Anxiety/especially health anxiety

I posted about a week ago about having a dizziness that lasted about 2 weeks. That has passed, finally and thankfully! But a real problem I deal with pretty much daily, is anxiety, mainly health anxiety. It's gotten worse over the years but lately it's been really bad. Could this be caused by TMS? I know TMS is more a pain symptom thing but I'm just wondering if TMS could be making me hold onto this anxiety all the time. It was especially bad this past week and yesterday and so far this morning. I jump from one illness to a next, sometimes months in between them but lately it's been one right after another. Right now the one I'm flipping out about is this ALS, which I'm sure everyone knows is big right now with the ice bucket challenges. I've worked myself into a panic pretty much. Not so much having it at this time, but worried about the future for myself, my husband, kids, parents etc. How do I work on this and get past it? Could it be TMS causing me to be so worried and stressed all the time?

 

You have been on the forum for a while, have you looked into Claire Weeke's books? She is so good and comforting for the nerves. Last weekend I went to a wedding and was all worked up. I don't do large social events very often and generally avoid them. Anyway, I started with sore shoulders in the afternoon. That went away. Then I got a sore back for a while, when changing venues. That went away and I got comfortable. Then for the grand finale I got a sore throat, choking coughing spasm. Although that wasn't as bad as usual, I could actually talk when I was done. So I came home and reviewed some of Claire's work. Telling myself this was actually a good accomplishment. I spent a whole day out and about socializing and I survived quite well actually. And if I give myself positive feedback I can beat these symptoms in the end. I am bigger than the symptoms. My positive self talk can outride the waves of TMS.

 

I do have one of her books and the links to her audios that I have listened to some. I need to work on my anxiety, it's been really bad lately. Good for you for doing so well at the wedding!!!

 

Leslie,

Glad to hear your not dizzy any more. If you keep fearing your health and symptoms they will.continue to come. Fear and anxiety were a big part in my recovery. I used to fear everything in life.

My anxiety got really bad when I got close to healing so hang in there. Everything will be OK and your worries and fears are not real. Alan Gorda advice of empowering your self to not fear pain or any other tmswiki.org symptoms has helped me a lot. I just told myself I was not going to bow down and let the fear and anxiety take over my life. I know this is a lot easier said then done but you can do it.

Peggy advice on Claire Weekes is awesome. You have power over your thoughts and emotions. Try some meditation if you don't do this. I meditate twice a day for 30 minutes and it has worked wonders. Also try reading the post under ask a tmswiki.org therapist on out fear, they give some great advice.

Your healing journey will often get worse before it gets better. The symptom imperative is hard, just try to not let it get you to the flight or fight response. Everything is coming to you in your own time. You have what it takes to heal just be patient and kind to yourself. We are what we believe.

Ryan

 

I've struggled with health anxiety for years. It's really improved over the last two years since I've learned about TMS and also just in general the power of our minds. Start filling you mind with positivity, laughter, success stories. Read The Great Pain Deception and You are the Placebo. Empower yourself and flee from anxiety triggers. It's truly a matter of reprogramming your mind and getting in touch with why you're having anxiety in the first place. What is it distracting or protecting you from? Hang in there, it's a journey, not a destination. One day you'll realize, you've overcome it all while being busy enjoying your life!! Blessings to you ❤️

 

Thank you Danielle!!

 

Anxiety IS TMS! It's one of the AFFECTIVE TMS symptoms, amongst others. Another form of a distraction from the underlying issue(s).

 

Anxiety seems to bring everything else on, and it appears to the last to go, although it will probably never go completely, just to a manageable level.

 

Thank you Forest for the book suggestions and advice!

 

Thanks Forest! Just bought the kindle book!

 

Leslie, I agree 100% with TennisTom who said that anxiety is TMS. At age 60, three years ago, I was a mess, with increasing physical and neuro symptoms and anxiety attacks that were all threatening to make me house-bound. Until I discovered The Divided Mind by Dr. Sarno, which totally changed my life. Three years later, and with the help of many more resources, including Claire Weekes and other authors (my faves are listed on my Profile page) and the people on this forum, I am thrilled to be able to report my recent success in overcoming a frightening incident that incorporated both pain and panic - which I wrote about here, and to which you might relate: http://tmswiki.org/forum/threads/still-working-on-it-recent-successful-incident.5547/#post-33064

Anxiety creates a vicious cycle - it is TMS, but at its worst, it also creates physical TMS symptoms, which create more anxiety, which creates more TMS symptoms... The biggest problem is that it's SO easy to give in to anxiety, and admittedly not easy to fight it - but once you discover the switch in your brain which allows you to turn it off, or at least turn away from it, you are on the road to recovery. As you can see from my story, I'm not "cured", in the sense that I can still experience incidents like this - but what I have now are the knowledge, belief, and faith that allow me to get past an incident quickly and without repercussions.

You can do it too!

~Jan

 

Forest, I am all over that - just sent it to my Kindle...

 

Another great thread here

 

I can attest to anxietycentre.com being very beneficial. The link between anxiety and TMS is becoming more and more apparent every time I come back to these boards (tmswiki and tmshelp). It's like 35 bucks a year or something for the membership but its very clearly constructed and everything is pretty much identical to what you will read about TMS (except for rage being the number one cause of the pain). One thing Jim Folk (the owner of the website) reiterates over and over and over again is that it takes a LONG time for neurons to repair themselves when you calm your body down. This goes against when you see people cured instantly from TMS pain by reading a book. Obviously some people heal a hell of a lot faster than others because they don't doubt and fear so much. I've been doing the anxietycentre method for about 3 months now. I meditate 2-3 times a day and do affirmations with them as well, I try to exercise, eat better, and calm down my body any way I can. I had a few better days about a week ago that gave me some hope that what I've been doing is working and if you join anxietycentre you can read about Jim Folk's recovery story. He was the same as us, always wondering when the symptoms would go away, asking questions for reassurance from the doctor he was seeing, etc. It takes about 90 days of faithful practice of calming the body down to see something change for the better. He confirmed this as well and I saw a slight change in my symptoms in the last week. So apparently it is true... it takes a long time for the body to repair itself from stress induced pain.

This would correlate with Steve Ozanich's experience as well, since it took him about a year to start feeling better. I think it would be so much easier and less confusing if there wasn't so many different names for the same thing... obviously TMS is anxiety, anxiety is TMS but everybody has their own opinion on how to heal. One thing that is the constant though and doesn't vary between everyone who has TMS/anxiety is fear.

 

Great post, Dabatross - it's nice to "see" you again and I'm glad you're finding success!

It takes about 90 days of faithful practice of calming the body down to see something change for the better
​

This is awesome information, I really like it. You mentioned how Jim Folk was

"...the same as us, always wondering when the symptoms would go away, asking questions for reassurance from the doctor..." ​

which means that the 90 days of "faithful practice" must not include any of the wondering, worrying, watching of the calendar, and going back to the doctor! Easy to say, so hard to do - the hardest thing to give up when you think you're working hard and you're waiting for improvement, is the calendar-watching.

This calming-down period ties in with the concept of conditioning. Our bodies become conditioned to responding a certain way, and the only way to change the response is to change your brain. This is the basis for the mirror therapy that V.S. Ramachandran came up with for phantom limb pain - which is the poster child for conditioned pain response. I found this bit of information to be incredibly helpful in my ability to recover more quickly from TMS symptoms as they crop up.

And as for anxiety - well, I've probably had anxiety all my life, and realistically, it may be with me for the rest of my life - but now what I like to say is that I have a different relationship with it. Instead of hating, fearing, or giving in to my anxiety, I acknowledge it, and politely tell it that it's not needed. As long as I honestly believe that to be true, it goes away.

Not giving in is the hard part - I have, in the past, literally felt like I was standing back and watching while part of my brain just wanted to give up and let anxiety take over - it's an amazingly strong force within us, and I imagine the process is very similar for depression as well. Or addiction, for that matter - I bet it's the same feeling.

Just Say No! And let the healing begin.

~Jan

 

Good to see you too jam. Yeah I had a little bit of success, but speaking of anxiety... Out of nowhere about an hour and a half ago my body went into hyper mode and I feel like im about to explode. Agitated, short of breath, more muscle tension, out of nowhere. Jim folk would again say this is because a stress hyperstimulation body is erratic. I'm sitting around the house right now and it literally feels like im about to go on stage and give a speech.

God im so sick of trying to figure this crap out. One minute you're experiencing some positive movement and the next its back to feeling like garbage again. I'm slowly coming off klonopin right now, this might have something to do I both it, but it's a very slow taper. I also just started taking b complex again and upped my magnesium to 650-1000mg a day. Going to meditate now to see if I can calm my nervous system back down. I want to mention that I'm seeing a new therapist next week, the first mind body therapist ive seen, and I hope I can try this technique with her called so to emotional release. Read about it once, it treats the exact problem we have

 

One really interesting thing is that when I feel like this, my heart rate has always been at 90-92 bpm. My calm heart rate is 72-75, when I feel short of breath and agitated/anxious it's at 92 this has to mean something

 

Then I find this.... http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11727/are-vitamins-triggering-your-anxiety.html