Facebook Groups

  • Thread starter Thread starter Markus
  • Start date Start date
M

Markus

Guest
I'm on a Fibromyalgia group for men on Facebook, I imagine that many here would think I shouldn't be on it. But, is there a way to introduce TMS to fibro sufferers? , I don't want to insult anyone, but perhaps even if I'm removed from the group(for telling them it's psychosomatic) I can plant a seed! Any advice on this? I'm also new to TMS myself, but i believe it.
 
From what I hear you can expect a lot of anger in response, and some may result in personal attacks. If you are feeling a little uncertain in your own acceptance of TMS, it could be hard for you. But if you are brave enough to give it a try, I commend you. It may make an important difference for some people.
 
Heya, Marcus, I think that what you are doing is great. If you can reach just one person, then it will be very well worth it.

The fibro folks can be a "rough audience." Experience has shown that the best way to approach them is in a friendly and pressure free manner with personal stories and medical evidence. You want to be very clear at the start that you have no commercial interest and that you are just trying to share something that you think might help.

For personal stories regarding Fibromyalgia, look here:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Fibromyalgia

For scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of the TMS approach for fibromyalgia, I like this article:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Sustaine...n_Fibromyalgia:_A_Randomized_Controlled_Trial
A randomized controlled trial is widely regarded as the "gold standard" of scientific research, and Dr. Schubiner, Dr. Stracks and others used a randomized controlled trial to show that a treatment plan that involved reading The Mindbody Prescription led to statistically significant improvements for people diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.

Here's a reachout I did recently, where people were fairly friendly:
http://anal-fissure.org/unlearn-your-pain-t8472.html
I found out about them because they were sending people to our site.

I also think that it is helpful on first contact to not go into all of the details of the theory, as that can really trigger people. It could be something as simple as, "I'm really excited about a mind-body approach to FMS that I'm trying out and that has been scientifically proven to help people. The idea is to get them to have some positive results and then, later on, they can learn more about it.

Here's a less successful incident:
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/did-something-to-reach-more-people-on-fb.116/
It was done by an inexperience moderator of our Facebook page, who, by mistake, posted on their Facebook page as our facebook page. This made us seem more corporate, so the "money card" was played almost immediately. However, by telling her own personal story and connecting on a human level, she was able to mollify them quite quickly. (One of the main reasons why I incorporated this website as a 501c3 nonprofit is so that people will know that that I'm not in it for the money and we just want to help people.)

For all we know, that one little post that she made on the Facebook group could have changed someone's life forever.

By the way, if anyone hasn't yet, please join our Facebook page. We're almost to 1900 members!
https://www.facebook.com/ppdtms

Here are some pictures of how the problematic discussion from the second link played out:
upload_2015-3-19_14-9-57.png

upload_2015-3-19_14-10-34.png
 
Forest said:
Heya, Marcus, I think that what you are doing is great. If you can reach just one person, then it will be very well worth it.

The fibro folks can be a "rough audience." Experience has shown that the best way to approach them is in a friendly and pressure free manner with personal stories and medical evidence. You want to be very clear at the start that you have no commercial interest and that you are just trying to share something that you think might help.

For personal stories regarding Fibromyalgia, look here:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Fibromyalgia

For scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of the TMS approach for fibromyalgia, I like this article:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Sustaine...n_Fibromyalgia:_A_Randomized_Controlled_Trial
A randomized controlled trial is widely regarded as the "gold standard" of scientific research, and Dr. Schubiner, Dr. Stracks and others used a randomized controlled trial to show that a treatment plan that involved reading The Mindbody Prescription led to statistically significant improvements for people diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.

Here's a reachout I did recently, where people were fairly friendly:
http://anal-fissure.org/unlearn-your-pain-t8472.html
I found out about them because they were sending people to our site.

I also think that it is helpful on first contact to not go into all of the details of the theory, as that can really trigger people. It could be something as simple as, "I'm really excited about a mind-body approach to FMS that I'm trying out and that has been scientifically proven to help people.

Here's a less successful incident:
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/did-something-to-reach-more-people-on-fb.116/
It was done by an inexperience moderator of our Facebook page, who, by mistake, posted on their Facebook page as our facebook page. This made us seem more corporate, so the "money card" was played almost immediately. However, by telling her own personal story and connecting on a human level, she was able to mollify them quite quickly. (One of the main reasons why I incorporated this website as a 501c3 nonprofit is so that people will know that that I'm not in it for the money and we just want to help people.)

For all we know, that one little post that she made on the Facebook group could have changed someone's life forever.

By the way, if anyone hasn't yet, please join our Facebook page. We're almost to 1900 members!
https://www.facebook.com/ppdtms

Here are some pictures of how the problematic discussion from the second link played out:
View attachment 526
View attachment 527
Click to expand...
Thank you Forest, I have already liked that group on Facebook. I will have to figure out a way to reach them, even if one at a time. I've yet to feel any better but, I'm onto what my unconscious is doing, I have reading to catch up on as well. I'm pretty stressed out right now but, I expect it to pass. I appreciate your advice!

Mark.
 
Hi Marcus,

I actually had a fibro diagnosis at one time, before I knew about TMS. That is what you get when doctors can't figure out what is causing your pain. I never believed it from the start. My husband is a retired physician and he doesn't believe that Fibromyalgia is a real disease. However, when I developed tachycardia, my husband did not think that was TMS or Fibro. we went to see an Endocrinologist. It turned out to be a condition called "hyperparathyroidism", for which I had surgery.

For a short time, I belonged to a Fibro support group, not because I believed the diagnosis, but I was curious about the diagnosis. It was during this time that I realized I actually had TMS. However, also during this time, I was diagnosed with a real physical ailment called "hyperparathyroidism" and had surgery for it. Hyperparathyroidism CAN cause weird, vague symptoms that come and go, very similar to TMS. So I attribute my recovery to a combination of having the parathyroid surgery and realizing that I also have TMS.

To come to the point, while I do believe that there can be some real physical problems underlying Fibro, I also think that Fibro is usually TMS. I found the people on the site extremely hostile to any ideas that this condition can have psychological causes. They really wanted to be sick and wore it like a banner. I mad NO progress with them.

Recently, I read over some things Dr. Sarno had to say about TMS existing along with other physical diagnoses. He does not seem to think it has to be all or nothing, TMS or not. There are disagreements on this site about that. In one book, Dr. Sarno wants his patients to think totally psychologically, but I believe this is when the physician is certain the patient has nothing but TMS. Particularly in the case of older people, I believe Dr. Sarno thinks that both physical and psychological can coexist. In fact, over reaction to a physical ailment is actually TMS also.
 
chickenbone said:
Hi Marcus,

I actually had a fibro diagnosis at one time, before I knew about TMS. That is what you get when doctors can't figure out what is causing your pain. I never believed it from the start. My husband is a retired physician and he doesn't believe that Fibromyalgia is a real disease. However, when I developed tachycardia, my husband did not think that was TMS or Fibro. we went to see an Endocrinologist. It turned out to be a condition called "hyperparathyroidism", for which I had surgery.

For a short time, I belonged to a Fibro support group, not because I believed the diagnosis, but I was curious about the diagnosis. It was during this time that I realized I actually had TMS. However, also during this time, I was diagnosed with a real physical ailment called "hyperparathyroidism" and had surgery for it. Hyperparathyroidism CAN cause weird, vague symptoms that come and go, very similar to TMS. So I attribute my recovery to a combination of having the parathyroid surgery and realizing that I also have TMS.

To come to the point, while I do believe that there can be some real physical problems underlying Fibro, I also think that Fibro is usually TMS. I found the people on the site extremely hostile to any ideas that this condition can have psychological causes. They really wanted to be sick and wore it like a banner. I mad NO progress with them.

Recently, I read over some things Dr. Sarno had to say about TMS existing along with other physical diagnoses. He does not seem to think it has to be all or nothing, TMS or not. There are disagreements on this site about that. In one book, Dr. Sarno wants his patients to think totally psychologically, but I believe this is when the physician is certain the patient has nothing but TMS. Particularly in the case of older people, I believe Dr. Sarno thinks that both physical and psychological can coexist. In fact, over reaction to a physical ailment is actually TMS also.
Click to expand...
Chickenbone, I appreciate your response. I have noticed a trend on fibro groups t o constantly talk about how much pain they're in. I have no doubt they are in horrible pain, but they are wary of any Dr's or methods that sounds like snake oil salesmen. While I don't wish to diminish the hell heaped upon these people, there foes seem to be a resistance to Dr. Sarno's proram. I'm very new at this but, I have more hope than I've had in a long time.
But, I have to try because TMS makes more and more sense to me. Thanks for sharing your info.

Mark.
 
Gotcha. I admire your passion and commitment, but also wanted to suggest that you might not want to worry about Facebook outreach in this stage of your healing. When you are just starting out, that's a good time to focus only on yourself. You will have a great many things on your plate, and I think it's valuable to just focus on yourself. I've seen people before who take on a million different projects as they are healing, and it ends up just being a distraction. In some cases, the relentless pursuit of projects can even be a TMS equivalent - something to distract oneself.

Anyway, I meant to write this earlier, but when you are just starting out is a great time to pay 100% attention to yourself, being kind to yourself and allowing yourself to relax and just "allow" things. No more striving!
 
Forest said:
Gotcha. I admire your passion and commitment, but also wanted to suggest that you might not want to worry about Facebook outreach in this stage of your healing. When you are just starting out, that's a good time to focus only on yourself. You will have a great many things on your plate, and I think it's valuable to just focus on yourself. I've seen people before who take on a million different projects as they are healing, and it ends up just being a distraction. In some cases, the relentless pursuit of projects can even be a TMS equivalent - something to distract oneself.

Anyway, I meant to write this earlier, but when you are just starting out is a great time to pay 100% attention to yourself, being kind to yourself and allowing yourself to relax and just "allow" things. No more striving!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the encouragement, I used to think I wanted make people aware on my fibromyalgia group. it's basically impossible for me to do that, its going to have to be the only way that I can do this is to put me first! in just reading the literature on TMS I am wracked with pain as I read. and then I might get distracted, and be filled with an enormous amount of energy, which issomething I'm not used to so I'm never sure what to do with all that energy. so far today I read a chapter or two in Steve's book, & I must tell you I was in more pain then I can remember in a long time, so there must be something to this TMS work!my mind tries to distract me by removing the worst of the pain, and giving me this huge amount of energy again, its not good because I don't know what to do with energy. but I keep pushing forward and later on I'm going to start reading again, and maybe do some journaling like I did this morning which was pretty out there and upfront with myself, so I'll start reading if I get pain I will just tell my brain that I'm on to it. But I do think you're right most fibro if not all fibro groups are not ready to hear this type of thing.


Mark
 
Sounds good, Mark. It sounds like you may be having what is described as an extinction burst. You can learn about it in Alan Gordon's essay, "Breaking the Pain Cycle" and can see some examples by looking at threads that are tagged with "Extinction Burst." (Click on the inline links to read.) It is quite common to get changes in symptoms like this as you start using the TMS approach, and I think of it as a good sign - showing the power of the mind-body connection.
 
I think a good TMS therapist can be great for helping to gain a feeling of control and get oriented. Especially if they are willing to provide feedback (I think PPC therapists are great at this), they can help you "get your head right," which I think of as the first step in TMS healing.
 
Nowadays internet marketing has become very efficient and by utilizing the advanced tools, any business can truly connect to the right type of potential audience to sell out the stuff. For our business, we use the PPC and facebook ads management services and the team is very expert and they perform all of the research and analysis activities very nicely.
 
Forest said:
I think a good TMS therapist can be great for helping to gain a feeling of control and get oriented. Especially if they are willing to provide feedback (I think PPC therapists are great at this), they can help you "get your head right," which I think of as the first step in TMS healing.
Click to expand...

I still see my TMS therapist 6 years later because he helped me that much :) We barely ever talk about TMS anymore!
 
chickenbone said:
Hi Marcus,

I actually had a fibro diagnosis at one time, before I knew about TMS. That is what you get when doctors can't figure out what is causing your pain. I never believed it from the start. My husband is a retired physician and he doesn't believe that Fibromyalgia is a real disease. However, when I developed tachycardia, my husband did not think that was TMS or Fibro. we went to see an Endocrinologist. It turned out to be a condition called "hyperparathyroidism", for which I had surgery.

For a short time, I belonged to a Fibro support group, not because I believed the diagnosis, but I was curious about the diagnosis. It was during this time that I realized I actually had TMS. However, also during this time, I was diagnosed with a real physical ailment called "hyperparathyroidism" and had surgery for it. Hyperparathyroidism CAN cause weird, vague symptoms that come and go, very similar to TMS. So I attribute my recovery to a combination of having the parathyroid surgery and realizing that I also have TMS.

To come to the point, while I do believe that there can be some real physical problems underlying Fibro, I also think that Fibro is usually TMS. I found the people on the site extremely hostile to any ideas that this condition can have psychological causes. They really wanted to be sick and wore it like a banner. I mad NO progress with them.

Recently, I read over some things Dr. Sarno had to say about TMS existing along with other physical diagnoses. He does not seem to think it has to be all or nothing, TMS or not. There are disagreements on this site about that. In one book, Dr. Sarno wants his patients to think totally psychologically, but I believe this is when the physician is certain the patient has nothing but TMS. Particularly in the case of older people, I believe Dr. Sarno thinks that both physical and psychological can coexist. In fact, over reaction to a physical ailment is actually TMS also.
Click to expand...

It's very unfortunate how people are so defensive about potentially accepting ideas taht could make them better :-/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top