The past couple of nights i haven’t been able to sleep because of bad upper stomach pain. The Dr. thinks its functional dyspepsia. He gave me some elavil but I have yet to try it. Anyway the insomnia makes the anxiety worse which makes the pain worse and its a cycle. Anyone have any experience with this and what helped?
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Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
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JanAtheCPA
Beloved Grand Eagle
The last time you posted, @twocups88, you said you would work the Structured Educational Program.
Where are you at with that?
Because I have to be honest, looking at your posting history, this new one sounds like the same old same old.
I understand that you have diabetes, but you're on this forum, which is focussed only on psychological and emotional solutions to mindbody symptoms, so I must respond from that point of view. And here's my honest assessment, which is that if you think your symptoms are at least strongly influenced by the TMS brain mechanism, and if you had ever made a serious commitment to doing the required emotional work, I just feel like you should have progressed beyond this phase of constantly checking in and seeking reassurance for physical symptoms.
Mind you I also get that the lack of progress is a function of your TMS brain. In fact, its primary function is to keep you stuck. But THAT is what you need to explore and seek help for, not reassurance for the latest symptoms that you've already tried to treat medically.
Our primary command here comes from Dr Sarno: stop thinking physically and focus on the psychological.
Where are you at with that?
Because I have to be honest, looking at your posting history, this new one sounds like the same old same old.
I understand that you have diabetes, but you're on this forum, which is focussed only on psychological and emotional solutions to mindbody symptoms, so I must respond from that point of view. And here's my honest assessment, which is that if you think your symptoms are at least strongly influenced by the TMS brain mechanism, and if you had ever made a serious commitment to doing the required emotional work, I just feel like you should have progressed beyond this phase of constantly checking in and seeking reassurance for physical symptoms.
Mind you I also get that the lack of progress is a function of your TMS brain. In fact, its primary function is to keep you stuck. But THAT is what you need to explore and seek help for, not reassurance for the latest symptoms that you've already tried to treat medically.
Our primary command here comes from Dr Sarno: stop thinking physically and focus on the psychological.
Cactusflower
Beloved Grand Eagle
@JanAtheCPA is absolutely correct.
The symptom is the pain, the genesis of the pain is anxiety and stress. You will naturally have some stress about the diabetes, but over time, this can lessen when you recognize that treatment is really helping you manage it.
If you are doing the work, you may be having a symptom imperative - which is a good sign. If you aren't doing the work (you avoided Jan's question) then your TMS symptoms are doing what they do - moving around, and finding a "louder" way to get your attention to do the work.
I'm sure someone has mentioned Claire Weekes to you before. In Hope and Help For Your Nerves she talks directly to insomnia. Now, her mentions of pain are not very pronounced, but they are there. She recognized some of her clients had physical pain as a symptom of anxiety so she didn't focus on the pain.
It doesn't address TMS in general - and Dr. Sarno suggests we deal with our stressors and emotions in general (not just related to the pain) by doing the work he outlined for us consistently. That doesn't mean it can get rough, it just means to keep your eye on the end goal, which is to recognize the TMS mechanism as being temporary but that the internal crap is permanent unless we work through it.
When in my more difficult times I have used earphones and listened to meditative music and just breathed, focusing on the music or the breath and recognizing how my thoughts are influencing the perception of my stress and pain.
Similarly, I use meditation - there are many free guided meditations and some are hours long eg. guided yoga nidra etc. Don't expect perfection, but expect a calming voice and times when you can try to follow direction. Be kind to yourself when you can't and simply redirect your thoughts back to listening.
EFT tapping - it's a great way to help regulate your nervous system and get your mind out of a freakout and back to a bit of a more rational state.
What I have not done is stress or freak out about the lack of sleep. It's a common symptom of anxiety, and as with all TMS symptoms it's temporary if you are doing the work to manage your stress, nervous system, mindset/thoughts etc. You can train yourself to react differently to symptoms over time, and learn to respond to them by engaging in the things that soothe your nervous system and remind you that you are safe.
The symptom is the pain, the genesis of the pain is anxiety and stress. You will naturally have some stress about the diabetes, but over time, this can lessen when you recognize that treatment is really helping you manage it.
If you are doing the work, you may be having a symptom imperative - which is a good sign. If you aren't doing the work (you avoided Jan's question) then your TMS symptoms are doing what they do - moving around, and finding a "louder" way to get your attention to do the work.
I'm sure someone has mentioned Claire Weekes to you before. In Hope and Help For Your Nerves she talks directly to insomnia. Now, her mentions of pain are not very pronounced, but they are there. She recognized some of her clients had physical pain as a symptom of anxiety so she didn't focus on the pain.
It doesn't address TMS in general - and Dr. Sarno suggests we deal with our stressors and emotions in general (not just related to the pain) by doing the work he outlined for us consistently. That doesn't mean it can get rough, it just means to keep your eye on the end goal, which is to recognize the TMS mechanism as being temporary but that the internal crap is permanent unless we work through it.
When in my more difficult times I have used earphones and listened to meditative music and just breathed, focusing on the music or the breath and recognizing how my thoughts are influencing the perception of my stress and pain.
Similarly, I use meditation - there are many free guided meditations and some are hours long eg. guided yoga nidra etc. Don't expect perfection, but expect a calming voice and times when you can try to follow direction. Be kind to yourself when you can't and simply redirect your thoughts back to listening.
EFT tapping - it's a great way to help regulate your nervous system and get your mind out of a freakout and back to a bit of a more rational state.
What I have not done is stress or freak out about the lack of sleep. It's a common symptom of anxiety, and as with all TMS symptoms it's temporary if you are doing the work to manage your stress, nervous system, mindset/thoughts etc. You can train yourself to react differently to symptoms over time, and learn to respond to them by engaging in the things that soothe your nervous system and remind you that you are safe.
Thank you. But Jan is right. I dont do any of the work because I dont believe this is TmS but come on this website and ask for reassurance. I need to make a decision on what I want to do about this. Thank you both for your kind responses.
JanAtheCPA
Beloved Grand Eagle
By the way, diabetes is currently referred to as one of the inflammatory diseases. Medical experts now include stress reduction in the lists of lifestyle changes for managing and mitigating diabetes.
And guess what: inflammation is connected to stress - just Google it. It's part of our immune system's response to stress and danger.
I won't make a pronouncement on your diabetes, but I can tell you for sure that in 2020 I developed Rheumatoid Arthritis as a result of a lifetime of low-level constant anxiety with a short period of very intense external stress as the final trigger. I take my medication, and I also made lifestyle changes which helped a lot with specific RA symptoms (I significantly reduced sugar, and significantly increased exercise). I was eventually able to eliminate two of the external stressors, but the current state of the world does not make that last one easy. At age 73 I'm officially "in remission with medication" and I suspect that if I meditated for 30 minutes a day I could go off the med, but that's my personal stumbling block and I'm happy to just deal with everyday TMS symptoms that come and go, using the TMS skills I first developed here 13 years ago by doing the program.
In other words, there will always be TMS symptoms, regardless of the existence of other conditions or disabilities.
And guess what: inflammation is connected to stress - just Google it. It's part of our immune system's response to stress and danger.
I won't make a pronouncement on your diabetes, but I can tell you for sure that in 2020 I developed Rheumatoid Arthritis as a result of a lifetime of low-level constant anxiety with a short period of very intense external stress as the final trigger. I take my medication, and I also made lifestyle changes which helped a lot with specific RA symptoms (I significantly reduced sugar, and significantly increased exercise). I was eventually able to eliminate two of the external stressors, but the current state of the world does not make that last one easy. At age 73 I'm officially "in remission with medication" and I suspect that if I meditated for 30 minutes a day I could go off the med, but that's my personal stumbling block and I'm happy to just deal with everyday TMS symptoms that come and go, using the TMS skills I first developed here 13 years ago by doing the program.
In other words, there will always be TMS symptoms, regardless of the existence of other conditions or disabilities.