Dry Eye after acid reflux

I think I'm dealing with symptom imperative/substitution. I was able to get rid of my acid reflux and almost as soon as it went away I began experiencing dry eye and I still am. Any thoughts?

 

Hi blackle22 -

If you do a key word search (on this site, use the box in the upper-right corner) on "dry eyes" and another one on "symptom imperative" you'll find plenty of thoughts on both of these subjects.

Everyone here has lots of experience with the symptom imperative, and you obviously already know what it is.

The thing is, you don't need to waste time and energy on specifics. It's really quite unimportant to consider the type of new symptom that might replace an old symptom. All you need to do is accept that each is TMS (which of course assumes that any symptoms of concern are checked out by an appropriate health professional).

So it might be important to you that you read enough descriptions of dry eye(s) from other TMS sufferers that you can accept that dry eyes are probably TMS.

If you ever truly accept the mechanism of TMS, and the reasons it keeps coming back, you won't need to do this in the future. But if you ever truly accept the mechanism of TMS, you won't even bother asking this question, right?

Have you done the SEP or Dr. Schubiner's book? Or checked out Alan Gordon's new Pain Recovery Program? If not, it's probably well past time to do the deeper emotional work! For many of us, especially those of us who land here, the book knowledge isn't enough. But that doesn't mean we require formal psychotherapy - these three self-help resources, along with many others, have helped many people turn the corner.

 

Hi Jan,
Thank you for your advice.
I am not new to tms. I actually saw Dr. Schubiner back in May and he confirmed I had it. Like I said I was able to eliminate the old symptom but the new symptom tricked me I guess. I didn't recognize it for what it was originally. I need to get back to the emotional work.

 

I went to the eye doc today and she said I had some bumps under my bottom eyelid close to my eye due to inflammation. Prescribed me some steroid drops.