Clearing up confusion about TMS

[dillon95]

I wish you luck! Hope you feel better!

Thank you!

 

[dillon95]

I think it depends.
For me I was drawn to TMS because I can feel that the muscles are tight in the areas of pain and yet I can't release them consciously.
I only learned later that the "tension" in TMS isn't supposed to mean muscle tension. Regardless, it brought me to TMS and Sarno's theories and the solutions work very well for me.

So, I'm more into old school Sarno and the mind-body connection where the mind does create physical effects that then we experience.

I haven't read Alan Gordon and I'm not one for somatic tracking as I personally don't think it pairs well when you have both TMS and health anxiety.
I'll assume most TMS experts will say that they are the same thing and from the same root cause but I think the health anxiety is an added component. Some people feel pain from TMS reason and they are bothered by the pain but they don't catastrophize it to mean they must have something deadly.
When you have TMS with a big dollop of health anxiety you are the lucky winner of pain and fear of the worst case scenario of death and disease.
Probably have the same overlapping root causes but still some can have one without the other.

I haven't found Alan Gordon very helpful because I feel like he just repeats the same talking points over and over and doesn't explain TMS very well. The psychologist I talked to from his business back in 2017 just told me "there's nothing to fear" over and over without going into any details about anything and it was completely useless. I read Alan's whole book a year ago and it doesn't even come close to Dr. Sarno's book when it comes to explaining TMS.

 

[dillon95]

Just a comment from a similar soul. I too don't do the somatic tracking thing...and like you @Booble , I feel like it's in conflict with Sarno and here's why; If I understand Sarno, ANY energy focused on my Body is part of the problem. Having had OCD , it's like part of the 'ritual' of checking and rechecking. Just like the health anxiety thing... no amount of being told 'You're OK, there's nothing wrong with you' is ever sufficient....even if I believe it, then the mind goes "Ok...but what about....?"
and that telling myself the pain is OK? I feel like that is an engraved invitation for it to STAY. I want it to Leave..and right soon!

Now.. I did read Gordon's stuff here on the wiki and there is some good stuff in there that DOES tie in well with Sarno...One is the similar to Sarno's 'turn your mind to a problem when you feel the pain' and that is Gordon's 'When you feel the pain immediately ask yourself "What am I afraid of right now?". I used that and it was helpful at turning my mind to the psychological. Another one I learned from a video...THANK the pain for being there... "I know you're trying to protect me and I appreciate it, but I can handle this without your help"...Once again, this is much like Sarno's 'talking to your brain'...it was a good tool.


I agree with @Booble. I have had both and they might serve the same purpose, but they are rarely simultaneous. My last little event I was certain was TMS from the first moment, but i never once thought anything was 'wrong' with me (physically)

All in all, I know people have recovered with both methods, but I'd do one and stick to it...that way you'll know what does and doesn't work for you...and the Problem with the regular medical world is 'one size fits all' and that's why they don't like us people with pain....were too different and they just don't have time to deal with us and still make their monstrous profit margins.

Yup doctors tend to just take imaging and give you pain pills and physical therapy and that's the extent of their brain power when it comes to pain. They really don't know that much about chronic pain.

 

[dillon95]

I think it depends.
For me I was drawn to TMS because I can feel that the muscles are tight in the areas of pain and yet I can't release them consciously.
I only learned later that the "tension" in TMS isn't supposed to mean muscle tension. Regardless, it brought me to TMS and Sarno's theories and the solutions work very well for me.

So, I'm more into old school Sarno and the mind-body connection where the mind does create physical effects that then we experience.

I haven't read Alan Gordon and I'm not one for somatic tracking as I personally don't think it pairs well when you have both TMS and health anxiety.
I'll assume most TMS experts will say that they are the same thing and from the same root cause but I think the health anxiety is an added component. Some people feel pain from TMS reason and they are bothered by the pain but they don't catastrophize it to mean they must have something deadly.
When you have TMS with a big dollop of health anxiety you are the lucky winner of pain and fear of the worst case scenario of death and disease.
Probably have the same overlapping root causes but still some can have one without the other.

I think as bad as the pain is, the fear is so much worse because of how it restricts you. That's the scariest part to me. I'm very inefficient with my daily activities and it's terrifying because I have responsibilities and expectations and things have to get done by a certain time. I also used to do weightlifting and it pains me to not be able to do any resistance training without a huge amount of pain and fear to the point where I rarely do it.

 

[Baseball65]

it pains me to not be able to do any resistance training without a huge amount of pain and fear to the point where I rarely do it.

When I went back to it i had to go in like 'Sarno meditative mode'.... I prepare something that I have discovered bugs me....a GF who left me, a Job I am pissed about, etc...and then when I am lifting and feel anything, I started talking to 'It' (the TMS) like it was an annoying helicopter parent of whiny sibling.

"I know I am pissed about her leaving me alone , but I am gonna work out, so you just need to shut up and leave me alone...I'm nervous about the rent with this lower paying job, but me sitting around turning into a marshmallow is only making it worse, so you need to leave NOW!"

What I started noticing is I was no longer paying attention to my workout , but to the emotional things and I went through each exercise and any time I got a twinge, started a dialogue from my list of 'conscious stressors'...I also talked out loud, refuting the structural conditioning and fear that had crept in.All from well meaning PTs and Doctors. I had gotten sciatica after squats, so I told myself "Yeah mr Brain, sciatic nerve, whoever...This is totally conditioned and I am gonna do this so you can go F off...I am really just afraid and you hanging around isn't helping and I know what you're doing...I am not pavlovs dog. Or I am, but I don't wanna be anymore"

it took a few times and I of course worked out alone lest anybody think I am hairballed insane, BUT it did work. It just took a bunch of reconditioning my brain ala Sarno style.

 

[dillon95]

When I went back to it i had to go in like 'Sarno meditative mode'.... I prepare something that I have discovered bugs me....a GF who left me, a Job I am pissed about, etc...and then when I am lifting and feel anything, I started talking to 'It' (the TMS) like it was an annoying helicopter parent of whiny sibling.

"I know I am pissed about her leaving me alone , but I am gonna work out, so you just need to shut up and leave me alone...I'm nervous about the rent with this lower paying job, but me sitting around turning into a marshmallow is only making it worse, so you need to leave NOW!"

What I started noticing is I was no longer paying attention to my workout , but to the emotional things and I went through each exercise and any time I got a twinge, started a dialogue from my list of 'conscious stressors'...I also talked out loud, refuting the structural conditioning and fear that had crept in.All from well meaning PTs and Doctors. I had gotten sciatica after squats, so I told myself "Yeah mr Brain, sciatic nerve, whoever...This is totally conditioned and I am gonna do this so you can go F off...I am really just afraid and you hanging around isn't helping and I know what you're doing...I am not pavlovs dog. Or I am, but I don't wanna be anymore"

it took a few times and I of course worked out alone lest anybody think I am hairballed insane, BUT it did work. It just took a bunch of reconditioning my brain ala Sarno style.

Appreciate the advice, I will definitely keep this in mind from now on!