Day 13: Most Helpful Article

[dharn999]

I would say the article that has helped calm me down the most recently has been the Relapser's Cure

http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Relapser's_curse_-_there_is_hope,_by_Skizzik (Relapser's curse - there is hope, by Skizzik)

I read this article a couple weeks after the pain came back (a few days after accepting that it wasn't a physical condition) when I first read it, I related with the emotions and fears that Skizzik was going through. Almost everything he said was what I went through.. Doubt of TMS (even though it had worked before) fear of never getting better, thinking about how your wife and kids will see you, thinking that this will be how you feel till you die.

I also relate to how he understands what he's doing wrong. He (as I was/am) expecting to heal now, not later. Not understanding that the first time we healed because we had so much excitement and hope that we just got better and more mindful once it all clicked. He was calendaring everything and observing how his symptoms were seeing if they were better now compared to yesterday etc etc.. All of which I have been doing

This article also gives me hope that in time I'll be better. (Not crazy in the length of time it took him) but a year or more of work is definitely worth a life without pain.

I wish Skizzik was still in the boards, or there was a way to find out how he was doing

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, dharn. Thanks for posting about the article. It can take longer for some to heal from TMS pain, but even the time spent on it can be rewarding. We learn so much about ourselves and others in our lives.

Dr. Sarno says not to monitor our pain each day or to compare it with yesterday's pain. Take life one day at a time and live in the present moment.

I like to think that Skizzik healed and has gone on to enjoy life. You'll be like that soon.

 

[Pixels]

Hi dharn,

I'm new here today but totally relate to what you've posted. Although my journey wasn't started with tms it was started with the same basis as tms without me knowing. My healing started in Oct 2013 and my last relapse was this last April/May 2016 and what a shock it was. Thankfully it didn't last any longer than around 1 1/2 weeks, I have fibromyalgia and have been off all prescription pain meds since the end of Nov 2013.

Anywho, just wanted to say you're not alone. I do have lesser pain at times when I'm resisting but the relapse was the worse but I got thru it. Since I've come across tms just yesterday, I'm excited to go deeper in my emotional healing. Lately it's been intermittent pain at the base of my skull and upper neck. It's due to my mind not wanting to compromise and allow life to unfold me - tho I'm honestly enjoying this in my life, at times my mind/ego tries to distract me since I've recently been doing this.

It's so well worth the healing I've come into thus far, which gives me much courage to continue no matter what! I know my body is not dying nor being harmed tho my mind would love me to go back to thinking that way lol. Yes, it does take time, the layers upon layers dissolving.

It's time to let go, it's going to be ok.
How do you know it's going to be ok!?
I don't...
And then Dory let go, as did Marlin, Nemo's dad

 

[dharn999]

A relapse sucks because up until the point of relapse, I hadn't really thought about TMS or pain etc.. I would get pain here and there but never put anything into it.. Then BAM! I bit the line and thought about my pain.. My unconscious was trying to distract me pretty hard this time and I let it.. It's a slower recovery than I wished, but I realize that I'm nowhere close to where I was when I first discovered TMS and Dr. Sarno.. What I've realized today was that this time around I've turned my obsession into fixing my TMS just as hard as I was trying to fix my back in 2013.. The more I fight it the harder it gets.. I'm just working on being mindful this time around and acknowledging the symptoms and letting them "float" (I read that in a post by Herbie)

A couple weeks ago I spent endless time searching the forums and Google for reassurance to my diagnoses and how to get rid of it.. (Just like Skizzik) I'm not 100% right now and who knows when I will be, honestly by time I get to 90% I will hopefully have forgot about the symptoms and TMS all together and get back to living. I know that forgetting about this can lead to a relapse like I'm in right now, but like Walt mentioned "Dr. Sarno says to not monitor our pain each day". For me I'll have to forget about the cause to forget about the symptoms.

I hope I'm not all talk right now because I'm feeling confident today, but just like like Skizzik found out in this article, you don't heal when your observing. TMS wants you to fight, just acknowledge it, don't panic, move on.

PS, as I type this I feel my symptoms moving from my butt to back

 

[Pixels]

I just read the full article you posted. His full recovery part towards the end is where I started back in 2013 and what he wanted to do is exactly what I too was planning to do. Now that had changed as did his own ideas of writing and publishing a book, helping others, etc.

It truly is about letting go (and trusting), for me at least, as he also stated in the article...the letting go part. I add trust as that is what makes it hard to let go, and rejection or fear of rejection.