I've got that familiar feeling..

That feeling, like the flu. Except it's never the actual flu... I think I've only had that once in my life. It's one of my most typical TMS symptoms. All-over body aches, that feeling like I'm starting to run a fever. And usually, when I feel really feverish, I find out that my temperature has actually dropped below normal. Should I meditate and do breathing exercises? Should I journal? I refuse to take pain meds and I refuse to go to bed 3 hours early because of it. My only option is to kick this thing all over again.

Tips would be much appreciated!

 

Just do your best and don't beat yourself up too much about feeling bad. It's a fine balance between going on as normal and giving in to your brain.

 

As Ines said, not giving in to your brain key to this process. If you can allow yourself to calm down and listen to your brain, you might hear the negative messages it's giving you. You know, "Oh no, what if I'm getting sick, I hate being sick, what if it's the flu, what if I have to stay home sick, where did I get it, what if it's something else..." and so on. The more you give in to this negative self-talk, the more likely you are to stay stuck.

Once you really hear this self-defeating talk, you can counteract it. For example: "It's not likely to be the flu, I've been through this before, it's just TMS trying to distract me, and Hey, Brain, that is NOT necessary! I'm going to drink a bunch of water, and I'm going to get a good night's sleep, and whatever this is will be gone by morning!"

You can also take advantage of the placebo effect if that interests you. I do this all the time, because I believe (along with some researchers who are trying to figure out how to harness it) that using a placebo helps my positive conscious brain to visualize the outcome that I want. Like meditators sometimes use a visual or auditory mantra -it's just a tool for the brain to focus on. I'll take extra Vitamin C and echinacea if I feel like I'm coming down with something, along with lots of extra water which I visualize as flushing out the virus.

I know that both C and echinacea have been debunked as effective, but like I say - for me they are tools around which to marshal my immune system. Neuroscientists are piling up more evidence all the time that belief is a powerful agent for change.

Sometimes, if I'm feeling really stressed and foggy-headed, I'll take an acetaminophen (just one) which has been shown to calm emotional distress along with physical pain - again, it might be the placebo effect, but if the placebo effect works because our brains are able to create a physiological change, then I'm all for using it. It's just another tool in the toolkit.

 

I have similar pains all over my muscles and feverish conditions sometimes. I actually go to bed early and sleep it out. Sleep is a great healer - do not discard it!

Good luck to you!

 

Thank you... it seems the notion of extra sleep has a negative connotation because for 8 months, sleep was my biggest thing. Naps constantly, going to bed several hours early, sleeping through my alarms every morning.

 

Hi, Mad. Deep breathing, meditation, and journaling are all excellent ways to deal with TMS pain. I also suggest you keep handy Dr. Sarno's 12 Daoly Reminders about TMS. I especially find helpful the extended version by Herbie, another member of the TMS community:

Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.

 

hmmm.... My problem has always been not enough sleep, so I can't really imagine myself sleeping too much. Could it be just another manifestation of TMS?

 

I'm certain that's exactly what it is.... crippling fatigue. But then late in, right before I started recovery, that switched to insomnia. Ridiculous. Lol

 

TMS has many faces and some of them aren't pretty! Hang in there!

 

In my case, yours may be different, when I wanted to sleep all the time, it was along with serious TMS/depression, an affective TMS symptom. It was a form of escaping the emotional issues causing the TMS. Read TMS books and audio and video materials, the more TMS KNOWLEDGE PENICILLIN you absorb, the more ammo your conscious mind will have, to overcome the necessity for TMS symptom creation. The subconscious creates TMS symptoms for defense mechanisms, protecting one from dealing with emotional issues. there's nothing wrong with taking meds for symptomatic relief, if they help improve functioning and dealing with TMS issues. Also, see a TMS physician and consult with a TMS therapist if needed, or to speed things along.