All The Things I've Quit Doing For TMS

This morning I started thinking about all the things I've quit/started doing as a result of TMS based fear. I thought it might be therapeutic to write all these things out, so here goes.
In the last 2 years I've stopped practicing music, stopped drinking coffee, stopped drinking tea, changed my diet multiple times, quit eating many of my favorite foods, quit exercising, quit touring and quit enjoying life. I've also started many practices in attempts to relieve my pain or prevent migraines. Things like morning pages, walking, yoga, P90x, push-ups, therapy, acupuncture, physical therapy, massage, chiropractors, meditation, countless supplements, stretching, moving out of a stressful living situation, avoided relationships, read books, colored, quit drinking, started drinking, quit smoking, started smoking and generally lived in fear of back pain or migraines all the time. I've become a slave to the pain. My day revolves around hoping I don't experience pain or constantly checking my vision to see if a migraine is coming on. And the funny thing is that none of these activities seem to have any positive impact on my symptoms. I'm angry because I've felt unhappy playing music because I don't feel any personal growth because I can't practice. I also feel burnt out from playing so many gigs in the last few years that part me feels like I could walk away from playing professionally and not miss it one bit. I'm unsure how much of that is due to the rut I feel stuck in, or my fading interest in the band that I play the majority of my gigs with or just general burn out. The one thing I do know is that I'm tired of structuring my whole life around a fear of pain or migraines. I want my life back.

 

Wow, and I thought I had gone through a lot for my pain! Ironic that the solution might be cheap and inside ourselves. But definitely doesn't feel like the easiest - all this work journaling and reading. I wish they could just put a needle in me and I'd be better.

 

I am confused, aren't you supposed to start back up your fun events if you have been diagnosed with no structure problems. I am also under the impression you stop therapy, as they only make you feel like something is wrong. Have you done the SEP? I found the TMS diagnosis back in Dec 15. I stopped going to all my therapy appts, and just pushed thru my sciatic pain. I tell the pain to go away, as I know it's pinned up RAGE and I've been lucky to have the sciatic pain dissolve. I still have some pain on my rights side (which I think may be muscle and not emotional), but I am doing much better not focusing on the pain and seeing therapy. I think your approach isn't the recommended solution per Dr. Sarno's books. Recommend you do the SEP and journal and read Healing Back Pain to get refocused. Good luck and Take Care.

 

I agree about doing the Structured Educational Program to journal and discover the emotions causing pain. Dr. S arno's 12 Daily Reminders are great to read every day to help convince us our pains are from our emotions and are not caused by anything structural.




Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.

 

I thought BamBam was talking about things he had tried in the past, and had already stopped all his therapies. Isn't that what we all do? Try a zillion doctors and remedies we read or hear about, then finally find out about TMS and stop searching for answers in those other things.