Alcohol issues

[Kittyruns]

I have recently been exploring my relationship with drinking and TMS and how the two can sometimes be correlated. Taking the time to read literature and some sobriety blogs has really made me aware of how I am using alcohol and how it first quiets the TMS monster and then sends me into huge amounts of "hangziety". I have just read Annie Grace's book and it really helps me understand the part that Alcohol plays (for me at least) in making a complete recovery from this addiction. I would love to hear your stories about the part that alcohol (or lack of alcohol) has played in recovery from TMS. Annie also cites Dr. Sarno's work for healing her from years of back pain!

 

[Baseball65]

I am a recovered TMSer and Alcoholic.It is very easy to look into the past and chart my symptoms--alcohol--spiritual foibles--pain. Totally interchangeable.
When one was in full gear the other usually took a break.

".....some suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but they can recover if they have the capacity to be honest"

I would list TMS as a grave emotional and mental disorder.

The first horrible back pain incident I ever had was when I was 19 right after I tried to stop drinking for the first time. It was blamed on a fall at a skate park, but in retrospect I was terrified about life, living, not being in school and a host of other TMS type of triggers. Importantly, I was NOT doing any 12 step work....just trying to NOT drink. (Which didn't work LOL)

I didn't get sober for any amount of time until around age 25....and about age 26 was when My first 'chronic' symptoms began.
Now I was being a 'good' guy and trying to be a 'good' dad. I was in a HARDCORE 12 step group and had a profound experience. It was damn near cult like. I guess I needed it, but it burned me out after awhile.

I stopped doing the daily inventory (resentments, anger) because it was 'boring'...or I was boring. It was so F-ing redundant. I was now about 31.
BLaM! The pain episode that took me to the mat. Surgeries, treatments and ultimately a chronic pain clinic. I won't belabor the details, but it is very relevant to your topic that the symptoms began ONCE I stopped doing the 10th step (daily inventory and reflection)

Then of course, I got desperate enough to read Sarno's "Healing Back Pain". Seeing that repressed anger was at the root, I began to deal with the anger I was aware of...you gotta start somewhere, right?
I began to do the 4th/10th step every day again as part of my recovery from TMS and it was fast and thorough. So, the little barometer inside all of us that warns us we are no longer connected to the sunlight of the spirit is wired into the TMS nerve center. The same thing that makes me want to drink gives me sciatica or other mystery symptoms....and if neglected.... You know the drill.

I do not know if this applies to people who aren't alcoholics, but just problem or social drinkers. I never drank socially. The thought of going even a day without a drink (or dope) Terrified me the way you feel standing at the edge of a tall building with no rail. Just like the fact that I am sober is shocking to me and others, so was the miracle of healing from TMS... I don't fully understand it, but I do know that looking at The real inner problem was the difference maker in my outcome.....so far. There is always a little more to learn.

Alcohol and TMS are synonymous for me. They Both made me ill, they both sent me to emergency rooms and they were both healed by looking closely at ANGER and other embarrassing feelings.

This is a GREAT topic

 

[Kittyruns]

Thank you for your wonderful reply, @Baseball65 ! It completely speaks to the way I have been feeling about drinking. For several months, I have really been thinking about why I was drinking so much. I never thought it could be TMS. But it's definitely TMS. My tricky little brain wants me to wonder and worry if I have a problem with alcohol.

 

[Baseball65]

My tricky little brain wants me to wonder and worry if I have a problem with alcohol.

Well... they used to say that if you're NOT an alcoholic you can drink two drinks a day (no more, no less) for thirty days in a row. However, your question itself might also be indicative of a problem... I don't know too many normal drinkers who sit around and wonder if they have a problem.

That being said, if you do have an issue, do something but be careful about not turning that something into your latest obsession. The best thing Sarno ever said was "...but don't turn it into a ritual"

My tricky little brain

Ultimately, for me at least, THAT is the problem...what goes on out here in the real world is just peachy. But when it hits my meat grinder of a 'fixer-brain' I can Make all sorts of Peach cobbler.

 

[Balsa11]

Both alcoholics and non alcoholics are finding it helpful to quit alcohol these days.

 

[Cariad]

Dear @Kittyruns , I'm glad you raised this question - I hope my perspective can help. I quit alcohol about 3 years and, um (counts on fingers), five months ago and it's one of the very best, most self-caring and life-enhancing things I've ever done for myself! And I definitely think it helped/continues to help on my TMS journey.

I had the 'hangziety' you describe for decades - and every time, a drink seemed to be the 'cure' for it - and of course, that just perpetuated the cycle.
I'd tried and tried to quit, and then I got breast cancer (which can have a link to alcohol, of course) and decided 'what the hell - I can turn this horrible year into a positive one by doing this good thing for myself!' So I quit the booze (and then vapes a month later) (and eventually codeine), and of course the early days were hard beyond belief - my usual coping mechanism gone... BUT - in a few weeks I was experiencing levels of calm that amazed me. I was sleeping better, my energy was more level. Basically, it cleared a lot of the crapola out of the way and I got to 'sit with myself', knowing that my emotions were real, and were bearable, and not a withdrawal-induced over-reaction that I had to escape from. Stuff got a lot clearer.

I'm not rabidly anti-booze - I just know quitting was the best thing for me. Drinking certainly felt allied to TMS in that it was something I could obsess and pick and worry over... it was a handy distraction from the real issues that I was afraid to face.

Do I even have to mention the clearer, brighter skin? My body getting sleeker, lighter and less puffy, even as I chocolate-binged the first few weeks (okay,months)?! Sober people do tend to bang on about it, but that's because it feels so good and we want to share that. Some people are well and happy with their glass of wine, a few beers at the weekend - a little treat that doesn't rule them. I couldn't do that. I was either drinking and regretting it, or not drinking and feeling deprived. It has simplified life so much for me, and I'd advise you to give it a try!

I read Jason Vale's book on quitting, and followed a British blogger called Sober Mummy/Clare Pooley (mummywasasecretdrinker.blogspot.com), as well as dipping into other sober lit. At first it did obsess me a bit, and I thought I would count every day forever, but now I have to really think about how long it's been, and it's just how I am, I just drink things that aren't alcohol, mostly cold, sparkling water. My journalling now gets to the nitty gritty or the gratitude, as required, rather than being pages of self-recrimination for drinking too much again...

Anyway, this has turned into an essay, as I knew it would, but I hope it helps! Give it a month to start with, perhaps? I wish you well!

Cariad x