Dreams are Increasing

Dear Forum members - please reply if you can shed any insight - I have been pushing through some very severe TMS hip/leg pain. Devoted to Dr. Sarno's theory, but realize the roots are deeper emotionally. Just yesterday clicked a link from the TMSWiki onto "Unlearn Your Pain - Chapter 5" and have been working my way through the prompts that trigger childhood memories, relationship with father and mother growing up, expectations and discipline. Really digging deep. My parents are both still alive, albeit aging (87 and 80) so the intense pressures I grew up with are diminishing, but my pain levels are SKYROCKETING! I'm guessing it's because I'm identifying some very core emotions, and my dreams are increasing as well. I only sleep 2-3 hours at night, then have to nap throughout the day. I find myself crawling back in to bed just to go back to dreaming to see what comes! Has anyone experienced a similar course of healing - and would they be considered "break-throughs"? I can't take this pain any more!

 

Hi SuzieQ,

I have not experienced the same level of dramatic increase in dreaming around TMS work, but I certainly have with times I have taken to do meditation retreat and go inward. I wanted to reflect to you that you are doing really deep, important work for your own healing --both physical and psychological. The TMS is taking you, with your sincerity, into places you have avoided. This can only be a good thing!

How wonderful to have such excitement about the revelation of mysterious inner dynamics! This kind of zest to know more, I believe, is a fundamental approach to curing the TMS. The content of your insights is great, but perhaps even greater is the relationship you are building inside yourself: a willingness to feel and know more. Then the TMS symptoms have less need to arise.

Good luck in your heartfelt endeavors!

Andy B.

 

When I have increasing pain levels I try to access the part of myself that is CAUSING the pain. For me it is like a little girl with a blaring loudspeaker trying to silence all of the other parts of my psyche and distract me. Picture loss and sadness and fear with their hands covering their ears !!

I have been having an easier time as I have been kinder to that part of myself. Really sitting down with her and getting to know WHY she is doing that. It seems that she thinks I can't handle my emotions. She thinks she's doing me a favor and it's a fun game. But I assure her that my emotions aren't really so intimidating.

You are doing a great thing by reaching out! Have you ever written down these dreams?

Dreams and visions are magical healing tools.

 

lexylucy - YES - I do write down the dreams - because I remember them so vividly! As of late, most are easy to decipher and link to everyday occurrences, feelings of loss (my son leaving for college, fear of crowds at graduation!)

 

Andy B - thank you for your words of encouragement! Here's my dilemma though - I am a single parent, a stay-at-home Mother for the past 18 years - 3 teenagers --- they leave for school in the AM - I'm in bed! The come home from school - I'm in bed! Do they think I'm depressed? (all you have to do is turn on the TV and see commercials for medication for depression) And what kind of roll-model have a become for them? My world has become so small because of TMS. I guarantee children do not understand chronic physical pain like this - all they see is their Mom in bed with no life of her own!

 

Hi, SusieQ.
Can you get out of bed at all? It would be great if you could sit in a chair when the kids come home.
Everyone has depression now and then. It goes with the life today.
We see a lot of commercials on tv about medication for depression, which means there are big bucks in that.
But the best way to treat depression is with what Dr. Sarno calls "TMS knowledge penicillin."

I found that laughing helps me out of depression. It sends healing forces to our body and mind.

Try not to be discouraged. Have you begun the Structured Educational Program? It helped me to
heal from severe back pain, by journaling to discover repressed emotions going back to my childhood
when my parents divorced when I was seven and it left me with feelings of abandonment and insecurity.
I was able to realize they had TMS repressed emotions of their own, and that helped me to forgive them
which then led to me healing from the back pain.

Something is causing you to be depressed. Medication might help but just keep you from learning why.
Does it perhaps go back to why you are a single parent? If you are divorced, maybe the depression goes
back to that.

 

Hi All,

I have found a big increase in my dreams as well. It is hard for me to understand their meaning but lately small doses of mindfullness meditation make them less scary. Before completely waking up, I try to talk to myself in the dream - to reassure that part of my that I am safe and this is just a dream.

My heart races and my fear / anxiety is sky high. By stepping in and trying to talk to the inner child - to tell her here is nothing to fear - I seem to be able to slowly reduce the heart-rate, anxiety and fear. I am about a year into my TMS healing. This pattern, while challenging to deal with in the mornings, I take as a good sign that something is going on. Something is coming out more.

The themes are often repetitive:
1. Anxiety / fear / racing heart
- I tell myself there is nothin to fear, it is ok
2. Going back to school and not finishing
- Not sure what this is about but I tell myself I've completed my high school, college and grad school. No need to feel I secure here
3. Running behind / late
- This is an old pattern of mine but I have worked hard to break it
4. Returning from abroad with stuff (furniture, food, etc)
- I was an exchange student for 2 years
- I tell my dream self that I don't need to lug this stuff around. Keep a small bag and give the rest away

I still don't understand dreams but I am trying he sarno method of "talking to the crab". If you'be read the divided mind, you know what I mean. If you have not, it simply means engaging / talking to elements of your dreams.

I still find this stuff a little out there but somehow it all became just a tinge easier when I started simple mindfulness meditation for 5 mins 2x a day (we all have to start somewhere).

If you can relate to any of the things I have talked about, I would love to hear it. (As I am trying to figure this out).

Best, -AC45

 

If dreams come from the unconscious, then I guess they can tell us something about the issues we still have there. My dreams seem to go in themes also. Recently the theme is incompetence. At first, I thought I haven't been consciously aware of being troubled by that. But exploring it more in journaling, I realize it is an issue. So perhaps dreams that we remember are one way our unconscious thoughts bubble up to the conscious mind.

 

Hi Ellen - Thank you for your note. Wonderful thoughts and very comforting. If they are thoughts bubbling up, then I see that as a good sign. In TMS, we want to let our unconscious thoughts out. I too think I struggle with incompetence. In my case, I feel the imposture syndrome and fear of failure. I have no idea why I feel failure so much. My guesss is that accomplishing = overcompensating for the feelings of not being good enough when I was a child. Thx, -AC45

 

Susie, for years leading to the last severe outbreak of TMS, I did not have dreams, except for occasional muted and chaotic sequences of images that did not have a story to it, but were always very unpleasant. I missed those deep refreshing dreams and thought they were gone for good because of my age. All that combined with severe insomnia over 20+ years. One of the first great surprises of my TMS recovery was that my sleep restored to mostly normal within 2-3 months and soon after the dreams re-appeared. Dreams are a good sign of recovery. In dreams, your brain is sorting out your emotions and memories. Welcome whatever comes and keep trying!

 

Hi All,

Over the last month, I have pulled out my old journals. I started writing when I was 14. I am now up to age 26 in my reading. This exercise is stirring up a lot of things. It is, however, helping me see the bigger picture in so many events that were difficult at the time. I am dreaming A LOT. I don't know what all of the dreams mean but I can say that is exercise is lowering the severity of my early morning anxiety and my insomnia. I really like what @TG957 wrote above "dreams are a good sign of recovery". I hope that is true and thank you for listening. Anyone else have LOTS of dreams while sorting through TMS?

-AC45

 

Interesting. I also lately see vivid dreams. Before I started TMS healing process I almost never remembered any dreams.
They are pretty straightforward - the main themes are rejection and trying to achieve something really hard, but not getting it, failure and fear. Not nightmares per se, but just frustration and sadness.

 

"Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet learned how to ask." (Fox Mulder on the X Files)

 

I love dreams. They're so mysterious. I've always had very vivid dreams. I pay attention to them a lot and they've let me peek inside my crazy brain. There is a lot of anger back there. One really meaningful dream I had was sitting with someone and they said something that upset me. I had so much power. I turned into sort of an angel but with as much power as a fire breathing dragon. I flew up and roared fire at them and burned the whole house down. Things like that give me insight.
Dreams like that happened here and there for almost a year. Then, my dreams sort of changed. Every morning before I woke up I was having stress dreams. I would wake up with anxiety every day and my heart pounding. Stupid stress stuff that my brain knew I was worried about and I think it was tricking me on purpose because it picked up on my method and knew I was paying attention to dreams. Since I realized that those stress dreams stopped.
They can be so meaningful though.

 

Oh yes! I love dreams, too, even scary ones, because I feel they inform me of what my mind is trying to sort out.

I always remember having lots of dreams, many vivid, throughout my life, but now when I'm doing mindbody work during my waking hours, the dreams are in overdrive. They're usually pretty obvious to me about what they represent, and they're usually clear, and wild, and intense, and introspective.

When I'm not digging into the sources of my TMS pain, the dreams generally seem to go back into hiding. I've been on this healing journey for almost 12 years (about 9.5 since really understanding the mind-body connection). When I'm in therapy that works to address my underlying pain (e.g., talk therapy, jfb-myofascial release therapy, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing) my dreams come back in force. In fact, the way I remembered about a repressed childhood memory was in a dream after 2 weeks of myofascial release bodywork. It's like the mindbody work greased the skids and then my subconscious decided to tell me in a dream.

I've got a books worth of dreams written down from the last 10 years. I truly find it fascinating. I just wish my conscious mind would catch up and let go of the stuff that still seems to hold me back from making that last step to being "100% cured"

Happy dreaming ... May it help answer the questions your mind is posing or help resolve what your mind is trying to process.