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Daniel L. Job induced tms?

Discussion in 'Ask a TMS Therapist' started by Guest, Jan 30, 2017.

  1. Guest

    Guest Guest

    This question was submitted via our Ask a TMS Therapist program. To submit your question, click here.

    Question
    Hi...I have been making some decent progress with my (self diagnosed) TMS over the last 3 weeks. Am totally on board. I returned to work today after 3 months off to"fix" my chronic back pain ( I realise now that was counter productive as all I did was fixate on it by going to PT etc) anyway..... work is a massive trigger for me...I associate my office with pain and I had come to think IT was the reason for my pain... so today was a big step..I did ok lots of self talk..the pain came back in the usual spots but I managed to not buy into it... (much) I had my moments of.... its still here..!!!!! It IS tbis place..
    I WANT to like my job again...how do I get past this trigger? As well..the general stiffness I felt after sitting and concentrating all day is THAT tms too or just tiredness?
    Thanks
     
  2. Daniel G Lyman LCSW

    Daniel G Lyman LCSW TMS Therapist

    Answer
    Congrats on the progress you’ve made. Overcoming TMS is no small feat!

    There could be two things going on:

    First, you say that you want to like your job again. Do you like it or not? Completely outside of the experience of your pain, do you like your job? If the answer is no, then that might be a large reason as to why your pain is there. If you don’t like your job, then there is little we can do to force you to like your job. If you love your job, but the pain is still there, then…

    The other thing that could be going on is that your pain at work is a conditioned response. By that, I mean that for whatever reason you have come to associate pain with being at work, and because of that expectation the pain is closely related to being at work. If this is the case, then you truly need to teach yourself not to care about this pain. I can tell that you are (as all of us TMSers are) hypervigilant about your body because you are concerned about general stiffness (which is just a normal reaction to sitting and concentrating, by the way). This says to me that you are probably also hypervigilant about the pain. Learn to not care about the pain (keep going to work and don’t let the pain get in your way), and you will break the conditioned response. There is also a lot of information about conditioned responses in other places on the wiki, so I encourage you to look that up.

    Keep up the good work! You'll get there.


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  3. RozieHolland

    RozieHolland Peer Supporter

    Hello,

    it is a little different, but still the same I think.

    20 Years ago I was a busdriver.
    One morning I came out of bed and I had diarrhea. I couldn't go to work.
    It took 12 days. After 2 weeks I could work again.
    When I came at work I had diarrhea again. So I went home.
    This took over a year. Everytime I get to work I had diarrhea.

    It wasn't that I hated my work, but I had something I wanted to do.
    I was planning to start my own practice, but I didn't dare.
    I read a book of Christine Beerlandt (The Key to Self-Liberation) wherein she discribes the psychological reasons of 1200 diseases.
    The book told me that I didn't dare to make a dicision. That was true.
    Then I made the dicision to quit my job and start my own practice.
    At the time I made the dicision my diarrhea was gone and never came back.

    So I think that you have to look if this is the right job for you.

    With love, Rozie.
     

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