I know it is TMS, but my usual tricks aren't working.

Hi everyone!

First of all, you all telling me the chairs weren't the problem at school and it was TMS fixed my issue within one day! So thank you for that!

Now i've found my way back here again, desperate. Let me start with some background, my pain as it used to be before any healing felt like a burning, electrical current, non-stop hell. Now that type of pain is definitely gone and TMS has found a new manifestation over the last couple of months.

Every morning and most of the day, the majority of my muscles feel excruciatingly tight. I stretch and get barely enough relief to continue on with my day or night. I KNOW it is TMS, and yet the pain persists.

All of my other symptoms have been helped most through cognitive soothing, not being afraid of the pain, and learning outcome independence. But for this it hasn't worked. I wake up practically unable to move until I've stretched. I don't know what to do. I don't have a lot of time to read more TMS stuff right now and I don't have the money to go to a TMS therapist or doctor (I am a college student).

Any and all advice would be helpful, I have so many things I need to have low levels of pain for this year(preparing for graduate school, exit exams, etc) and things are getting very hard to balance now.

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read and reply,
Kate

 

Hi Kate, and congratulations on your success so far - you clearly have the necessary faith and understanding in the TMS mechanism. It doesn't sound to me like you need a TMS therapist, but like almost everyone (actually, ignore the "almost") you need to do "the work".

It doesn't sound like you ever took advantage of the Structured Educational Program, so that's what I recommend. You don't even have to do one day every day - a couple of days a week will be adequate (it's better than making the mistake of doing too many days at once). You just need to make two commitments:

1. Keep doing it. Make the time, because this is your life.

2. Do the work with complete self-honesty. Your fearful brain will try to convince you to skip an exercise, or to not write something down, but you can not allow it to do that. It's that simple. And, from experience, it's also that hard, because fighting back against the fear mechanism IS hard. But it can be done.

You can do this on your own!

~Jan

 

Thank you Jan, you're right. I briefly started it then brushed it off. I also know there are some topics I need to write about, especially as some possibly repressed memories have popped up these last few months, guess it is time to explore those! Thank you for your help!

 

For me when I had years of back pain, what worked for me was getting over the fear. Meditations and yoga as well. Yoga helped my mind and body.

 

I also want to mention that our expert on the value of journaling is @Nicole J. Sachs LCSW. I am a huge fan of her podcast, The Cure For Chronic Pain With Nicole Sachs LCSW (I also recommend her book, The Meaning of Truth). I have a waterproof BT speaker so I can listen to podcasts in the shower (perfect for busy people) as I work my way through the archives. She just published #46 last Friday and I have yet to listen to an episode that didn't have a valuable takeaway. My other favorite podcast is The Mind And Fitness Podcast with Eddy Lindenstein (aka @LindenSwole). He doesn't get into talking about TMS so much in his very earliest episodes, so I might recommend starting with #10, where he interviews - surprise! - Nicole Sachs!

 

Once you have had success with TMS, your mind may try to pull you back into preoccupation with another symptom. The stiffness you are feeling is just that, a symptom imperative. Your mind is trying to create fear around that. Know that it is all the same thing and you know how to deal with it. Give yourself time and this will fade away.

 

Yes, you're definitely right on that one. Just since posting this today and I guess acknowledging this is TMS in a different symptom.. the symptom has decreased!