Day 1: accepting my eye pain

[Minta98]

I've been dealing with horrendous eye pain for nearly a year now. I've been to countless doctors, tried different drugs and signed up to all the Facebook groups. I only get a flare up when I smell certain smells such as cigarette smoke. I am also unable to wear contacts and can only wear glasses.

I discovered Dr Sarno and TMS a few days ago, and once again feel hopeful. I am a very tense person, ambitious, hard working, conscientious and a bit of a people pleaser, so I fit the description. I do also have repressed anger and frustration from my childhood. I am now working with a therapist to become more aware of my feelings and trust my body (I am also dealing with hip pain and a diagnosis of hip dysplasia).

Here's to hope!

 

[giulietta90]

Hi Minta98!
Just a welcome, good luck, and keep us posted! <3

 

[ssxl4000]

Hello and welcome! It is great you are already working with a therapist. They are very helpful if you start uncovering painful feelings and memories though your TMS work. Good luck!

 

[Minta98]

Thank you for your kind words everyone.

My therapist is great, and I am so glad to be working with her. What’s confusing about the eye pain is that something deep inside me does believe it is structural rather than emotional. I am still going to doctors, doing eye exercises for possible convergence insufficiency... if I am to completely accept that it is TMS, should I stop going to doctors?

 

[ssxl4000]

if I am to completely accept that it is TMS, should I stop going to doctors?

At some point, yes. However, you need to make that switch when you are comfortable. If your doctors don't seem to know the issue and are just cycling through different treatments to see what if anything works, then it may be time to move on from them. If they are still trying to rule out common structural issues, then I would advise letting them finish. It takes time for your brain to accept that nothing is structurally wrong (if that is indeed the case). Modern medicine is very good at finding problems though, so if you get to the point where the doctors are shrugging their shoulders and saying they don't know what it is, then TMS is a very likely candidate. Good luck!

 

[Balsa11]

Maybe some cucumbers can help with the dryness and heat? Otherwise this sounds like TMS.

 

[BloodMoon]

While you're still being investigated to make sure that there is nothing structural going on, to make your eyes more comfortable, I suggest doing what is demonstrated in this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_XH6BFUTVA. I find it helps me relax my eyes and reduces my own eye pain. Along the same lines as in the video link I've posted, you could simply rub the palms of your hands together for a few seconds and then cup over your closed eyes with your palms for a while, whilst putting your attention on you breath (nice slow breaths) and relaxing.

 

[Bernardomelo]

Hi! How is your eyepain now? Did it improve?

 

[Varg]

I've been dealing with horrendous eye pain for nearly a year now. I've been to countless doctors, tried different drugs and signed up to all the Facebook groups. I only get a flare up when I smell certain smells such as cigarette smoke. I am also unable to wear contacts and can only wear glasses.

I discovered Dr Sarno and TMS a few days ago, and once again feel hopeful. I am a very tense person, ambitious, hard working, conscientious and a bit of a people pleaser, so I fit the description. I do also have repressed anger and frustration from my childhood. I am now working with a therapist to become more aware of my feelings and trust my body (I am also dealing with hip pain and a diagnosis of hip dysplasia).

Here's to hope!

Avez vous des troubles de convergence au niveaux des yeux ? J'ai eu cela
J'ai juste du faire de la rééducation chez un orthopédiste.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

@Bernardomelo, you are certainly free to ask questions on old threads (this one is from early 2021) and sometimes the OP (original poster) will respond - but please keep your expectations low.

It will be more useful if you go to the Success Stories subforum and do a keyword search for your symptoms.

When you're in the early stages of TMS learning, it's perfectly normal to believe that you need to find someone else with your symptoms who has recovered, and that's okay for a while... but ultimately this is not what YOU need in order to recover. What you have to watch out for is that if you do find a similar story, your TMS brain will try to convince you that it's not relevant unless the symptoms are exactly like yours, which of course you will never find.

Just by being here, the assumption is that you have symptoms which can't be properly diagnosed by medical professionals. What this means is that by being open to the TMS diagnosis, you will eventually accept the fact that the details of your symptoms don't actually matter. It's all about thinking psychologically, not physically.

 

[Bernardomelo]

@Bernardomelo, you are certainly free to ask questions on old threads (this one is from early 2021) and sometimes the OP (original poster) will respond - but please keep your expectations low.

It will be more useful if you go to the Success Stories subforum and do a keyword search for your symptoms.

When you're in the early stages of TMS learning, it's perfectly normal to believe that you need to find someone else with your symptoms who has recovered, and that's okay for a while... but ultimately this is not what YOU need in order to recover. What you have to watch out for is that if you do find a similar story, your TMS brain will try to convince you that it's not relevant unless the symptoms are exactly like yours, which of course you will never find.

Just by being here, the assumption is that you have symptoms which can't be properly diagnosed by medical professionals. What this means is that by being open to the TMS diagnosis, you will eventually accept the fact that the details of your symptoms don't actually matter. It's all about thinking psychologically, not physically.

Thank you so much, I’m not really familiar how to use this forum I’m learning everyday new options I’m sure I have TMS, the only thing is why after accepting it I may even feel worst sometimes

 

[JanAtheCPA]

the only thing is why after accepting it I may even feel worst sometimes

That's because your fearful brain would rather keep you in fear, so it has to increase your symptoms or even give you brand-new symptoms to worry about. Dr. Sarno called this the "Symptom Imperative" and it is proof that the TMS mechanism is what is causing your symptoms. So that's good news! Just keep believing, and talk back to your poor fearful brain and assure it that you are safe.

It's also time to start doing one of the programs, probably the SEP (the Structured Educational Program which is on the main wiki).

 

[Bernardomelo]

l'

That's because your fearful brain would rather keep you in fear, so it has to increase your symptoms or even give you brand-new symptoms to worry about. Dr. Sarno called this the "Symptom Imperative" and it is proof that the TMS mechanism is what is causing your symptoms. So that's good news! Just keep believing, and talk back to your poor fearful brain and assure it that you are safe.

It's also time to start doing one of the programs, probably the SEP (the Structured Educational Program which is on the main wiki).

thank you so much for this i started today!