I’m having a good day!

Some days are bad with TMS, all kinds of bad. Some are even good. And every once in a while, things are great. That’s me today.

To be honest—my symptoms haven’t drastically changed. It’s true, in the last year I’ve gone from 16 to 4 symptoms. Most all of them were caused by a jacked up nervous system that is slowly calming down. Buzzing, burning, spasms. Crazy stuff. All gone. But, my last 4 symptoms are big. Really debilitating. But today? Who cares. I’m light as a feather.

Here is what I think has helped:

Number 1: Claire Weekes (my number one helper; her book is Hope and Help for Your Nerves; read it!) says you must —capital MUST—have something to do each day. She calls it occupation. If you don’t, you’ll just stew in your own juices. You won’t get better.

So, after a year of stewing in my own juices, I started to write a novel. It’s a fantasy novel, and I’m going to town with it. It’s fun and I love storytelling. Instantly, it cheered me. I noticed with the regularity of writing a couple hours a day and then ruminating over the plot and characters the rest of the day, I was occupied. In a good way. My mood and nerves started to drastically improve.

Number 2: In the past 2 weeks, I wrote about some of my toughest feelings on the forum. (And you guys were great!) Boy, that lit my symptoms up. Super discouraging. But it passed! It passed and I feel better. Little more load off. It’s like shoveling poop off a dump truck. Things do get lighter if you just keep shoveling.

Number 3: Good TV, good books, good music. I made it my mission to find and secure entertainment I look forward to— like a kid does. Remember when you used to look forward to things? What’s the value of that? Everything. I bought some DVDs of some shows I used to love. I read fantastical fun stories (nothing dark or heavy). New headphones pump great tunes into my head all day.

Number 3: Violence with carrots. (I owe this one to my friend and mentor @BloodMoon ). She showed me a post about imaginary violence acted out on perpetrators using carrots— or other foods, creatively. I have resisted anger—and even more, violence. But you haven’t tried violence, til you try carrots. I’m feeling some release, but I’ve only just started this.

Number 4: Baby steps. (Also promoted by @BloodMoon ). I’m doing physical actions in the smallest increments. Just lulling my TMS lizard brain into security. One dish at a time. One squat at a time. Making one salad at a time. It’s working. Slowly but surely. No dramatic improvement—but steady slow improvement. I’d rather go slow and keep the wins, than overdo and backslide.

I share enough anguish with you guys. Thought it was time I share the positive, too. As always: I could NEVER make it out of this alive without you. Never!

We are all going to make it! If we don’t give up. That, I promise. ❤️

What’s working for you, lately?

(For some reason I couldn’t post a new thread on the general forum. So I’m posting here…)