Day 25 Accepting the TMS Diagnosis and My Progress

I am not accustomed to sharing intimate thoughts with people, other than maybe a couple members of my immediate family, but I understand the need to share our experiences so we can continue to grow and improve, so here goes. A couple of weeks into the program, I felt like I was making some progress, capturing negative thoughts, examining them, and replacing them with positive thoughts. Then, I discovered something a couple of family members had done that upset me, which was followed by the onset of a severe cold (which always seems to get me down), followed by mother completely ignoring for an entire week a nice text I had sent her. (I later discovered she had written a nice response but somehow failed to send it. She's now in her 90's.). Not only did my primary TMS symptom (headaches) dramatically increase in frequency and intensity, but I also experienced significant increases in the severity of my eczema and vision problems, leaving me feeling somewhat defeated.

The main reason I want to share my experience with this setback is that, while I feel that I have completely accepted my TMS diagnosis, I can't help but think that it's possible that a physical component, in this case, a sinus infection, is contributing to the increase in the frequency and intensity of my headaches. There is no doubt in my mind that the increase in stress arising out of the incidents with my family has made my headaches worse. But, I don't think the additional stress can account for all of the increase in pain. I think the severe congestion in my head and sinuses is making the pain much worse, so much so that it's preventing me from sleeping at night, making my recovery even more difficult. And, when I get up and take some Excedrin (the only thing that seems to help), I notice gradual easing of the pain and I am usually able to eventually get back to sleep. Without the Excedrin, forget it. I'm up the entire night. The mental somatic tracking doesn't seem to be helping but the physical act of swallowing an Excedrin (with a little food to buffer my stomach) does.

So, even though I think I have fully accepted the TMS diagnosis, insofar as I am convinced that my personality and symptoms are entirely compatible with it, I still think it's possible that a physical/structural component may be having an impact on just how much pain I am experiencing. I would be interested in hearing the opinions my fellow TMSers on whether they think that my belief that at least some of my pain can be attributed to a physical/structural component might be hindering my recovery. Thanks

 

Hi @dgold,

Thanks for sharing! I have a few thoughts:

- I don't think it is necessarily a coincidence that the onset of the severe cold was preceded by family members upsetting you. I'm not disputing the cold itself, but that stress likely weakened your immune system and left you more vulnerable to the virus. It's really just more TMS evidence in general.

- I am encouraged by the fact that you are making clear emotional links between triggers and your symptoms! The more you do this as you alluded to the more your belief grows, until eventually it is rock solid and basically impenetrable.

- On sinus infections, my sister and father used to get them all the time and told me how horrible they were; I was a bit like whatever and thought they were exaggerating a common cold. That was until I got one myself (I think I've had two total in my life) and my goodness. It is awful. They are the worst headaches I've ever had, it felt like my head was going to explode (it's probably my least favourite illness if I can say that, the temple pressure headache is just horrible). So I have great empathy for you! The sinus infection no doubt could be contributing to at least the headache portion in my opinion absolutely (if it is kicking up other symptoms then maybe not, but then again your body is fighting a virus so that wouldn't be necessarily unusual either).

- The only thing I would I suppose ask or raise is the frequency (and in turn duration) of your sinus infections. Do you get them all the time or is this a rarity? Do they last longer than a couple of weeks? I'm thinking that because if they are all the time/last for ages then perhaps the symptoms could be present in the absence of the virus itself, and it's TMS mimicking them (I haven't seen a case of that myself but TMS can result in pretty much anything). Alternatively, their frequency could be legitimate in terms of them being a virus each time and your immune system is just compromised as a result of psychological factors (which is making you more prone). Hopefully that made sense, I'm not a doctor but just something to consider (I'm brainstorming unofficially a bit here and would need more information).

To summarise, entertaining structural/physiological causes for symptoms can hinder recovery but only to me when they aren't really logical (hopefully we can rule them out with tests or clinical evidence) - this to me is completely logical and I don't think you acknowledging that a sinus infection could cause or increase the severity of a headache is an issue, it's just common sense

 

Hello Adam,

Thank you for the thoughtful (and helpful) response!

To answer your question, I used to get frequent sinus infections during my college years and throughout my career. I'm retired now and get them less often. I may even go a couple of years now without getting a sinus infection. This current sinus infection started out with a severe sore throat that lasted several days. While my colds usually start out with a sore throat, my sore throats are usually relatively mild and last just a few hours, or a day, at the most. So, I knew I was in for a ride!

I'm inclined to agree with your theory that, in this instance, my immune system may have been compromised by emotional factors, making me more prone to a sinus infection and that the resulting increase in sinus pressure could be adding to the intensity of my headaches.

 

Yep fully agree with the summary at the end. If the sinus infections aren't an issue overall then I'd be willing to treat this one at face value