Day 1 Living with BFS - Could TMS be the answer?

Hello World,

I started with BFS (benign muscle fasciculations) as the way my years of anxiety and worry manifested physically to start. I’ve had more symptoms - stomach pain and cramping, jaw tension, neck and shoulder tension, all over tension, poor posture, fatigue, high anxiety, worry, eye muscle strain and strange ear symptoms like muscle fluttering and sensitivity to sound. It’s been going on for almost two years now. I have tried everything except consistent exercise (which I am doing now) and positive mindset training. It was like all of a sudden my positive self took a vacation and all this negativity came forward. This journey though has opened me up to diving into the shadows of my self and learn to love myself completely. I am just recently learning to accept my symptoms and have read Dr. Claire Weekes and Peter Levine as well as David Johnson’s Freedom from Fear recovery program which all pretty much say the same thing. Accept this. But THIS is hard to accept. Especially the relentless muscle twitching and feeling of shaking when walking or bending over and feeling so defeated. Confidence slowly coming back as I keep moving forward with this. So, I searched, positive living with BFS and this forum came up. So, let’s give it a go shall we?

thank you for reading all the way through. I really appreciate it, but most importantly I appreciate this forum and myself for starting Day 1.

Sincerely,

MinnieMoo

 

Very happy you found us, @MinnieMoo! We're here to support you in this journey.

Claire Weekes was the second author who saved my life after Dr. Sarno, and Peter Levine's work is essential for anyone who has suffered from trauma. I think that the difference between the work we do here, which is a reflection of the essential work of practitioners like Weekes and Levine and of course Dr Sarno, vs the so-called "positivity" movements, is that this work believes that it's vital to acknowledge the negativity that every single one of us humans harbors in our unconscious and semi-conscious brains. As you have already been learning, we can - in fact we must - be able to love and have compassion for ourselves in spite of our negative thoughts and emotions. With self-compassion comes the ability to heal.

We are here to support you in your recovery journey as you do the SEP! Reach out if (probably when) your TMS brain starts fighting back and trying in various ways to convince you to quit doing the work. Let us know, and people will jump in to share their own stories and their techniques for managing this particular phase of recovery. It's okay to pull back a bit, take it more slowly, and stop to make sure that you're being kind to yourself.

It sure sounds like you're ready to take on the challenge, so here's wishing you all the best!

~Jan