my husband it's like there is so much sadness in them, if I listen closely I can hear actual crying, sadness and crying... Isn't that amazing, thankyou for the confirmation!