Advice after some success

L

LaughingKat

Peer Supporter
I started my TMS journey in January 2018. Fear prevented me from accepting the diagnosis and delayed recovery for many months. I have done hard and necessary work, including intensive psychotherapy for my anxiety and repressed emotions and Dr. Schubiner's workbook. I have benefitted from the wisdom on this forum.

Symptoms have come and (hooray!) gone. What's gone: shoulder, neck and arm pain, headaches, nausea.

What's left: The original foot numbnesss/tightness/stiffness and a more recent bitter taste in my mouth (a little more than a month on this). I can't honestly say I no longer worry about the foot but hours and days go by without my thinking about it. Still the symptom is constant and has been for 2+ years. I have seen a neurologist, chiropractor, PT, acupuncturist, homeopath, osteopath, with no results.

For the bitter taste, I have seen my PCP, ENT, dentist, none of whom have a clue. PCP recommends seeing a gastroenterologist but I'm really not in the mood to have a camera shoved down my throat just to have them tell me they can't find anything. I am worried about this bitter taste, and I hate it, which I guess means I haven't accepted that it's TMS. (Unlike the feet, I haven't seen a TMS doc for this symptom.)

The only med I'm taking is a small dose of klonopin and my psychiatrist says this can't be a side effect of that.

I'm at a loss. What would you do? Just ride it out and live with it? Keep chasing a physical/structural explanation? For the feet and the mouth symptoms?

I'm living and enjoying my life, still working at therapy. But these symptoms are a consistent back of my mind worry -- which is at least better than the panic I used to have 24/7.

Thank you!
 
@LaughingKat, I've had episodes of hypersensitivity to smells or tastes, including, a year ago, a mentholated feeling in my esophagus (that was not heartburn) that lasted at least two months - and then went away. Probably replaced by some other annoying symptom that I can't remember now. I've had weird-ass things like this off and on my entire life (and I'm 68 - but only discovered Dr. Sarno at age 60) and I have rarely, if ever, had anything checked out. In my experience, this too will pass!
 
Thanks so much, @JanAtheCPA . I'm going to try and wait out the mouth symptom...and keep working.

Do you have any thoughts about the feet -- which like I said have remained constant even though my fear level about them has gone way way down?
 
LaughingKat said:
Do you have any thoughts about the feet -- which like I said have remained constant even though my fear level about them has gone way way down?
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Since you've been checked out and they can't find anything wrong, you're looking at a long-standing memorized pattern - think of it as the same thing as phantom limb pain.

I believe that such conditioned symptoms can be unlearned. The key is a very high, very committed level of mindfulness, and a real dedication to changing your internal dialogue about it. Engage in a practice of being in the present with the symptoms, rather than vaguely hoping that they'll go away in the future; be extremely aware of how you really think about the symptoms; and visualize what it might be like to not have them anymore.

Easier said than done. But I not only believe it can be done, I know it can be done, because I've even managed it myself a few times - but only when I am very highly motivated!
 
This makes so much sense to me, @JanAtheCPA . It makes me wish you would write a TMS book of your own! :)


About the taste in my mouth: I've been wondering if it's a kind of "tinnitus of the mouth" in that it is magnifying, through fear, obsession, and hypervigilance, sensations that are naturally or typically present anyway.
 
LaughingKat said:
About the taste in my mouth: I've been wondering if it's a kind of "tinnitus of the mouth" in that it is magnifying, through fear, obsession, and hypervigilance, sensations that are naturally or typically present anyway
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When it comes to human physiology combined with human psychology, I believe that anything is possible.

And thank you for your kind words. The thought crosses my mind every once in a while... if I were to ever really retire. :rolleyes:
 
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