Ack - now hives!?!

[BaxterBean]

hi all - The brain is such an interesting thing... I've been doing well without back pain since early April. I did the PRP and journaling work and started working with a TMS coach, who is really great. I had my first couple meetings with the coach and, since I wasn't in pain at that point, we focused on emotional stuff and "safety" work. Lo and behold, within 2 weeks I had a recurrence of significant bladder/pelvic pain that I haven't had for years. Within about 24 hrs of a session with the coach who walked me through an in-depth somatic tracking exercise, the bladder pain had substantially reduced and, at times throughout the day, wasn't even noticeable. Hooray!

Unfortunately now I've developed itchy hives on my upper arms and legs. I'm sure it's TMS - my brain just seems to be throwing everything it's got at this! - so I'm not even bothering to go through the usual "what might I be allergic to that's causing this" stuff. I did have hives/rash about a month ago and thought it was an allergy to a medication. I'd been fine with the med for over a year but had recently increased my dose of methotrexate for the RA (so I do have a wonky immune system "for real") and thought that might have triggered a reaction. When I stopped the first med, the hives/rash went away after a couple days so that seemed to be the solution. But, the recurrence of hives now even though I stopped that medication - and because of the recent bladder pain recurrence - kind of screams TMS.

I've read a few of the posts here about people with TMS-related hives, including at least one success story, but I'm wondering if anyone can share or point me to other success stories, podcasts, etc that specifically talk about addressing hives through the lens of TMS. I've started trying the somatic tracking with it but any other specific tools/practices people suggest? Thanks!

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I'm wondering if anyone can share or point me to other success stories, podcasts, etc that specifically talk about addressing hives through the lens of TMS. I've started trying the somatic tracking with it but any other specific tools/practices people suggest?

Here's the thing, @BaxterBean: this type of exclusionary thinking is proof that you are being tricked (again!) by your TMS brain mechanism. The trick is believing that you are accomplishing something by asking this question, when what you are doing is distracting yourself and wasting valuable time!

As far as I'm concerned, somatic tracking is just a version of visualization, and visualization is a tool by which we harness the innate healing power within ourselves. There's no reason you can't mindfully enter into a "conversation", if you will, with the physical organ that is your skin, and connect its inflammation with your inflammatory stress response, which is tied to unconscious repressed emotions creating inner conflict.

 

[BloodMoon]

Here's the thing, @BaxterBean: this type of exclusionary thinking is proof that you are being tricked (again!) by your TMS brain mechanism. The trick is believing that you are accomplishing something by asking this question, when what you are doing is distracting yourself and wasting valuable time!

Yep, it's just as Jan says, @BaxterBean because the point is that with mind‑body/TMS work you’re not 'treating' the symptom; you’re endeavouring to calm a fearful brain that treats normal emotions (feeling and expressing them), normal innocuous body sensations, and/or everyday stresses as life‑threatening. The symptom can be anything—hives, pain, fatigue, stiffness, tightness, etc.—and it can show up either because the brain resists and distracts from certain emotions (like anger), misreads normal body sensations as dangerous, and/or over‑reacts to modern‑day stress and irritations as if we’re facing a lion about to attack. The tools are the same across symptoms, because you’re always working with the brain, not the symptom itself.

 

[BaxterBean]

There's no reason you can't mindfully enter into a "conversation", if you will, with the physical organ that is your skin, and connect its inflammation with your inflammatory stress response, which is tied to unconscious repressed emotions creating inner conflict.

Thanks @JanAtheCPA and @BloodMoon - I've been working with the "talking to my skin" in a similar way to the somatic tracking/visualization approach I've used for the back pain/pelvic pain and it is helpful. And I do understand that the whole goal of the mind-body/TMS work is to calm a fearful brain. What I've found (albeit still in early stages of the deeper aspects of this work) is that calming my brain is not an easy thing! (I imagine that comes as no shock to many on this forum, LOL).

So far, the thing that I've found most helpful to relax my fearful brain is the reading/listening "treatment". For years, all I had to do was read Dr. Sarno's book when my back pain started to flare up and within a few days I'd be ok. When the recent pelvic floor/bladder thing came up, the mind-body coach I'm working with sent me a link to a podcast with Dr. Schubiner where he was talking specifically about pelvic pain/IC in the context of TMS and I think it was the major thing that resulted in rapid reduction in my pain.

It seems like this approach is a recognized helpful way of calming the brain according to other things in this forum as well. For example, in the PRP there are lots of audio clips inserted so we can literally hear how people with various symptoms are able to use the tools and approaches. For me, so far, it seems that the most calming thing for my brain is to hear other people (both clinical experts and life-experience experts like many here) talk about how they were effectively able to address TMS symptoms using this approach. So, I'm puzzled that you think my request is "wasting valuable time". I was simply looking for a way to calm my rational brain regarding the skin symptoms through the same sort of approach found in the PRP and Sarno's books. What am I missing?

P.S. I do realize that ultimately we all have to wean off reliance on external "experts" and become our own "expert", but that takes a bit of time and I don't think I'm there yet!

 

[JanAtheCPA]

It's because you asked this

share or point me to other success stories, podcasts, etc that specifically talk about addressing hives

I'll try to explain this from my perspective, others can improve or elaborate from theirs.

It's this attempt to put hives into a different category that needs another tool or technique or trick. We often refer to this as playing a game of whack-a-mole. It's a classic Sarno-style distraction, and distractions are attempts by your TMS brain to keep you spinning your wheels looking for the next technique to address the next symptom.

As long as you are falling into the trap of this game, there will always be a next symptom.

You may be overthinking. Try stepping back and taking a bigger overview of your emotional state.

TBH, Alan's program and somatic tracking are useful, but they don't address the deeper core issues of unconscious emotional conflict. That's what the SEP attempts to address, following more along with Dr Schubiner and his original workbook.

 

[BloodMoon]

@BaxterBean Even though you intellectually understand the brain is generating the symptoms, you were still asking for tools aimed at fixing one specific symptom. That reinforces the idea that the symptom itself is the problem to solve, rather than the fearful brain state underneath it.

Mind-body tools are meant to help calm a fearful brain; they aren’t symptom-specific treatments. One of the common traps is getting pulled back into symptom-monitoring and symptom-solving, even while intellectually believing that the brain is creating the symptoms. That can be a real roadblock to recovery.

When Schubiner or others talk about somatic tracking, or meditation, or other mind-body tools ‘for’ a particular symptom, it’s something of a misnomer. The framing is mainly pedagogical — a way to help people feel safer recognising and believing that ‘this symptom too’ can be mind-body and that a fearful brain can be calmed.

 

[BaxterBean]

Thanks @JanAtheCPA and @BloodMoon - your explanations make sense. I was falling into thinking of applying the mind-body tool (in this case the "reading cure") in a symptom-specific way to calm my brain, but I can see where that becomes a slippery slope. Onward...