Free The Fear & Get Back To Life

[giantsfan]

Just wanted to make a post for those who are dealing with fear, skepticism, disbelief, or worry.

To me, overcoming TMS = overcoming fear. Understanding the information in the great Dr. Sarno’s books, lectures, movie, videos, etc. are definitely helpful in overcoming TMS symptoms. For me though, just learning about TMS was just the first baby step (but a very necessary one).

After going through my TMS journey I began to realize that I needed to not only let go of my fear of pain, but also let go of my fear and old belief of “damaging” or “worsening” something in the process of getting back to life. I say getting back to life because I realized that challenging my TMS in a competitive manner wasn’t the most helpful. What was more helpful for me was living life like I had prior to TMS. This allowed me to challenge TMS and lay down those new neural pathways in a more fun, less stressful, and more accepting manner. It also allowed me to stop focusing/obsessing with everything there is to do with pain, TMS, research, forum interaction, etc. I will add two caveats: (1) It was challenging to overcome my TMS symptoms and it took a lot of courage, strength, commitment, and mental/physical pain suffering in the process. (2) That I progressed slowly with goals laid out, written down, and followed through. I didn’t just go hike/backpack a 14,000 ft. mountain on week one of my TMS journey, but I did backpack 14,000 ft. mountains by my 7th month of my journey

The pain is just pain, there is nothing it can do to you but make you worry, question TMS, and take caution with your symptom(s). Structurally speaking, there is nothing it can do to you. You won't cause any structural damage by using your body. It's just pain due to some axons and neurons (neural pathway) in your brain that were created sometime in your past. They're just some little wires that need to be re-routed through belief and getting back to life, just like breaking a strong habit that you've formed in your mind. Work on not letting the pain trick you and talk back to your TMS if needed at times. There is nothing wrong with you, and the pain will dissipate the more you believe this AND return to your life like it was prior to TMS. Everyone's TMS journey is different from one another whether the differences be large or small, these were some of the larger mechanisms I used to overcome mine. Last thing: go have some fun!

 

[colls100]

Thanks for posting this. I've made good progress and recovered from daily headaches but my daily lightheadedness remains.

I think I dealt with one specific part, the head pain. But remained focused on physical symptoms, so I'm still 'playing the game' with TMS in a way.

I think I'm addicted to worrying and searching for answers. I must check some kind of forum or well-being website 10 times a day AT LEAST. Even though it's all in line with TMS work/thinking, I'm still in the trap I suppose.

I guess I have this fear that if I'm not trying to fix this, I'm not going to heal. That's my biggest barrier at the moment.

 

[Click#7]

Sometimes it's a good thing to go off the websites for a while. For me what that meant was my pain was going up and down and moving around. Normally I have lower left sided back pain....today it went up to my shoulder blade, mid-back, and front of my leg on the left side. That has to tell me something. This kinda stuff does generate fear, but I need to stay focused and keep up my physical activity. Am I right friends ?

 

[giantsfan]

Thanks for posting this. I've made good progress and recovered from daily headaches but my daily lightheadedness remains.

I think I dealt with one specific part, the head pain. But remained focused on physical symptoms, so I'm still 'playing the game' with TMS in a way.

I think I'm addicted to worrying and searching for answers. I must check some kind of forum or well-being website 10 times a day AT LEAST. Even though it's all in line with TMS work/thinking, I'm still in the trap I suppose.

I guess I have this fear that if I'm not trying to fix this, I'm not going to heal. That's my biggest barrier at the moment.

That's awesome colls100, glad to hear you were able to recover from daily headaches! That' must've been hellish... And I'm sure you know this already, but that's such great evidence that what you still have going on is just TMS.

Yeah, I know what you mean about "trying" to fix the lightheadedness. There is nothing wrong with trying, but the way we try can be confusing. Personally, forums and well-being sites were good at times for support, but they were not the reason I healed and I'm pretty sure it's not the reason you healed from headaches. There is good info on this forum, but I'm guessing at this point you've gathered all that good info yet the fear of the lightheadedness "never healing" is making you keep stuck to this site. I know from personal accounts many times we look and search on here for someone with the same symptom who has recovered from their symptom. However, when we do, their information doesn't make our pain go away.

Allen posted something about a year ago that I just read and it was something that I did when I started my TMS journey a couple years ago. He talked about catching your fear. I did this in a sort of odd way, that when I had the symptom I would notice it, and then get happy knowing it was giving me an opportunity to realize that it's just TMS. I know that might sound strange, but it helped for me. I basically turned something from a negative to positive no matter how bad it was. Really noticing when the symptom is present or amplifying is a sort of like mindfulness and a tool to remember and a chance to re-wire those neurons that this is just TMS. Truly believe in it when you notice, because it truly is just TMS. Go do the things you used to do that you fear because of the lightheadedness. Good luck, I wish you well!

 

[giantsfan]

Sometimes it's a good thing to go off the websites for a while. For me what that meant was my pain was going up and down and moving around. Normally I have lower left sided back pain....today it went up to my shoulder blade, mid-back, and front of my leg on the left side. That has to tell me something. This kinda stuff does generate fear, but I need to stay focused and keep up my physical activity. Am I right friends ?

Hi Click#7, wow a well-known member in less than a year! You've gotten so many likes! But yeah, agreed with taking a break from the site sometimes.

Man, talk about about a pain shift you got going on! Those were moments that I truly cherished (despite the horrible pain) because I knew that was my TMS getting scared, running, and trying it's best to get at me again. I remember one of the first times I went running again I started noticing that when I finally stopped caring about the numbness, burning pain, and stabbing pains in my sacrum, back of legs, butt and back, that I started getting really bad shin and inner knee pain which I had never really had... I knew this was just TMS for a fact at that point. That shin and inner knee pain gave up as I kept on running and KNOWING it was just TMS, and within about 10 minutes it faded away. Tears ensued haha.

Definitely keep up the physical activity! You're getting super close!!! That new pain is such BS, trust me. It's scared that you're figuring it out, it's looking for a new way to scare you back into fearing physical activity. But, I would add, make sure the activity is something you truly enjoy, not just something you're doing to prove your TMS is BS. Make sure it's something you would've done pre-TMS, or something new you've gained interest in. Have fun!