Estoy cansado.

[Alouqua47]

Estoy cansado. Todavía no he logrado nada. He estado escribiendo, hablando sobre todo conmigo mismo sobre fantasmas del pasado y tratando de ver qué más podía descubrir. Sin embargo, no he hecho mucho.
He estado haciendo muchas actividades, intentando ignorar los síntomas, evitando el miedo y la catastrofización. He intentado vivir con normalidad, manteniéndome activa, pero sinceramente no encuentro alivio. Es difícil tener un dolor eléctrico que empezó debajo del hombro y ahora sube a la espalda. Lo único bueno es que ahora está más en el lado izquierdo y siento el brazo derecho un poco más libre.
Aun así, me despierto y no puedo evitar llorar y pensar que he fracasado. No sé si llorar es un fracaso, pero siento que lo es. ¿Qué mensaje de seguridad le estoy dando a mi cerebro si lloro? Al mismo tiempo, pienso que si no lloro, me estoy guardando algo. ¿cómo decirlo? Una forma de luchar.
Pues no lo sé. Dicen que para sanar y liberarse de los síntomas hay que llegar a un punto en el que ya no te importe nada o algo así. No sé cómo se supone que voy a llegar ahí.
El dolor es extraño. A veces ni siquiera puedo explicarlo. Puedo hacer mis actividades diarias, pero el dolor se percibe; está ahí en mi brazo, difuso. Me duelen los dedos. Es como un dolor nervioso.
No sé si alguien ha pasado por algo similar. Quienes se recuperaron, ¿también tuvieron momentos así, aunque lloraron? Quizás su dolor no fue así.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

Estoy cansado. Todavía no he logrado nada. He estado escribiendo, hablando sobre todo conmigo mismo sobre fantasmas del pasado y tratando de ver qué más podía descubrir. Sin embargo, no he hecho mucho.
He estado haciendo muchas actividades, intentando ignorar los síntomas, evitando el miedo y la catastrofización. He intentado vivir con normalidad, manteniéndome activa, pero sinceramente no encuentro alivio. Es difícil tener un dolor eléctrico que empezó debajo del hombro y ahora sube a la espalda. Lo único bueno es que ahora está más en el lado izquierdo y siento el brazo derecho un poco más libre.
Aun así, me despierto y no puedo evitar llorar y pensar que he fracasado. No sé si llorar es un fracaso, pero siento que lo es. ¿Qué mensaje de seguridad le estoy dando a mi cerebro si lloro? Al mismo tiempo, pienso que si no lloro, me estoy guardando algo. ¿cómo decirlo? Una forma de luchar.
Pues no lo sé. Dicen que para sanar y liberarse de los síntomas hay que llegar a un punto en el que ya no te importe nada o algo así. No sé cómo se supone que voy a llegar ahí.
El dolor es extraño. A veces ni siquiera puedo explicarlo. Puedo hacer mis actividades diarias, pero el dolor se percibe; está ahí en mi brazo, difuso. Me duelen los dedos. Es como un dolor nervioso.
No sé si alguien ha pasado por algo similar. Quienes se recuperaron, ¿también tuvieron momentos así, aunque lloraron? Quizás su dolor no fue así.

Hi, it isn't so much about not caring about anything but losing the fear you have around the symptoms. Naturally if you fear them less you'll care about them less. Knowing with little doubt that they are simply TMS and not a sign of a structural issue is obviously a very important factor in reducing that fear

 

[Alouqua47]

If I don’t really have to completely eliminate that sensation, and it actually gets to a point where I simply don’t care about my pain and I’m just not afraid of the symptoms, then maybe I’m not doing so badly. And I’m calm most of the time. My pain is always there, it just varies from day to day or moment to moment—it can flare up.
Actually, since I slowly started lowering the fear, especially over these past almost two months when I began working with the SMT theory, I feel like everything has gotten worse. I had some other symptoms before, but they weren’t as persistent—more sporadic. But now my arms, which used to bother me only above the elbow, now have this pain up to the shoulder and sometimes it even reaches my back. And regarding my legs, basically the same thing. Before, I only felt bilateral pain inside my calves. Now I also feel pain in my thighs, although of a different kind, like the soreness you get after exercising for a long time—but it comes and goes, the same with my back.
Sometimes I also feel random sensations in my body, like nerve-like or electric sensations for a few seconds—on my face, anywhere. But honestly, my arms are what make me cry, because when the volume of the pain rises—like yesterday, it happened twice—I realized it was right after two moments when I got a little stressed.
That’s what I mean. When the pain is too strong, that’s when I cry. I can’t help it, and sometimes I feel like it’s a failure. I just wanted to know if anyone who has already experienced improvement went through this as part of the process. One day the pain was so strong that I couldn’t stop myself from crying.
I don’t know—I can only say that I’ve gotten worse. My pains haven’t increased in intensity, but they’ve spread more. And my symptoms… I feel unwell and tense in my body. These days they’ve been more frequent. I literally feel my body very uncomfortable everywhere, with strong pain in my arms.
Honestly, I don’t know—when people talk about flare-ups, they say there are symptom-free days. I wish I could have something like that. Mine are there all the time.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

If I don’t really have to completely eliminate that sensation, and it actually gets to a point where I simply don’t care about my pain and I’m just not afraid of the symptoms, then maybe I’m not doing so badly. And I’m calm most of the time. My pain is always there, it just varies from day to day or moment to moment—it can flare up.
Actually, since I slowly started lowering the fear, especially over these past almost two months when I began working with the SMT theory, I feel like everything has gotten worse. I had some other symptoms before, but they weren’t as persistent—more sporadic. But now my arms, which used to bother me only above the elbow, now have this pain up to the shoulder and sometimes it even reaches my back. And regarding my legs, basically the same thing. Before, I only felt bilateral pain inside my calves. Now I also feel pain in my thighs, although of a different kind, like the soreness you get after exercising for a long time—but it comes and goes, the same with my back.
Sometimes I also feel random sensations in my body, like nerve-like or electric sensations for a few seconds—on my face, anywhere. But honestly, my arms are what make me cry, because when the volume of the pain rises—like yesterday, it happened twice—I realized it was right after two moments when I got a little stressed.
That’s what I mean. When the pain is too strong, that’s when I cry. I can’t help it, and sometimes I feel like it’s a failure. I just wanted to know if anyone who has already experienced improvement went through this as part of the process. One day the pain was so strong that I couldn’t stop myself from crying.
I don’t know—I can only say that I’ve gotten worse. My pains haven’t increased in intensity, but they’ve spread more. And my symptoms… I feel unwell and tense in my body. These days they’ve been more frequent. I literally feel my body very uncomfortable everywhere, with strong pain in my arms.
Honestly, I don’t know—when people talk about flare-ups, they say there are symptom-free days. I wish I could have something like that. Mine are there all the time.

I'm not familiar with what SMT means so please let me know.

I don't think crying is an issue at all, feel free to let your emotions out.

The main issue that I see (1000 times more important than whether you cry or not, that's dwarfed in importance), and I've seen it in your other posts, is that you're constantly talking about the symptoms and how they act (I know others have mentioned this to you before). There is an obsession with them. I understand that from the point of view of how they are impacting your life, but this isn't helping your recovery at all. Why? Because you're trying to convince your scared brain that this is just TMS and not a body problem. If it is TMS, then in terms of recovery that's all you need to know, the symptom itself isn't relevant (again, obviously it's relevant to your life and day-to day, but not to recovery - I am very empathetic of your situation and I don't want you to suffer, so please don't take this as me trying to minimise your experience - believe me I know how much it sucks - everything I say is out of compassion to help you recover). It could be a skin issue, bowel problems, back pain, chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue, nerve pain - if it's TMS it's TMS. If the treatment for each of these TMS manifestations were different (how to recover from nerve pain was completely different to IBS for example), then symptoms would be more relevant, but that's not the case. It's all due to a scared brain and TMS recovery from the experts is prescribed the same (it covers the field).

By constantly talking about them and focusing on them (especially in this forum and related to your recovery), your brain is confused. It thinks well if she is so focused on the body and what the sensations are doing, then naturally there must be something wrong with the body (that is how you'd behave with a genuine structural issue). Your subconscious mind can't tell the difference. Given you know what TMS is, your mind is also knows that the symptom itself is largely irrelevant when it comes to TMS (as I said above) so by you putting so much attention on them, the brain is thinking well it mustn't be TMS and we must be broken.

This isn't a judgment and pretty much everyone has this issue at first (I did too), so I'm speaking from experience. You say you're lowering fear but both from your focus on the symptoms and some other things you're saying I sense quite a lot of fear (and frustration too - which is really just fear expressed another way).

I likewise understand wanting to find someone who had very similar symptoms to you who has healed (for encouragement purposes), but again it sends the same message to your brain as above. If you truly knew it was TMS, then you'd know the symptom itself isn't the issue. You could theoretically get the same amount of wisdom and guidance from someone who recovered from dizziness or another other completely different symptom (obviously advice from those with similar symptoms will land better, that's only natural, I'm just making the point).

You could do all the work in the world and put in all the effort, but often seemingly small things like this make a massive difference (and block recovery). Another thing too is you sound as if you are in hawk mode with your symptoms so to speak and are watching their every move. You can't strictly measure progress by what happens with the symptoms (I understand the desire too as this is the ultimate goal), as again it just sends a message to the brain that there's a body problem (TMS recovery is about lowering fear and attention, then the symptom reduction follows, often not straight away).

Whether someone is engaging in these behaviours or not is often a reflection of true indifference building and fear reducing (i.e. monitoring your symptoms constantly isn't a reflection of reduced fear and indifference, in fact it's quite the opposite). To summarise what I said above too, the only relevance your symptoms have to recovery is whether you truly believe they are TMS (how symptoms act is only relevant as evidence of the fact that they are TMS). Once that's achieved, it's all the same work for everyone

 

[Joulegirl]

Everyone on this website has hit rock bottom with their symptoms. It usually is when the doctors cannot do anything else for you and yet the symptoms persist and nothing is working. By the tone of this post, you are there.

The only way out of this is through it. No one is going to fix you but yourself. And the only way you are going to do that is if you start a program. Have you looked at the SEP program on this site? It will help you learn more about TMS but also process your emotions. I think I asked you this before and you didn't respond.

You have to stop talking about your symptoms TODAY. You will not get better by ruminating on them and writing posts dedicated to your symptoms. I would love to see your next post be about how you are going to tackle TMS. What books are you reading? What program are you doing? What emotions are you feeling?

This will be the first step in your wellness journey. It's scary but as your start to work on your emotions and your nervous system, you will see results. Maybe not in your symptoms at first-but more in your mental health. For me, as I did the program and read the books, my lifestyle and mindset changed. That is when I started to see the reduction in my symptoms. Another thing I did was to laugh. I watched a funny movie, tv show, or comedian show. It was something to take my mind off my symptoms. When I saw a reduction in my symptoms, I started exercising as well. Everything happened in baby steps.

What will be your first step today?

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

Agreed, well said.

 

[Alouqua47]

I’m sorry. I know I always talk about the symptoms. Maybe it’s because deep down I really want someone who had something like this to have overcome it. I find some old posts with something similar and people did recover, but they’re just a tiny minority. Right now I feel like there’s no one who has improved with the kind of symptoms I have.
You know? Yes, it’s true—I’m aware that the specific symptom doesn’t matter. The healing process is the same, but the difficulty feels different. It’s not the same to tell people, “My back hurts and it’s disabling,” as it is to say, “I have nerve pain that moves around in my arms.” Everyone thinks I’m crazy, or that I’m making it up, that I’m exaggerating.
The worst part is that I have to do everything with those arms. Do you know how frustrating that can be? I try to breathe, and most of the time I stay calm, but I can’t help feeling anger. I’m angry at myself. I’m angry at my brain—not just for choosing my arms, but for the type of pain it gave me. I wouldn’t mind living with my other symptoms, but I wish it would just leave my arms alone.
I’m sorry that right now there’s no one with these symptoms who can give me advice, since most of the people I think have recovered don’t come back—and maybe that’s a good sign. Thank you for your words. At least I know that crying isn’t a failure, even though sometimes I’m not sure.

No estoy familiarizado con lo que significa SMT, así que por favor hágamelo saber.

No creo que llorar sea un problema en absoluto, siéntete libre de dejar salir tus emociones.

El principal problema que veo (mil veces más importante que si lloras o no, eso es insignificante), y lo he visto en tus otras publicaciones, es que hablas constantemente de los síntomas y cómo se manifiestan (sé que otros te lo han mencionado antes). Hay una obsesión con ellos. Lo entiendo desde el punto de vista de cómo afectan tu vida, pero esto no ayuda en absoluto a tu recuperación. ¿Por qué? Porque intentas convencer a tu mente asustada de que es solo SMT y no un problema corporal. Si es SMT, entonces, en términos de recuperación, eso es todo lo que necesitas saber; el síntoma en sí no es relevante (repito, obviamente es relevante para tu vida y tu día a día, pero no para la recuperación; soy muy empática con tu situación y no quiero que sufras, así que, por favor, no lo interpretes como que intento minimizar tu experiencia; créeme, sé lo mal que es; todo lo que digo es por compasión para ayudarte a recuperarte). Podría ser un problema de piel, problemas intestinales, dolor de espalda, sensibilidad química, fatiga crónica, dolor nervioso; si es EMT, es EMT. Si el tratamiento para cada una de estas manifestaciones de EMT fuera diferente (la recuperación del dolor nervioso fuera completamente distinta a la del SII, por ejemplo), los síntomas serían más relevantes, pero no es así. Todo se debe a un cerebro asustado, y la recuperación de EMT según los expertos se prescribe de la misma manera (abarca todo el campo).

Al hablar constantemente de ellos y centrarse en ellos (especialmente en este foro y en relación con tu recuperación), tu cerebro se confunde. Piensa que, si está tan concentrado en el cuerpo y en lo que hacen las sensaciones, entonces, naturalmente, debe haber algo mal en el cuerpo (así es como te comportarías con un problema estructural genuino). Tu subconsciente no puede distinguir la diferencia. Dado que sabes qué es el SMT, tu mente también sabe que el síntoma en sí es en gran medida irrelevante cuando se trata del SMT (como mencioné antes), así que al prestarles tanta atención, el cerebro piensa que no debe ser SMT y que debemos estar rotos.

No es un juicio, y casi todo el mundo tiene este problema al principio (yo también), así que hablo por experiencia. Dices que estás reduciendo el miedo, pero tanto por tu enfoque en los síntomas como por otras cosas que dices, siento bastante miedo (y frustración también, que en realidad es miedo expresado de otra manera).

También entiendo que quieras encontrar a alguien con síntomas muy similares a los tuyos que se haya recuperado (para animarte), pero, de nuevo, envía el mismo mensaje a tu cerebro que el anterior. Si realmente supieras que se trata de SMT, sabrías que el síntoma en sí no es el problema. En teoría, podrías recibir la misma sabiduría y orientación de alguien que se haya recuperado de mareos u otro síntoma completamente diferente (obviamente, los consejos de personas con síntomas similares te darán más resultado, es natural, solo lo digo).

Podrías hacer todo el trabajo del mundo y esforzarte al máximo, pero a menudo, detalles aparentemente pequeños como este marcan una gran diferencia (y bloquean la recuperación). Además, pareces estar en modo halcón con tus síntomas, por así decirlo, y vigilar cada movimiento. No se puede medir el progreso estrictamente por lo que sucede con los síntomas (entiendo el deseo, ya que es el objetivo final), ya que, de nuevo, simplemente envía un mensaje al cerebro de que hay un problema corporal (la recuperación de la EMT se trata de reducir el miedo y la atención; luego, la reducción de los síntomas viene, a menudo no de inmediato).

El hecho de que alguien presente o no estos comportamientos suele ser un reflejo de una verdadera indiferencia y una reducción del miedo (es decir, monitorear los síntomas constantemente no refleja una reducción del miedo y la indiferencia, sino todo lo contrario). Para resumir lo que dije antes, la única relevancia de los síntomas para la recuperación es si realmente se cree que son SMT (la forma en que se manifiestan los síntomas solo es relevante como prueba de que son SMT). Una vez logrado esto, el trabajo es el mismo para todos .

 

[Cactusflower]

Don't talk about your symptoms with anyone. Don't complain about them, don't give them space or breath.
You live with them, side by side but not through them.
You are not a victim of them, they are there to communicate with you that there is something you need to feel, but are pushing it off to the side.
People here have similar symptoms (I mentioned I have had some similar symptoms and have completely recovered from those symptoms) but you still keep searching for the *perfect* match, perhaps you want detail. I do not provide detail about my symptoms because the symptom is not the "problem" the emotions and thoughts/obsessions are the concern.
The work is to refocus your mind on the emotions, on life, on joy and on living. It's not easy, it can take time which for a few is just days, for most is longer. For some it takes much longer. This is a personal journey to wellness, and gaining back the spirit of your life.
The choice is to suffer (suffering is mental and emotional, it's not the physical pain or symptom) and be miserable to to make the decision that today I will put one foot in front of the other and begin to step out of the old habits and patterns that keep me stuck in this place. You deserve to be in a much better place, treat yourself like you would treat anyone you love who is suffering. Kindness, compassion, encouragement.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

I’m sorry. I know I always talk about the symptoms. Maybe it’s because deep down I really want someone who had something like this to have overcome it. I find some old posts with something similar and people did recover, but they’re just a tiny minority. Right now I feel like there’s no one who has improved with the kind of symptoms I have.
You know? Yes, it’s true—I’m aware that the specific symptom doesn’t matter. The healing process is the same, but the difficulty feels different. It’s not the same to tell people, “My back hurts and it’s disabling,” as it is to say, “I have nerve pain that moves around in my arms.” Everyone thinks I’m crazy, or that I’m making it up, that I’m exaggerating.
The worst part is that I have to do everything with those arms. Do you know how frustrating that can be? I try to breathe, and most of the time I stay calm, but I can’t help feeling anger. I’m angry at myself. I’m angry at my brain—not just for choosing my arms, but for the type of pain it gave me. I wouldn’t mind living with my other symptoms, but I wish it would just leave my arms alone.
I’m sorry that right now there’s no one with these symptoms who can give me advice, since most of the people I think have recovered don’t come back—and maybe that’s a good sign. Thank you for your words. At least I know that crying isn’t a failure, even though sometimes I’m not sure.

No need to apologise! You don't owe us anything. It's your recovery and it's up to you.

I completely understand the desire to find people who have overcome it. But when you said "I find some old posts with something similar and people did recover, but they're just a tiny minority". You've actually done really well. I never found anyone with pain in the exact location where I had it, I had to settle for the broader notion of pelvic pain (and I had to decide that this was enough to pursue my own healing and that I didn't need anymore confirmation). You're contradicting yourself too because you said that you found people who did recover but in the next sentence you feel like no one has improved. Most people who recover just go back to life and don't feel the need to share their success story, so I'm not sure really what you mean by "tiny minority". To me that idea (as well as you looking at the above contradiction in the negative light) is just feeding into a potential victim mentality and the potential idea that you're a special case and that this won't work for you.

I don't think you're crazy or exaggerating at all. The other thing I wanted to say is that I have a diagnostic guide book which has over 500 diagnoses in it and whether or not TMS could apply to them (it is written by Dr Clarke, Dr Schubiner and Dr Schechter - so the top experts with over 7000 patients worth of experience). They talk about nerve pain and how it can present in basically any part of the body (including the arms) - although they don't give patent by patient examples (the book would be a million pages if they did) - they wouldn't mention nerve pain in the arms as potentially TMS if they didn't heal multiple patients with that specific condition.

Cactusflower said they had similar symptoms and recovered, so I think it would be a mistake to feel as if they don't answer that desire you have at the end when you said "no one with these symptoms can give me advice". They are giving you free advice too so I think it would be madness not to jump all over it.

I don't know how frustrating your specific symptom is necessarily - and I have great empathy for you. Having said that, when I was at my worst with my pelvic pain I would have traded it for your symptom and I would have said a similar thing to you in that just give it to me anywhere else. I probably would have said "I can't even walk or sit down without horrible pain, I'd love to trade it for arm pain because even though I couldn't use my arms at least I'd be able to sit down and enjoy a movie or go and walk in the park". The point of this is not a competition or a game of who has it worse, the point is that each person when they have their symptoms the worst (even if they've had multiple symptoms) will hate it so much that they'd trade it for something else. Also, someone else with your exact symptom history would prefer the arm symptoms to another symptom which you've had (I know that may be hard to believe but it's true - everyone has their worst symptom and it is different for everyone) - we are all different and we are all the product of our experiences (some would be more comfortable with pain moving around than pain being in one spot, and vice versa - I have met them all). I've never met someone in a massive flare who thought that their symptom wasn't the worst symptom to ever exist. I'm not being facetious, it's just how our brains work because that's what we are experiencing in the moment (and we would do anything to escape it).

When you said you wouldn't mind living with other symptoms, the good thing is that if you understand the message of the symptoms, you don't have to live with any symptoms. That notion is also sending a message to the brain as to what you think is possible. You can be chronic pain free

 

[Alouqua47]

If I’m not walking around my house while reading at the same time, I’m rocking back and forth while sitting. I literally can’t relax. Taking care of my responsibilities keeps me busy, but outside of that, lately I can’t just sit calmly and watch something. Most of the time it has been strong. Even when it decreases, it’s still very uncomfortable—although I think the discomfort wouldn’t weigh as much if there weren’t actual pain.
Maybe I’m simply suffering, and that’s why I’m asking for help. The idea of enjoying life or being happy feels very far away from me right now. I go out with my son and try to distract my mind, but I can’t sit and watch him play at the park. I’m walking the whole time.
I also feel like it has gotten worse. I want to think that maybe that means something positive—not only because what I feel in my arms has changed, but because overall the symptoms have been more overlapping throughout my body, whereas before it wasn’t like that. Before, it was one thing or another; now they overlap, happen at the same time, and they’re affecting more areas than they used to.

No hables de tus síntomas con nadie. No te quejes, no les des espacio ni respiro.
Vives con ellos, uno al lado del otro, pero no a través de ellos.
No eres una víctima de ellos, ellos están ahí para comunicarte que hay algo que necesitas sentir, pero lo estás dejando de lado.
Aquí hay personas que tienen síntomas similares (mencioné que he tenido algunos similares y me he recuperado por completo), pero aún así sigues buscando la pareja *perfecta*; quizás quieras más detalles. No doy detalles sobre mis síntomas porque el síntoma no es el "problema", sino las emociones, pensamientos y obsesiones.
El trabajo consiste en reenfocar tu mente en las emociones, en la vida, en la alegría y en vivir. No es fácil; puede tomar tiempo, que para algunos son solo días, para la mayoría es más. Para algunos, toma mucho más tiempo. Este es un viaje personal hacia el bienestar y para recuperar el espíritu de tu vida.
La elección es sufrir (el sufrimiento es mental y emocional, no es el dolor físico ni los síntomas) y ser miserable para tomar la decisión de que hoy daré un paso al frente y comenzaré a abandonar los viejos hábitos y patrones que me mantienen estancado. Mereces estar en un lugar mucho mejor; trátate como tratarías a cualquier persona que ames que esté sufriendo. Amabilidad, compasión, ánimo.

 

[Alouqua47]

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Honestly, more than anything, I’m just trying to interact so I don’t feel alone. I’m going through the hardest moment of my life.
As I mentioned to Cactus Flower, what I feel in my arms no longer allows me to simply sit still. I can’t help walking around or rocking back and forth constantly. That gives an idea of the intensity. I literally feel as if I have a continuous electric-like discharge in my arms. It’s very overwhelming and distressing. It’s not fear that I feel—it’s pain. Pain that often makes me cry. The fact that it changes with movement really matters to me; the way it behaves when I move truly influences how I experience it.
When I say I would rather keep my other symptoms, I truly mean it, because this is the one that most prevents me from enjoying things right now. I’m genuinely trying to do the best I can. I suppose I haven’t fully committed to SEP, but I’m going to try to continue and to ignore the pain—and cry if I need to. I need to do that. For now, I feel like I can’t do anything more.

¡No te disculpes! No nos debes nada. Es tu recuperación y tú decides.

Entiendo perfectamente el deseo de encontrar personas que lo hayan superado. Pero cuando dijiste: "Encuentro algunas publicaciones antiguas con algo similar y la gente se recuperó, pero son solo una pequeña minoría". La verdad es que te ha ido muy bien. Nunca encontré a nadie con dolor en la misma zona donde yo lo tenía; tuve que conformarme con la noción más amplia de dolor pélvico (y tuve que decidir que esto era suficiente para buscar mi propia sanación y que no necesitaba más confirmación). También te contradices porque dijiste que encontraste gente que se recuperó, pero en la siguiente frase sientes que nadie ha mejorado. La mayoría de las personas que se recuperan simplemente vuelven a la vida normal y no sienten la necesidad de compartir su historia de éxito, así que no estoy seguro de a qué te refieres con "pequeña minoría". Para mí, esa idea (así como el hecho de que veas la contradicción anterior desde una perspectiva negativa) solo alimenta una posible mentalidad de víctima y la idea de que eres un caso especial y que esto no te funcionará.

No creo que estés loco ni exagerando. También quería comentar que tengo una guía de diagnóstico con más de 500 diagnósticos y si la EMT podría aplicarse a ellos (escrita por los Dres. Clarke, Schubiner y Schechter, los máximos expertos con más de 7000 pacientes). Hablan del dolor nervioso y cómo puede presentarse en prácticamente cualquier parte del cuerpo (incluidos los brazos), aunque no dan ejemplos de pacientes (el libro tendría un millón de páginas si lo hicieran). No mencionarían el dolor nervioso en los brazos como posible EMT si no hubieran curado a varios pacientes con esa afección específica.

Cactusflower dijo que tuvieron síntomas similares y se recuperaron, así que creo que sería un error pensar que no responden a ese deseo que tienes al final cuando dices "nadie con estos síntomas puede aconsejarme". También te están dando consejos gratis, así que creo que sería una locura no aprovecharlos.

No sé qué tan frustrante sea tu síntoma específico, y te comprendo profundamente. Dicho esto, cuando estaba en mi peor momento con el dolor pélvico, lo habría cambiado por tu síntoma y te habría dicho algo similar: simplemente, dámelo en cualquier otro lugar. Probablemente habría dicho: "Ni siquiera puedo caminar ni sentarme sin un dolor terrible; me encantaría cambiarlo por dolor en el brazo porque, aunque no pudiera usarlos, al menos podría sentarme y disfrutar de una película o dar un paseo por el parque". El objetivo no es una competición ni un juego de ver quién lo tiene peor, sino que cada persona, cuando tenga sus síntomas más intensos (aunque haya tenido varios), lo odiará tanto que lo cambiaría por otra cosa. Además, alguien con tu mismo historial de síntomas preferiría los síntomas del brazo a otro síntoma que hayas tenido (sé que puede ser difícil de creer, pero es cierto: cada persona tiene su peor síntoma y es diferente para cada persona). Todos somos diferentes y somos producto de nuestras experiencias (algunos se sentirían más cómodos con el dolor moviéndose que con el dolor localizado, y viceversa; los he conocido a todos). Nunca he conocido a nadie en un brote masivo que pensara que su síntoma no era el peor síntoma de la historia. No es broma, simplemente es cómo funciona nuestro cerebro, porque eso es lo que experimentamos en el momento (y haríamos cualquier cosa por evitarlo).

Cuando dijiste que no te importaría vivir con otros síntomas, lo bueno es que si entiendes el mensaje de los síntomas, no tienes que vivir con ninguno. Esa idea también envía un mensaje al cerebro sobre lo que crees que es posible. Puedes vivir sin dolor crónico .

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Honestly, more than anything, I’m just trying to interact so I don’t feel alone. I’m going through the hardest moment of my life.
As I mentioned to Cactus Flower, what I feel in my arms no longer allows me to simply sit still. I can’t help walking around or rocking back and forth constantly. That gives an idea of the intensity. I literally feel as if I have a continuous electric-like discharge in my arms. It’s very overwhelming and distressing. It’s not fear that I feel—it’s pain. Pain that often makes me cry. The fact that it changes with movement really matters to me; the way it behaves when I move truly influences how I experience it.
When I say I would rather keep my other symptoms, I truly mean it, because this is the one that most prevents me from enjoying things right now. I’m genuinely trying to do the best I can. I suppose I haven’t fully committed to SEP, but I’m going to try to continue and to ignore the pain—and cry if I need to. I need to do that. For now, I feel like I can’t do anything more.

I appreciate all of that, truly I do.

And I'm not here to convince you otherwise, symptoms suck and we don't want them. That's unavoidable. You're not supposed to like them.

When you said it's not fear I feel, does the pain itself scare you? Are you scared of this getting worse? Is part of you (even a little bit) scared that this is reflective of a structural/body issue? Are you scared of what's going to happen your life if this stays as it is/gets worse? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then you are fearful (and that's ok! It's normal - it's not going to do you any good to deny it though).

I've never suggested (nor will I ever) to anyone that ignoring their pain is a good strategy (this is despite the fact that I understand how hard and debilitating it can be and I realise there's an element of dissociation to the pain). If we suppose that the pain is a messenger (and the messenger is often represented by our inner child - I've heard that from multiple TMS experts including those at the very top of the profession), what does a child do when its message is ignored? We can hope they go away, but in reality it's just going to get louder.

I've talked to you about this in another thread but I know that you are super resistant and don't want this to have anything to do with emotions. You just want this to be as simple as reacting better to the symptoms and they are gone (I don't blame you, I was there once too). As I've said, whilst that may have been successful with previous symptoms, the fact that you're now getting even worse symptoms is a pretty good sign that the inner child is getting more frustrated that the message isn't being received (and now your past strategy is a lot harder due to the intensity of the symptoms).

Go at your own pace, but I would definitely commit fully to the SEP program - exploring your emotions and past stuff often isn't fun, but how badly do you want to get better? If you keep solely focusing on the symptoms like you are doing now, then I'm not sure what's going to change (beyond just hoping it resolves itself). You're just going to get more frustrated, more angry, more sad, more despondent and more fearful.

 

[Mani]

I don't know how frustrating your specific symptom is necessarily - and I have great empathy for you. Having said that, when I was at my worst with my pelvic pain I would have traded it for your symptom and I would have said a similar thing to you in that just give it to me anywhere else. I probably would have said "I can't even walk or sit down without horrible pain,

This completely. We always feel like other symptoms would be more manageable because its impossible to put into words how unimaginably debilitating and almost dehumanizing these syptoms are. I havent spoken a word in a year, you bet id take one day of your pelvic pain in exchange for a day of normal hearing. Obviously youd probably be in complete silence if it meant you would be without pain for day. The point is that the symptoms themselves arent the issue. The issue is our failed way of living and our bodies saying no.

We all cant live our lives the way we want to and THAT is the main problem. I know how difficult it is but you need to try to give this a place.

To expand upon that — and this will be a little judgemental. You dont seem to be responding to or taking up the things the 'experts' think you can do. Jan asked me this the first day I came here. I wouldnt phrase it exactly her way but I would say: Are you ready to give this life with debilitating symptoms up? Maybe theres a sense of safety to be found in all of this. I know, how absolutely dogshit the symptoms are, they sure are a good distractor. What would you be doing without the distractions?

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

This completely. We always feel like other symptoms would be more manageable because its impossible to put into words how unimaginably debilitating and almost dehumanizing these syptoms are. I havent spoken a word in a year, you bet id take one day of your pelvic pain in exchange for a day of normal hearing. Obviously youd probably be in complete silence if it meant you would be without pain for day. The point is that the symptoms themselves arent the issue. The issue is our failed way of living and our bodies saying no.

We all cant live our lives the way we want to and THAT is the main problem. I know how difficult it is but you need to try to give this a place.

To expand upon that — and this will be a little judgemental. You dont seem to be responding to or taking up the things the 'experts' think you can do. Jan asked me this the first day I came here. I wouldnt phrase it exactly her way but I would say: Are you ready to give this life with debilitating symptoms up? Maybe theres a sense of safety to be found in all of this. I know, how absolutely dogshit the symptoms are, they sure are a good distractor. What would you be doing without the distractions?

Spot on with the first paragraph

With the second paragraph, I disagree that not being able to live our lives to the full is necessarily the main problem (at least from a recovery perspective). It's the main consequence of the symptoms sure, but what this infers is that basically everything was great before the symptoms and it's the symptoms fault that my life sucks. The truth is that there were a lot of issues in life before the pain, and that's why the pain came on in the first place (if everything was rosy before, this wouldn't have happened). You risk ignoring the purpose of the symptoms with this mindset; they didn't happen for no reason.

Instead of what would you be doing without the distractions, what is the pain distracting/protecting us from on an emotional level? Getting back to life (often despite the symptoms) is absolutely the end goal, but understanding the emotional aspects makes this a lot easier to achieve

 

[Mani]

disagree that not being able to live our lives to the full is necessarily the main problem (at least from a recovery perspective). It's the main consequence of the symptoms sure, but what this infers is that basically everything was great before the symptoms and it's the symptoms fault that my life sucks

What i mean is that if we had pain irrespective of our actions they would stop serving as an inhibitor. If you always have the same pain, no matter what, you can just try to start living again.

 

[HealingNow]

I'm not familiar with what SMT means so please let me know.

@Adam Coloretti (coach)

SMT = TMS in Spanish (translate will put it backwards)