Wow,
@theacrobat, so many questions! And interesting ruminations, which as you can see I've also contemplated frequently since 2020. Along with the topics of severe COVID, "Long" COVID, and supposed vax reactions (all of them related to inflammatory responses, which I think are stress-based).
Sure, I don't mind. It's a public web site, after all, and I'm already pretty anonymous (I take great care to remain so) but maybe just use Jan A or JanA in your writing.
I don't keep a list, no, nor any memory (my head is still full of increasingly-useless tax law and weirdly specific financial information about my former tax clients - no room for all the TMS stories we get!)
This is where things get twisty. For one thing, someone with a measurable autoimmune conditions NEEDS to take the medications because once you've got a measurable inflammatory process going on, you've got to put a stop to it. As I've described in other posts, when I was diagnosed I sent my records to Dr. Schecter and asked him if I could treat the RA "as TMS" and he said without hesitation that I had to follow my rheumatologist's orders (ie, take the medication) otherwise I was risking joint damage and possibly heart and other damage. BUT he also said that
of course I could continue to assume that the RA was stress-based, and to apply my TMS knowledge and skills with a goal of achieving remission, which he has seen in other patients. I had of course been applying my knowledge and skills for two months by then, without any letup or even temporary decreases or fluctuations in the crippling pain and swelling. Starting on prednisone (while the methotrexate took effect over 8 weeks) provided IMMEDIATE relief, which gave me space to start regrouping and regaining equilibrium and equanimity. I also started seeing a TMS coach recommended by Dr. Schecter (I still see her every two weeks). I reduced and eliminated the prednisone as soon as I could, knowing how detrimental it is in the long term. Any side effects from the mtx were so mild I can't even remember what they were - maybe a bit of dizziness? Which is one of my stress symptoms anyway, which is why I don't believe in the often lengthy list of "possible" but non-serious side effects, because they could so easily be the result of anxiety about having a diagnosis and taking a new medication. Whenever I take a med, I do, of course, pay attention to the serious side effects, but I also assume that I won't experience those, because I always check on interactions with my BP med, I don't have risk factors, and I am generally very healthy.
Look, Dr. Sarno himself said that sometimes you just have to take the medications before you can do the work. I'm not saying you are wrong when you say that physical intervention can prolong the symptoms - but with the right mindset, medication (even a Tylenol) can be a very effective tool to provide a boost and get back on track.
It totally depends on that mindset, however.
Which brings me to the website I use for technical RA info,
CreakyJoints - Arthritis Support, Education, Advocacy and Research
It's a very nice patient-advocacy website with what I feel is well-curated and authoritative content - but I don't engage with it for anything other than pure technical information. The problem I immediately saw when I tried reading their advocacy articles and personal stories as that the focus is very far from the self-healing mindset of someone with TMS knowledge and skills. They are all about patient advocacy, long-term support, lifelong coping, changing medication when your old one no longer works, "talking to your rheumatologist", "talking to your friends/family about your condition" and, inevitably, about the other conditions that people report, including our two favorite TMS conditions: fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Sigh.
And sure, the "coping" articles all mention stress-reduction (it would be malpractice these days to NOT mention stress reduction) but they don't come close to touching on the long-term stress and distress of emotional repression that is at the heart of TMS practice.
And you know how I mentioned having virtually no side effects from the methotrexate? Which is a cancer drug (at
fifty times the dosage) and thus scary for a lot of people (my doc did a very good job making it not scary). The site recently posted videos of interviews with patients about their experiences with methotrexate, which people describing noticeable side effects, which sometimes abated a bit with time and became "bearable" or which caused them to eventually switch to a different type of med, or were so bad they had to switch right away. I found this pretty fascinating, leading to all kinds of thoughts, but of course you can't measure this kind of thing. I am thrilled that the mtx has worked so well, because it's been used very effectively for decades, the risks are low, and the alternatives are not great (back at my initial Dx, my rheumatologist said I would now notice how many TV drug ads are for RA or similar conditions! These are the expensive biologics with high risks of infections and depression and other shit. No thank you!)
Here's the page where I found the study/discussion about RA remission rates. I didn't have the patience to parse this out in detail - perhaps you can apply your analytical mind to the reported outcomes given your interest in researching this in more detail!
I also just found this page:
Failure to regularly monitor, adjust DMARD therapy can impede RA remission – CreakyJoints which is really interesting to me, because my rheumatologist did recommend increasing my weekly methotrexate from 15mg to 20mg in 2020, sometime within six months after I started it - and it made a big difference in dropping my CRP level at the next test, which continued the downward trend and has been consistently on the lowest level for at least 15 months. Which is why earlier today I decided not to wait until June, but to message my doc and ask if I can go back to 15mg and see what happens between now and when I see him June. In any case, I think this supports my sense that medication can be an excellent tool for getting a handle on physical symptoms in order to facilitate even more self-healing.
Whew - I go on too long, but, like you, I am quite fascinated by this stuff, especially how non-linear it is.
update: my doc already got back to me and said yes, let's go back to 15mg and see what happens in 8 weeks when I do labs again. Asking for what I want!