Hi everyone, it’s me again. I had a few questions. After many periods of stress, fears, health anxie

Alouqua47

Alouqua47

Peer Supporter
Hi everyone, it’s me again. I had a few questions.
After many periods of stress, fears, health anxiety, and constant worry about my body, I developed this syndrome. My brain got stuck in fight-or-flight mode, and it started generating symptoms, especially very intense sensations in my arms. I feel constantly on edge. This has been my strongest symptom, and it really hasn’t allowed me to live normally because it involves my arms.
I’ve overcome many fears, and now I use my arms much more than before. At first it wasn’t just fear — I truly believed something was wrong with my ulnar nerves, even though all my tests were clear. Now I’m convinced that’s not the case, especially because more symptoms have appeared, which clearly show this is brain-generated.
Even though I’m doing more things now, it’s still hard for me to get started. But despite that, I can do them. Doing things doesn’t necessarily increase the intensity of the symptoms, but there’s still some fear because it doesn’t feel like “normal” pain. It’s more diffuse, it moves around, and it feels different in different parts of my arms.
I’ve made progress, but lately I feel very uncomfortable in my body. I went from having symptoms in two places to having more after I started working. I know that for some people it happens that way. Right now, what I do to cope is complete my tasks calmly. But afterward, I can’t just sit still. I don’t know why. I prefer to walk slowly while reading. I read the forum and the books a lot. That’s my way of distracting myself, because the sensations are still strong and unpleasant.
When I sit down, I feel them more intensely, and I don’t like that. I don’t mind if my legs hurt because I know they’re not injured — it’s just my brain creating sensations. But it’s still uncomfortable.
There’s one thing I haven’t been able to overcome in my normal life. At night, I actually sleep well. Sometimes I even look forward to bedtime. Somehow the symptoms decrease a bit. In my bed at night, I feel much safer and more comfortable.
During the day, though, it’s different. I can’t stay in bed after I wake up. It feels like if I stay there, everything will suddenly get worse. And here’s my main question:
Sometimes in the afternoon I start to feel sleepy. My body begins to relax… and suddenly — boom — there’s a jolt in my chest. Like a sudden surge or startle. Has anyone else experienced that? It feels like I’m about to fall asleep and then my nervous system suddenly activates.
I don’t know how to teach my brain that it’s safe to relax.
One time I didn’t force anything and I was able to take a nap. But usually when this starts happening, it triggers on its own. And now it’s stressful because if I don’t sleep well at night, the next day when I feel sleepy, I’m afraid of that jolt happening again.
After it happens, what stays is fear — strong fear. And I don’t want it to escalate into a panic attack, which I have experienced before.
So my question is: how did you handle this? How were you able to resolve it? Did you just allow it to happen and let your body learn it was safe? Did you use any specific techniques? Was it gradual exposure? Relaxation exercises? Breathing? Or did it simply fade over time as your nervous system calmed down?
I would really appreciate hearing how others got through this particular part of the process.
 
I really hear how much effort you’ve put into this already – challenging the health fears, using your arms more, going back to work, and reading/learning a lot. That is not nothing; that is your nervous system already showing it can adapt, even if your brain is still screaming “danger” in the background.

What you’re describing (moving symptoms, strange diffuse sensations, jolts when you’re about to drift off) is very consistent with a sensitised nervous system rather than damage. A brain that has been on high alert for a long time often “fires” at exactly the moments when you start to relax, because relaxation used to be paired with fear and scanning. It’s uncomfortable and scary, but it is still a pattern, not a catastrophe.

A few things that might help:
  • You do not need to solve or understand every sensation.
    Right now your brain is treating each new feeling as a problem to analyse. That keeps the loop going. You’re allowed to say: “I know what this is – a startled nervous system – and I’m not going to figure it out right now.”

  • Shift from monitoring to choosing.
    Instead of “How are my arms now? Are the jolts going to come?” try “Given that my nervous system is jumpy today, what small, normal thing do I choose to do next?” (Make tea, reply to a message, watch a light TV show, step outside.) The symptoms can come along for the ride.

  • For the chest jolt when you’re drifting off:
    Think of it as a sleep startle / nervous-system hiccup rather than a warning. When it happens, you might gently tell yourself:
    “There’s that jolt. My body is safe, this is just an overprotective alarm. I can let the wave pass.”
    Then bring attention back to something neutral: feeling the mattress under you, the weight of your body, or the rhythm of your breathing.

  • Practice “safe relaxation” in tiny doses.
    Instead of aiming for a full nap in the afternoon, you could experiment with 1–3 minutes of lying or sitting with your eyes closed, expecting that the nervous system might jolt. The goal isn’t to feel perfect; the goal is to prove “When the jolt comes, I can stay here and nothing bad happens.” Repeating that teaches the brain safety much more than trying to avoid the feeling.

  • Watch the subtle avoidance.
    You’ve learned that nighttime in bed feels safe, but mornings and daytime rest feel dangerous. Gently, over time, you can blur that difference: a few extra minutes in bed after you wake up, or a short, eyes-closed pause on the sofa during the day, paired with the same “I am safe, my body is just loud today” message.

  • Limit “research time.”
    Reading forums and books can be supportive, but if you use them mainly to check and re-check whether you’re okay, your brain hears: “We’re still in danger; keep scanning.” Maybe give yourself a set window (e.g., 20 minutes a day) for reading, and spend more time in normal life activities that remind your system what “safe and boring” feels like.
As for “how did you resolve it?” – for most people it’s not one magic technique, but repetition:

  • Allowing the sensations to be there while living life anyway.

  • Meeting jolts and weird feelings with bored, predictable responses instead of urgent investigation.

  • Gradually giving the nervous system hundreds of small experiences of “Nothing bad happened, even though my body felt awful.”
You’re already doing pieces of this (using your arms more, working, etc). The next step isn’t to find a perfect trick, but to keep sending the same calm, consistent message: “I know you’re scared, but we are safe, and we’re going to keep living.”

If you want, you could pick one tiny experiment for the next few days (for example, staying in bed 3 extra minutes after waking, or practicing a 2‑minute afternoon rest where you allow the jolt to come) and just observe, without judging whether it “worked.” That kind of gentle exposure is often what slowly rewires the pattern.
 
"I can’t stay in bed after I wake up. It feels like if I stay there, everything will suddenly get worse."

Morning anxiety is very common, it is recommended to get up and start your day.

I think your afternoon symptoms could be a variety of things. When you are awake, perhaps you hold yourself with body tension and when you relax in the day, you just feel the sensations of the muscles re-arranging. I always try and look at these situations with the least "catastrophic" mindset. Our minds naturally go to the "scariest" or most negative things, especially when our nervous system is on "high" alert with TMS. Perhaps instead of freaking out, you might begin to approach this with a new mindset: curiosity. "WOW! The body can do such strange things"! or even "I feel like my body is saying something about relaxing"
Emotionally: explore what relaxing during the day might be saying to you: You "SHOULD" not be lazy, you "SHOULD" not need to rest now. What are your "shoulds", and can you begin to give yourself permission to rest and relax. Perhaps you can find things within this that you could enjoy - light some incense, I like to wear an eye mask. Perhaps just lay to read a book, or if you enjoy it try meditation.
There is no right or wrong, there is no perfect answer. There are only things to try and they are not to "FIX" this "PROBLEM" - there is no "fixing" with TMS. There is nothing to fix. You are not broken, there is no "problem" there are only the current (current, as in temporary) ways you are reacting. Personally, I'd just not worry much about this physical sensation when you lay down. It's there for now, it will eventually pass when you don't react to it as if it's an issue and a problem.
 
Alouqua47 said:
Hi everyone, it’s me again. I had a few questions.
After many periods of stress, fears, health anxiety, and constant worry about my body, I developed this syndrome. My brain got stuck in fight-or-flight mode, and it started generating symptoms, especially very intense sensations in my arms. I feel constantly on edge. This has been my strongest symptom, and it really hasn’t allowed me to live normally because it involves my arms.
I’ve overcome many fears, and now I use my arms much more than before. At first it wasn’t just fear — I truly believed something was wrong with my ulnar nerves, even though all my tests were clear. Now I’m convinced that’s not the case, especially because more symptoms have appeared, which clearly show this is brain-generated.
Even though I’m doing more things now, it’s still hard for me to get started. But despite that, I can do them. Doing things doesn’t necessarily increase the intensity of the symptoms, but there’s still some fear because it doesn’t feel like “normal” pain. It’s more diffuse, it moves around, and it feels different in different parts of my arms.
I’ve made progress, but lately I feel very uncomfortable in my body. I went from having symptoms in two places to having more after I started working. I know that for some people it happens that way. Right now, what I do to cope is complete my tasks calmly. But afterward, I can’t just sit still. I don’t know why. I prefer to walk slowly while reading. I read the forum and the books a lot. That’s my way of distracting myself, because the sensations are still strong and unpleasant.
When I sit down, I feel them more intensely, and I don’t like that. I don’t mind if my legs hurt because I know they’re not injured — it’s just my brain creating sensations. But it’s still uncomfortable.
There’s one thing I haven’t been able to overcome in my normal life. At night, I actually sleep well. Sometimes I even look forward to bedtime. Somehow the symptoms decrease a bit. In my bed at night, I feel much safer and more comfortable.
During the day, though, it’s different. I can’t stay in bed after I wake up. It feels like if I stay there, everything will suddenly get worse. And here’s my main question:
Sometimes in the afternoon I start to feel sleepy. My body begins to relax… and suddenly — boom — there’s a jolt in my chest. Like a sudden surge or startle. Has anyone else experienced that? It feels like I’m about to fall asleep and then my nervous system suddenly activates.
I don’t know how to teach my brain that it’s safe to relax.
One time I didn’t force anything and I was able to take a nap. But usually when this starts happening, it triggers on its own. And now it’s stressful because if I don’t sleep well at night, the next day when I feel sleepy, I’m afraid of that jolt happening again.
After it happens, what stays is fear — strong fear. And I don’t want it to escalate into a panic attack, which I have experienced before.
So my question is: how did you handle this? How were you able to resolve it? Did you just allow it to happen and let your body learn it was safe? Did you use any specific techniques? Was it gradual exposure? Relaxation exercises? Breathing? Or did it simply fade over time as your nervous system calmed down?
I would really appreciate hearing how others got through this particular part of the process.
Click to expand...

I think the above advice is great as to your questions.

I just wanted to say well done on your progress so far! It is massive that you've gotten to a place of acceptance in the TMS diagnosis (especially with your arms and that you're using them more) - in fact it's crucial and probably the biggest hurdle (your chances of recovery have spiked up massively because of it). I know you want to keep going and it's next problem up in a sense, but I'm very confident in your recovery based on your progress already.

It's a process and it won't happen overnight, but you're more than trending in the right direction :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top