How do you deal with very different TMS equivalents that also respond to other balancing treatments?

Hello everybody,


First time I post on the Forums!

I hope you will find my post interesting and that you will shed some light on the confusion.

I have been (trying) to heal myself from The Mindbody Syndrom, heal my brain, psyche and the unconscious and conscious behaviors involved.

I found out about Dr. Sarno’s principles over 2 years ago, read a few books, saw a TMS doctor to rule out anything else (I had already been “diagnosed” anyway), and followed TMS psychotherapy for 1 year and a half and then I decided it was better for me to figure things out on my own, so now I do mostly journaling, and mindfulness/awareness of thoughts patterns and emotions, and meditation.

I transformed my life thanks to psychotherapy, and the primary symptoms (what the medical field call “FM” and that showed in my body 8 years ago) calmed down or became less frequent. The IBS which had shown itself 15 years ago with come/and go type of thing (definitely depending on what was going on in my life) changed “form” too. I will not detaile symptoms because we all know it does not help, right?

I am VERY confused about something very important though. And the psychotherapist and the TMS MD could not help me go in either direction.

When I had the FM symptoms early on I changed my diet and that helped a lot to bring it down, even the IBS. Since I started TMS treatment I wondered if one day I will be able to eat again dairy and a sweet pastry once in a while, or certain vegetable that I have to avoid. When I started feeling better I started to eat more different things such as honey with breakfast, citrus fruit etc. And then after a long period of being too busy and obviously not taking care of myself such as taking breaks to journal more in depth or just rest (I’m the Pushy type obviously!), I had a bad bout of acid reflux. I removed acidic foods and avoided anything too irritating and it calmed down. I also rested and cleared my calendar.

So that confuses me. Is it the DIET and rest that calmed it down? I did journal as well. But I did not treat these symptoms like TMS because I don’t know how I could do it? “these are just TMS equivalents I will focus on my emotions and anger”... because when I stopped eating certain foods it got better quicker than trying to work with my mind?... I cannot see how the FOOD can act like a placebo here!

Other thing is that I have scientist friends and they talk about the microbiome often, and I ended up reading about the research that was released last month about FM symptoms and gut microbia which it still does not bring any conclusion by the way (they don’t know what they’re doing lol), except that on a TMS patient point of view, I can see how the brain might communicate with the gut and make IBS or FM symptoms appear through all sorts of pathways. How it does it I know should not be important, but looking at this study kinda confirmed the point for me that diet should not be changed because the gut can still react to it.....?

One year and a half ago I got a big eye infection and had to go to the urgent care. After that I saw an eye doctor and a dermatologist who said I have dry eye/blepharitis/mild ocular rosacea, whatever they want to call it. I did not see it as a TMS equivalent because of the infection and the low quality of my makeup products etc.. Then it happened a few times, when I had other small styes I had to put antibiotic drops, and again with a bigger infection. I did find that dry indoor air (heater or AC), and wind dry out my eyes. The fact the doctors look at my eyes under the microscope (litteraly) and say my “glands are clogged” also makes me feel there is something mechanically wrong; and the prescribed warm compresses do help they feel nice. So how can this be TMS, an underlying inflammation that’s there and causes clogged glands or infections and once the infections are there of course they do have to be treated? I really don’t see how to approach it, as irritation appears “how of the blue” and then it can turn quickly into an infection.

I went to see the TMS doctor and he said “dry eye has been seen as a TMS equivalent, but an eye infection...” - which really does not help (I’m not sure why I went in that day??).

So: how do you deal with really different TMS equivalents that still require a regular’s doctor care?

Thanks for your input and sharing your experiences!

Emily

 

Why the heck not?

You are using the word Placebo like it is a dirty word, and that's a big mistake. The POWER of the placebo effect is being seriously studied and researched with a long-term goal of teaching the medical community how to harness it (I have a link for a now-older article about one of the primary researchers if you're interested - it's somewhere here on the forum).

I personally use the placebo effect on myself. Consciously engaging the placebo effect just means doing something (or taking something, or eating something) that nominally has no physiological effect, but which you BELIEVE has a physiological effect - and therefore the desired effect is actually achieved.

By no means is it limited to sugar pills!

Anything we can do in order to visualize a desired result is just proof that we have the power to heal ourselves. The well-known, well-accepted, and well-documented results obtained by the placebo effect are just one part of the growing body of proof.

 

You take care of it, and you make a commitment to do better in the future, so that you don't allow your body to become so run down with emotional stress, repression, and fear of symptoms, that you open yourself up to infections.

Our immune systems have a job, and they generally do it very well, but we have to help them out by taking care of our emotional and mental health along with our physical health.

Don't try to overthink this. I won't deny that learning to do this is hard to put into practice, and I certainly won't deny that it's hard to maintain in our crazy stressful lives, but seriously - the concept is really quite applicable to TMS, and it's not that complicated!

Your energy needs to be applied to how you are going to take care of your emotional health and fight back against the fear.

 

Thank you, Jan. I’m going to reflect on that .

Anyone else’s input is welcome! Thank you!

 

Dear friends, good morning to you I wanted to ask you in particular about a complex issue

I wanted to consult him, since I cannot solve this problem .... stress due to calorie restriction can cause pain in my body, since I lost a lot of weight I have come with pain that I cannot identify with MRI or anything , massages do not work, nothing at all but my discomfort continues, could it be due to lack of calories or low weight? I have been with these discomforts for 2 years, I had eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, I do sports I always move but I wanted to know if the lack of weight in my body can cause that, if it causes anxiety and with them are my symptoms in my back, I do not know if it has to do with food or not ... but it is something that I cannot decipher. I have seen doctors, performed acupuncture and nothing works .... my discomfort is there

the symptoms of my back are always on the right side, low area, the doctors checked me and there is nothing wrong with my lumbar, everything is perfect but my pain is still there. restricting my body from calories can cause anxiety and with it pain? This pain appeared in December 2017 and I am still with it.


I attach pictures so you can see where my pain is. Thanks for your help. I expect a prompt response. I have read the books on J. Sarno, I practice sports, meditation and write in a newspaper every day. But I still haven't resolved my symptoms.



Can all my back symptoms be generated by anxiety about feeling hungry?

I weighed 73kg then to follow fad diets I lost kilos and was 60kg and then I began to want to regain all the weight lost, but I could never do it. I have 2 years with a lot of stress for it and even following diets.

Do you think I should start eating more, not follow any diet, try new foods and with it my physical pain will go away? My pain allows me to train, work and have a normal life. It is not a pain that paralyzes me, but it is a dull pain that lives with me.

my doubt is the anxiety generated by wanting to eat and not doing it, can it generate all my chronic physical symptoms?

 

Emotional stress, distress, and repression are all reasons this could be happening. That's the premise of this forum, and if you've read Dr. Sarno, you know how he would answer this question, right?

And now you might have added orthorexia to this list, which is another variation of mental illness based in food. Although at 65kg, anorexia might still be your primary issue. At some point, eating disorders become a health issue which must be treated by a medical doctor and/or nutritionist assuming you want to get back on track.

But that's the thing, isn't it? What is it in the way your brain is controlling your emotions that does not allow you to just eat normally? You say you've read Dr. Sarno, and that you are meditating and writing, but you are still letting your fearful brain control you and keep you in fear.

For some people, TMS knowledge (reading Dr. Sarno) plus anxiety reduction (meditation and writing) is enough. But it is not enough for people with serious underlying mental disturbances, such as eating disorders. Those usually come from pretty dysfunctional family backgrounds, and that requires more work.

Around here, therapy, preferably with a TMS therapist, is highly recommended! Good luck.

 

Dear friend, thank you very much for taking your time and responding to my request for help.

You think that trying effectively to control calories, meals, portions and my aesthetics for my physical body will generate stress and fear in my mind and with it will come my symptoms of physical pain

Should you eat normally and not try to control your meals?

I must reprogram my brain to realize that by not trying to control and restrict food my body is not in danger

What advice would you give me?

I have done all kinds of therapies and I have not been able to cure myself, I try to control my diet as much as possible and I am very perfectionist with my body and my diet.

 

I understand. You are very perfectionist, to the point of being obsessive-compulsive.

It is obvious that you know WHAT to do:

Your problem is that you don't know HOW to do it.

My guess is that you still need psychiatric help.

My advice is to engage in psychotherapy from someone who understands the connection to the fear-brain and who will not allow you to give in to it. This means someone who will be tough on you. You might also need medication for the OCD/eating disorders - but please understand, I am not a health professional of any kind - I am an accountant!