Day 1

I have been reading about TMS for about 3 months now and finally am taking the steps to apply the knowledge.

It started 3 years ago (I am 28) when I randomly got bad neck pain and couldn't turn my neck for 3 weeks. As the pain abated, I remember my bottom teeth hurting and having sensitive skin on my arm. Then the migraines hit with more neck pain at the base of my neck. Emotionally, I was at an all time low. I just broke up with a toxic bf, dealing with anxiety over him harassing me, starting a new job, and finding a new place to live. I remember the night before everything came crashing down, I could not sleep more than 2 hours in fear that he was breaking into my home to hurt me. The next day I woke up dizzy. A feeling as if I was walking on a boat drunk. My head was foggy and now when I look back, I understand how utterly shattered my nervous system was.

It's been 3 years since that day and I still have the dizziness, although it's much better than it was then. The intensity has decreased but I still have flairs. I still fear it whenever it creeps up. I'm afraid to upset it and I avoid certain activities because of it.

I have gone to every doctor and have been medically cleared. I went to chiropractors who tell me my neck was "damaged" from a small fender bender I was in 5 years ago.

I tell myself this can't all possibly be coming from my neck. I hardly have any neck pain at all. The car accident was small and I did not have issues after it after 2 years. Surely my body had healed after that. I did nothing on the day the dizziness occured except have extreme anxiety. Surely that makes more sense. I still have headaches from time to time but they have decreased as well.

My only setback from fully believing this is TMS is that everything seems to be about pain. All of the books and videos I've read/watched are about pain related symptoms. I believe if I had someone tell me or could read a book about non-pain symptoms, I would believe this 100%.

Thank you

 

Hi @Mja1233, and welcome - I think you're in the right place.

If you will start reading Success Stories on our subforum, you'll find lots of references to what Dr Sarno started calling TMS "equivalents", which include every neurological and vestibular symptom you can imagine, never mind digestive, endocrine, and auto-immune symptoms.

My own story is more about neurological symptoms than pain. Or, rather, I'd been dealing with pain for years, but it was the neuro and vestibular symptoms that freaked me out and almost immobilized me back in 2011, along with anxiety and depression. I discovered Dr Sarno just in time and never looked back. Feel free to read my profile.

There's a lengthy thread here somewhere about psycho-physiological dizziness, often described as a combination of imbalance (that boat feeling) and brain fog. I know both feelings well, and I'll admit they still plague me when I forget to be mindful and allow stress and rumination to take over again. The difference now is that I don't fear symptoms, and I know what to do about them.

OK, that thread is here: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/psycho-physiological-dizziness-syndrome-ppds.4599/ (Psycho-Physiological Dizziness Syndrome (PPDS))

 

Thank you for the reply and the link! I am also reading Steve Ozanich's book where he talks about these symptoms which helps me believe this is absolutely TMS. As I think back on my life, I have had different symptoms since I was a child. I have found when I am completely focused on something I love (like photography or drawing) I don't even notice the symptoms.