Day 1 Dental pain, I'm scared

J

JoeyCongo

New Member
Hello,

I'm an old TMS patient. I used Sarno's techniques back in 2008 to recover from RSI. However, my brain still has a hard time accepting the TMS diagnosis. Today I'm dealing with throbbing pain in my back gums and I'm terrified that it's TMS related. The pain is not too terrible but it's still scaring me. Since I'm going on vacation I won't be able to see a dentist for a long time and even so I'm horrified of dentists and would much rather never see one (avoidant personality).

My recent bout of (presumably) TMS symptoms started back in May with leg pain that I was certain was caused by sitting. After getting the run around from my provider, I self diagnosed my issues as sciatica pain. However, in the last few days I've started to doubt the self diagnosis as I remember that it is a common TMS symptom. Lo and behold, my leg pain and stiffness has subsided and now I'm having dental pain. Part of me sees this as the classic symptom imperative switcharoo but another part of me is haunted by the fear that I have legit dental issues that will just get worse in the coming weeks where I don't have access to a dentist. On top of this I've been having horrific insomnia over the last four weeks and am not sure what's causing it.

Anyway, I'm going through the structured education program. 70-80 percent sure this is TMS, I'll keep posting here. Would appreciate any input from the community.
 
Hey @JoeyCongo
Sounds like you understand your fears, and you know what to do.
Watch the self-pressure to "fix" and "heal", they key is to have understanding and empathy/compassion.
Remember that sometimes we do have real things that we need to address and that it's our reaction to the fear that is often much worse than the need for treatment and care. You can THINK you can avoid all you want, but the truth is that you are human and in a human body that needs care. Anticipatory anxiety can really increase symptoms.
Sometime part of the TMS work is facing our fears and recognizing that we are not at the mercy of our fears and anxiety and that we are absolutely strong enough to face things. You've already proven you are willing to face TMS and the work which is pretty challenging. My favorite resource about confronting and facing fear is @TG957 's book "Defying The Verdict" (available on Amazon or the Defeat CRPS website). @TG957 has even more recently posted about continuing to face fears with self-love and compassion over a long period of time.
 
I wrote a Success Story about recovering from Chronic Insomnia.

Ellen

Thread 'Recovery from Chronic Insomnia'

Recovery from Chronic Insomnia

I recovered from chronic TMS (The Mindbody Syndrome) pain (fibromyalgia and migraine) in 2014 after using TMS healing strategies for about a year. You can read my success story on this here. However, it took me about another 3 years to finally recover from chronic insomnia. This TMS equivalent was obviously much harder for me to address than chronic pain. I finally figured out why. Here is my story.

Background

I always had occasional and situational sleep onset type insomnia, even as a child. The night before an important...
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It was challenging but is possible. The main thing I had to overcome was the fear of not sleeping. It's hard when you have a busy and demanding life, but letting go of the idea that you must sleep in order to function is the key.
 
Welcome back @JoeyCongo!
Thank you for sharing @Ellen. I just contended with the fear of not sleeping well last night, for all the reasons you mentioned. Thank you for pointing out the "belief" that you had about functioning well, I find myself going down that same road. I often didn't sleep well due to the pain, but it hasn't been an issue for a bit. Good news! I know why it is reemerging now! An increase in happy life stressors has kicked up my anxiety. Anxiety is high but manageable. Accept the change in my sleep habits and challenge the ideas I have around what it means when I "don't sleep well". I can do that :)
 
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