How do you navigate anxiety, rumination, catastrophizing?

K

karipro

New Member
The title says it all. While all these things have waxed and waned over my whole life - they are currently keeping me stuck in the fear-pain-fear cycle and by ability to break through the doubt. I'm trying not to react to this constant pain and it is incredibly difficult.

Is this common with TMS ers? How do you navigate?
 
Below is what I do. It's a passage from my recovery story (my full story can be seen here: My recovery story).

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The other thing I eventually noticed was what was going on in my head. 🧠

My thoughts frequently got stuck in loops.➿

Bad predictions about what might happen.🔮

Anger about things that had happened in the past.😡

Going over things and back to them again.

Then going over them and back to them again.

I hadn't really realised how much mental energy I was spending doing this until I started noticing it.💡

But I didn't know exactly what to do about it.❓

And then I found I didn't need to argue with the thoughts or try to stop them or force myself to think positively.

I could simply notice:

“Oh. I'm doing that again.”

Then I'd lengthen an out breath or two.

And carry on.

The thought would come back.

I'd do it again.

It might come back again.

And I'd do it again.

It wasn't about getting rid of the thoughts. It was about interrupting the loop.

And it's what I do to this very day and will continue to do for the rest of my life.

One thing that really helped me understand this better was Steven Oats's book, Rewire Your Mind Without Willpower: A Brain-Based Guide to Breaking Mental Loops, Calming the Nervous System & Creating Lasting Change.

The idea of breaking mental loops without trying to force yourself to think differently really resonated with me.

The book is about working with the brain rather than trying to bully it into changing, and that fitted surprisingly well with what I'd been discovering for myself.

For me, it became pretty simple:

Think small - take baby steps with life. 🐾

Notice the thought loop.➰

One or two long out breaths. 🫁

Carry on.

Rinse and repeat. 🔁

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BloodMoon said:
Below is what I do. It's a passage from my recovery story (my full story can be seen here: My recovery story).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other thing I eventually noticed was what was going on in my head. 🧠

My thoughts frequently got stuck in loops.➿

Bad predictions about what might happen.🔮

Anger about things that had happened in the past.😡

Going over things and back to them again.

Then going over them and back to them again.

I hadn't really realised how much mental energy I was spending doing this until I started noticing it.💡

But I didn't know exactly what to do about it.❓

And then I found I didn't need to argue with the thoughts or try to stop them or force myself to think positively.

I could simply notice:

“Oh. I'm doing that again.”

Then I'd lengthen an out breath or two.

And carry on.

The thought would come back.

I'd do it again.

It might come back again.

And I'd do it again.

It wasn't about getting rid of the thoughts. It was about interrupting the loop.

And it's what I do to this very day and will continue to do for the rest of my life.

One thing that really helped me understand this better was Steven Oats's book, Rewire Your Mind Without Willpower: A Brain-Based Guide to Breaking Mental Loops, Calming the Nervous System & Creating Lasting Change.

The idea of breaking mental loops without trying to force yourself to think differently really resonated with me.

The book is about working with the brain rather than trying to bully it into changing, and that fitted surprisingly well with what I'd been discovering for myself.

For me, it became pretty simple:

Think small - take baby steps with life. 🐾

Notice the thought loop.➰

One or two long out breaths. 🫁

Carry on.

Rinse and repeat. 🔁

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...
Thank you, xo
Everything seems so overwhelming and exhausting, and I'm willing to give this a try. I just ordered a copy.
 
karipro said:
The title says it all. While all these things have waxed and waned over my whole life - they are currently keeping me stuck in the fear-pain-fear cycle and by ability to break through the doubt. I'm trying not to react to this constant pain and it is incredibly difficult.

Is this common with TMS ers? How do you navigate?
Click to expand...

It's definitely common! My first instinct is to review your evidence again and get clear on where your doubts lie when it comes to the TMS diagnosis. Beyond that, it's then just overall emotional work to address these things, which isn't exclusive to TMS work.
 
I have been at this work for a couple of months now and your post was so similar to mine. I am currently reading the book "Rewire your Mind" and I think you will find it incredibly helpful. I felt I was the only one who had all these thoughts and now understand it's just how our mind is wired and there are things we can do to help ourselves. I learned that we can't just decide we are going to start thinking positively because it will make us more stressed and it doesn't work. I"d love to hear your thoughts, as your reading the book. It is incredibly difficult not to react to the pain, for me as well but in beginning to do the hard work, my pain is still there but not at the 9 or 10 level it was but I'm still struggling. IF you can, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book.
 
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