How long do you have new symptoms?

F

FindingJoy

New Member
I'm curious how long seasoned TMS patients get "stuck" when they develop a new symptom? I cured my RSI/carpal tunnel TMS about 5 years ago and was pretty pain free for a while. The pandemic has been really tough on my family in a lot of ways so lots of things have popped up in the last couple years. Small things like a twitching eyelid and an itchy palm to bigger things like terrible anxiety (just the physical symptoms, not fearful feelings). The anxiety which started around when my Dad died lasted around 6 months and really sucked.

Since September I've been having ear issues that have now morphed into tinnitus. And I've just recently started with plantar fasciitis symptoms. I'm quite certain these things are TMS but sometimes new symptoms do give me pause (as in, I could really use new running shoes, so could that be it??).

Anyway, would love to hear feedback from others on whether or not new symptoms catch you up at all anymore. I generally just acknowledge that it's TMS and go about my life but sometimes it still takes a while to move on to the next thing. And will there always be a next thing??
 
Just like healing, everyone's time table is different.
There are folks on this forum who have said they read Dr. Sarno and have been well in 3 months.
I read Dr. Sarno and I've been working on TMS symptoms for about a year. I recently read @TG957 book and she took 2 years to mostly heal. Everyone is different, there is no timetable. Timetables make us TMS even more. They are about frustration (fear/anger), fear, disappointment, sadness, guilt. Dr. Sarno says that extinction bursts and new symptoms simply mean that the work is "not yet done".
I’m having lots of symptoms and maybe in an extinction burst. I don't know. I have been through this before, my symptoms are always very similar, the cycle is similar. I am afraid, it brings up doubts...it shows me my work is not yet done.
 
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Just what Cactusflower said.

I've been frustrated lately because I've been at this for 3 years soon - and to be honest, it pains me to write so because I still struggle with symptoms. Back pain/knee pain is way better and I don't get panicky about it anymore - at one point it even disappeared completely, during a few months while everything was so good in my life. It comes back sometimes when I'm stressed out but not as painful as before and I'm not afraid of it anymore. But I realized that the fact that it keeps coming back, plus my persisting IBS/SIBO/whatever and vulvodynia symptoms mean that there's still a lot of work to be done. First time I read Sarno I had a "book cure" (sciatica of 6 months vanished in 1 week), so it's disappointing to see that I'm not a complete success story yet. And if I'm completely honest with myself I'm still doing a lot of negative self-talk, self-imposed pressure, I'm stuck for now in a job I want to escape, I want to have a baby with my partner but I have PCOS... so yeah, a lot is going on !
 
for me, TMS symptoms are a way of life. it’s like whack-a-mole. as soon as one major pain is alleviated, another pops up. some pains/symptoms have completely disappeared while others have been more stubborn and lingering. i’m not sure why this is so. for me TMS work is a spiritual process with an emotional element. it’s where psychology and spirituality meet. i find the more i develop my inner life the more attune to my body i become. but my unconscious is so willful and always seems to find new, wacky pains to distract me. right now i’m suffering through bizarre unexplainable numbness and tingling, even electric shocks in my forearms and hands at night when i lie down. it’s completely wacky and whenever i have a remission of it, then all of a sudden my teeth will hurt, or my foot, or my neck. it’s all TMS~ and the more i do the inner work, the better i feel overall. like i said, it’s a process. and there’s no timeline for healing. good luck and enjoy the process of self discovery!
 
All of the above, @FindingJoy!

I was doing really well until around the fall of 2016, when societal degradation started really taking a toll on my hope for the future. I also turned 65 that year, and I admit that I fear aging and its inevitable result. As one of Dr Sarno's co-authors wrote in The Divided Mind, aging and the knowledge of our mortality are a huge source of emotional rage and repression.

And then along came 2020, and COVID turned everything upside down, and massive uncertainty took over. My body's response was RA. Which even our TMS doctors say is not TMS - but that's only because once you have RA, it has to be treated medically. The auto-immune medical industry has never been able to officially explain WHY these conditions exist, when to me it's blindingly obvious that they are stress-based. Dr. Gabor Mate explains this brilliantly in When The Body Says No.

So along with @Cactusflower, @Ludmilla and @fridaynotes - and MANY others - I'm yet another TMS-er who had success in the past, but is really struggling lately. It's really not news to anyone at this point that the entire world is in a mental health crisis. I still believe that TMS awareness gives us an advantage, but we also need to have self-compassion right now and give ourselves a break

~Jan
 
symptoms develop when there is not enough capacity in the body to feel a wide range of emotions. When the emotions get intense because of life experiences, stress ect and we don't have the skills or tools to move through those emotions, physical symptoms can arise. When we develop a capacity to be with tough and even intense 'positive' emotions, our body does not have to take on the toll of them, and we lessen the need for symptoms. Taking time to feel is the key. It's not something done to get rid of symptoms, it's a natural part of life, it's part of being human. Life touches us, so we feel.

One technique I use with clients is called ISP. Integral Somatic Psychology

www.thetaowithin.com
 
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